WASHINGTON, D.C. and WALTHAM, Mass.—With a downtrodden economy, a declining dollar, housing and automotive market slumps, and tumult on Wall Street, it’s certainly isn’t a stretch to say that the domestic economic landscape isn’t pretty.

Add a third consecutive year of declining freight transportation volumes to the mix, and it’s abundantly clear that “Peak Season”—as we once knew it—may officially be a thing of the past.

This notion is corroborated by the findings of a Logistics Management reader survey and a subsequent battery of interviews with shippers and carrier executives. Nearly half—or 44 percent—of the 412 logistics, supply chain, and transportation managers who responded to the survey said that this year’s peak season would be less active than last year. As in past years, the reasons shippers volunteered for this continued decline varied, ranging from the weak dollar, low imports, a slower pace in orders, higher inventories, a consumer spending slowdown, and fuel prices.

“This year’s peak season will turn out to be weak, with import levels below last year’s,” said Global Insight economist Paul Bingham. “The outlook is for continued absolute declines in same-month year-ago comparisons of volumes for imports through the rest of the year, while overall containerized import volumes are down for the peak season and the year as a whole.”

Bingham’s assessment appears to be accurate based on trends on a couple fronts. First, the usual flood of container ships at West Coast ports has abated now that shippers have spread out those shipments over a longer cycle in order to avoid paying exorbitant ocean fees.

Second, some shippers are simply avoiding the more crowded ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in favor of Canada-based Port of Vancouver and Port of Prince Rupert, as well as the ports on the Gulf Coast.

What’s more, trucking executives accustomed to being able to generate higher rates during the usual September-to-December surge in freight demand, also maintain that the peak is weak. “We haven’t had a peak season the past two or three years,” said Pat Quinn, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress, Chattanooga, Tenn., a major truckload carrier. “The period between August 15 and December 15 is still our busiest time. But it’s flattened now and it’s spread a little wider, which is better, but it’s very different form what we used to see.”

From a freight operations planning perspective, John Labrie, President of Con-way Freight, said that his company is preparing for the possibility that the rest of 2008 could be very soft due to the myriad economic issues. Should there be an uptick, though, Labrie said Con-way is well-prepared from a capacity standpoint with assets and people should a bounce in business activity occur. “It would be nice to see it happen, but we are pretty realistic in our thinking and forecasting regarding what is going to happen,” said Labrie.

Although nearly half of LM’s survey respondents indicated that this year’s peak season will be less active than last year, it also revealed that a weak peak has had a significant affect on their day-to-day operations, with 36 percent and 33 percent saying the impact has been “somewhat significant” and “very significant,” respectively. Another nine percent indicated that the affect has been “extremely significant.” Some of the ways in which shippers said the ostensible lack of a peak is affecting operations has been in the form of fewer product orders, lower demand, changes in product and shipping points, and light volumes, among others.

If peak season remains muted, as expected, shippers told LM that there are areas in which logistics operations improvements are possible. “The lack of a peak season surge allows us to not pre-order and speculate as much on future sales as in years past,” said Richard Matthews, logistics manager at Lund International Inc., an automotive accessory manufacturer in Suwanee, Ga. “With the economy fluctuating, this is a good safety valve for our company. It has allowed our production facilities and carrier partners to move business as usual, with little to no up charges other than fuel.”

Along with re-adjusting operations processes, a slow peak can allow shippers to focus on increasing customer service, according to Kurt Gulder, distribution manager at Sport Obermeyer, an Aspen, Colo.-based skiwear provider.

“[A weak peak] affects staff planning, packaging materials purchases, and allows us to put more focus on meeting or exceeding customer expectations on ship windows, says Gulder.”