They were being done out of their sockets on cargo rates."

Most of his career had been spent at a trucking company, where he calculated complicated cargo rates.

Cargo rates and some airline fares have gone up.

The bank plunged, for example, into the business of lending to shipowners just before cargo rates softened.

The authorities have also seized at least 31 trucks and buses whose operators are accused of charging illegal fares or cargo rates.

El Al did not raise cargo rates for its regular customers but did charge higher prices for special large shipments that needed quick handling.

Shipowners worry about repeating a mistake of the past: ordering new ships when cargo rates were rising only to have them delivered when the market had softened.

The reaction could go either way for a patent awarded last month to two childhood friends: "Method for Online Display and Negotiation of Cargo Rates."

The project design was built around an attempt to resolve for the lowest possible bulk cargo rates to reach a new proposed bulk cargo port south of Dakar.

Space cargo rates are very, very high-and the Bolo factory back on Terra charges a liver and ten square inches of skin, for an antique spare like this."

'It's Too Risky' Shipowners recall that in the past big orders were placed in the middle of an upswing in cargo rates and the ships were delivered several years later, when the industry was in a recession.

The stimulus package includes individual and corporate tax cuts, lower prices for industrial electricity and diesel fuel, lower cargo rates at airports and on railroads, and accelerated corporate depreciation for investments like environmental controls and motor vehicles.

As of October 2006, British Airways no longer allows passengers to check in their pets as excess baggage, but requires them to be shipped by a freight forwarding agent who has an account with British Airways and books the space, preferably a recognized pet travel agent, at cargo rates.