Huffpost Business & Tech – Spoken Edition

Then the price of oil took a nosedive in 2014. A surge in global supply ― much of it driven by the boom in shale extraction in the U.S. ― coupled with a dropoff in demand sent the price of a barrel of oil tumbling. Almost overnight, Smith’s biggest customers pulled their trucks from the field and vanished. Strapped for cash, even some of her long-term customers opted to clean their own cars and pickups to save money.