Smaller boxes

What do flat screen TVs have to do with small towns? I’m always looking for trends that could impact our business and the agurbs® in which we work, so a research report on trends that Bob Costello, Chief Economist of the American Trucking Associations saw for the new year caught my attention as I was laying on the beach this past week.

“Mr. Costello sees the general ‘slimming down’ of electronic merchandise as leading to a structural change in the dry van trucking segment. The move toward flat screen computer monitors and TVs should have a negative impact on many dry van haulers volumes, in his view. For example he spoke with one carrier recently who used to pack 400 computer monitors in one dry van trailer. Now, though, his customer can fit 1,200 of the smaller, flat screen monitors into his trailer, which means he lost a lot of business from this particular customer.”

This downsizing isn’t a new phenomenon; it is one that has been going on for decades, if not longer. Imagine how much cheaper it is to ship I-Pods than the old boom boxes.

I witnessed the impact of this downsizing in an earlier career when agricultural chemicals changed from being applied in gallons/acre into ounces/acre. Products were no longer shipped in 50 gallon drums but rather in much smaller cases. It was easier to ship but security concerns became greater because of the value/shipment.

The agurbs® should gain from the security issues, but there might be a need for a lesser number of distribution centers as products shrink in size. It is a trend that I’ll be following in the future.