Sandra Frandsen | Couriers.com

Weakness in the U.S. economy, increased fuel costs and lower package volume led to a downturn in UPS's third-quarter income of 9.9 percent from the previous year, despite a 7.4% revenue increase.

This morning UPS reported a net income of $970 million, or 96 cents a share, down from $1.08 billion and $1.02 a share a year earlier.

"UPS managed the business well in this very tough economic climate," said Scott Davis, UPS's chairman and CEO.

Sandra Frandsen | Couriers.com

Con-Way trucking is the latest transportation company to lower its earnings guidance for 2008. As a result, analysts have downgraded Con-way's estimates for the year, following downgrades of YRC Worldwide, Old Dominion Freight Line, as well as Saia Inc. and Vitran Corporation.

Sandra Frandsen | Couriers.com

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) today urged Congress to quickly review the Treasury Department’s proposal and work with the Administration to approve a comprehensive plan to stabilize the U.S. financial system.

Sandra Frandsen | Couriers.com

FedEx reported results for Q1 of 08/09 this morning. Revenue was up 8% to $9.9 billion, but margin shrank to 6.3% from 8.8% the previous year. Overall, net income was down 22% from last year’s $494 million, to $384 million.

Sandra Frandsen | Couriers.com

There were no surprises as United Parcel Service released its second quarter results this morning, due to last month’s lowered earnings guidance.  Earnings per share at $0.85 (diluted) compared with $1.04 a year ago were in line with company estimates, a decrease of 18%. For the quarter, UPS said it earned $873 million, versus $1.1 billion in Q2 2007, a drop of 21%.

During the company’s conference call this morning, CFO Kurt Kuehn said lag time in implementing fuel-cost surcharges accounted for about half of the company's profit decrease. He also noted that "import volume into the U.S. from every region in the world declined."  Continued pressure could force UPS to reduce long-haul air service, he said.