In my last post, I discussed the last report on the trend of the auto transport industryThis week, why don’t we take a look at our transportation czar. In the auto transport industry many aspects of the business are contingent upon decisions made by this person. Decisions such as which projects in the transportation sector receive funding, or rather, which projects are most important and are thus worthy of receiving funding. This is an important person for our industry, so lets go ahead and put a face behind the name.

Our current Secretary of Transportation is Ray LaHood. On January 24, he was nominated by president Obama for the position after serving as a representative of Illinois for 14 years. As Obama’s first republican nomination, many have seen his appointment as a mere ploy to demonstrate his bipartisanship. I say this because at the time of his nomination, he served on none of the house committees involving transportation (though he had before in years past). It is the opinion of some that he does not wield much influence in regards to the transportation decisions, many believe that this influence belongs to James Oberstar who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (though this can be argued both ways, I don’t feel the need to go into it). Nevertheless this position is an important one. After all, LaHood leads an agency that oversees 55,000 employees, and a 70 billion dollar budget.

Summer is finally here which means quite a few things. Energy prices rise every summer without fail. With this gasoline prices rise (as they do every summer). What does this mean for the auto transport industry? A rise in students being out of school, people who we can affectionately refer to as snowbirds, and an overall rise in summer travelers means that the demand for auto transport will rise as well. How do we deal with these two changes with regards to the auto transport industry?

Now I think it’s important to point out that this rise in gas prices is not that terrible in comparison to the fiasco that was gasoline prices last year. However this is a rise we must consider. Is it cost efficient to continue transporting cars by means of private transport companies. Considering the options, I believe it is cost effective. It just seems to me to be much easier to go to a small transport service that will give you more personalized attention.  All of this bodes quite well for an auto transport company and the consumer. It seems to me that with relatively lower cost in actual shipping that a profit margin can be easily found while simultaneously giving good news to these people who want to have their cars shipped to a desired location.

As we trudge our way through this recession, it is sometimes hard to believe that progress can still occur. We hear numerous reports of our auto industry largely going under, which undoubtedly leaves many of us to believe that there is no sign of relief. What is a pessimist to do in these circumstances?

Considering individual loss of wealth (exacerbated by the credit crisis), people will begin to fear. This fear is not unfounded: for instance, what do you do if you get injured when there is not enough income coming in? What if you’re uninsured? It would make sense to me that companies would be focusing their efforts to make the public feel safer. This leads me to something I read about last week.

OnStar, which interestingly enough is a subsidiary of General Motors, announced on May 13^th that they are improving their service by integrating their technology with Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D mapping. Essentially what this does, it gives responders a more specific location of the driver in peril. While this does nothing to prevent accidents from occurring, it is nice to know that the ever-expanding safety net is being constantly refined. Failure and Progress can exist simultaneously.

Hi, I’m Matt. I will be writing for this blog for a while now. It is not my intention to express my opinions whatsoever (yes, there can be a blog that does this). If at any point I begin to do this, feel free to disagree and tell me why I’m wrong. But most importantly, visit this site m3 auto shipper

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