[blam]

My friend (a prepper), who owns a trucking brokerage business, says (yesterday) that he cannot find enough empty trucks (18 wheelers) to fill his shipping needs which are at all time highs.

Vital Signs: Truck Shipments Growing

By Josh Mitchell
WSJ
January 30, 2012

The supply of goods being shipped by truck has been growing. The American Trucking Associations’ index of commercial truck shipments, by weight, rose a seasonally adjusted 6.8% in December from November. The 5.9% increase notched for the full year in 2011 was the largest since 1998. The trucking group attributed the gain to increased manufacturing production and restocking of inventories.

[Smokin' Joe]

Truck traffic has booomed around here, but that is tied in with the oil industry. Crude haulers, water and fuel haulers, frac pumpers, haul trucks for rig moves...one in three vehicles on the highway here is a semi.