With the OPEC oil cartel determined to keep the price of crude oil at $25 a gallon or higher, shippers will likely continue to pay fuel surcharges in 2001. Nonetheless, thanks to slowing demand, jet-fuel prices on the futures market fell 26.0% from last year's high of $1.13 a gallon though prices for jet fuel sold by refiners remained up 15.7% compared with January 2000 levels. General instability in the oil and gas industry likely will keep fuel prices in turmoil in the months ahead.

Transportation companies may be hit by higher fuel costs and labor strife, but the cost of the capital equipment that drives their revenue growth has barely budged. Nonetheless, we looked hard and found some pockets of capital equipment inflation. For example, the price of aircraft with an unladen weight exceeding 4,405 pounds rose 7.1% between January 2000 and January 2001.