Entrepreneur's business grows with gas prices

Hey, you think you've got something to complain about with gas prices? Look at this report from The American Trucking Association--trucking companies will spend an "unprecedented $85 billion on fuel this year, marking a $23 billion increase over 2004." Ouch.

I worked several years for a highly successful trucking software company here in Cleveland (entrepreneur Tom Weisz's TMW Systems in Beachwood), and I learned more than you could ever imagine about how the trucking industry operates. And how their profits (certainly since deregulation back in the 70s) are measured in tiny fractions of a penny per mile. You have to track every last blasted item--including tire tread wear so you can see how much you can get back in warranties on tires that didn't last the promised XXX miles. Just think how important good software is to your survival under tight conditions like that...

Someone once said--and it's true--everything you eat, wear, or touch in anyway has been on a truck at some time in its life. So while we're moaning about our hit at the gas pump, brace yourself for prices on airline travel and just about everything else to go up, too. Soon.