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Astronomic fuel prices are only part of the economic drag on trucking these days. Add the growing length of time on accounts receivables, more customer bankruptcies and the tightening of credit by suppliers and lenders, and it’s easy to see how carriers’ cash flow has ebbed.

Fuel prices last week continued their slide from July’s record highs, as the U.S. retail average for diesel fuel dropped for an eighth straight week and gasoline for the ninth.

Diesel fuel will average $4.09 this year, down 9 cents from a previous forecast, the Department of Energy said.

Crude oil prices continued to slide early Wednesday, even as Hurricane Ike intensified as it moved into the Gulf of Mexico and a top OPEC official said the cartel would trim an oversupplied market, Bloomberg reported.

The head of the Canadian Trucking Alliance said an announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that if re-elected he will cut the four cent per liter federal excise tax on diesel fuel in half was the right thing to do for the country’s truckers.

FedEx Corp. said late Tuesday its fiscal first-quarter earnings will exceed its earlier forecast, due in part to recent falling fuel costs, though it kept its full-year earnings forecast in place.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna, EPA has exercised its authority under the Clean Air Act to temporarily waive certain federal clean fuel requirements for areas of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina until next Monday, Sept. 15.

Air and ocean freight forwarder UTi Worldwide said its net income for its 2009 fiscal second quarter ended July 31 rose to $33.7 million, or 33 cents a share, from $27.7 million, or 28 cents a year ago.