With all the economy’s troubles, 2009 may be worse for trucking than 2008. But if you can make it through the year, you probably will be rewarded with unusually good times.

The good news is that falling diesel prices are boosting trucking companies’ cash flow, lower gasoline prices are freeing up hundreds of billions of dollars in disposable income, and the federal government is poised to pump about a trillion dollars into the economy in 2009.

The bad news? Just about everything else. With financial markets in turmoil, credit almost nonexistent, job losses piling up, consumers cutting back on spending, the housing market in horrible shape and manufacturing on the skids, everyone agrees on at least one thing: 2009 will begin badly for the trucking industry and won’t improve quickly.

“The first half of 2009 is going to be very difficult,” says Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Associations. “We currently are in the worst recession since the early 1980s.” Consumer spending has kept more recent slumps in check even while other trends turned negative, Costello says. “We don’t see that happening right now.”

Consumers, investors and others view each development so negatively – even those aimed at instilling greater confidence, says Eric Starks, president of freight forecasting firm FTR Associates. “Every time you look up, something’s changing. Every time the Federal Reserve changes the program, it creates a feeling of instability.”

Negative sentiment becomes excessive and self-fulfilling, says Kenny Vieth, partner with and senior analyst for ACT Research Co. People don’t spend because they are afraid of losing their job, thereby increasing the chances that they will. “Fearing the fear is the situation we find ourselves in.”

Many observers see the bottom coming sometime in the middle of the year with low energy prices and government-led stimulus helping to ease the pain. And while there’s no consensus on when freight volumes will rebound, most agree that due to the capacity draining from the trucking industry, very good times lie ahead – eventually.