Spot market freight volume declined seasonally in January, falling 11% from an atypical December high, according to the DAT North American Freight Index. Volume also plummeted 27% compared to the same time in 2014. It was the first year-over-year decline in 19 months for the index that measures truckload freight demand and capacity.
A chronic shortage of drivers means America’s long-haul trucking companies are struggling to capitalize on cheap fuel prices that could allow them to take goods shipments away from railroads. A 50 percent fall in oil prices from their peak last year should have erased some of the cost advantage railroads enjoy, especially for longer hauls.
(This article requires registration at the Journal of Commerce. To access, please click on the above link.) Port congestion on the U.S. West Coast is estimated to have caused the diversion of as much as 150,000 TEUs to East Coast ports during 2014, according to Drewry’s Container Insight Weekly.
(This article requires registration at the Journal of Commerce. To access, please click on the above link.) The Hub Group said U.S. intermodal rail service deteriorated further in the fourth quarter from the prior quarter, but it’s now seeing improvement and service could start approaching levels last seen in mid-2013, before last year’s harsh winter, […]
(This article requires registration at the Journal of Commerce. To access, please click on the above link.) Weekly U.S. rail volume hit an all-time high in January and traffic for the entire month was the second-highest ever — even as U.S. West Coast port congestion has hampered international intermodal traffic and spurred some shippers to […]
(This article requires registration at the Journal of Commerce. To access, please click on the above link.) The Hub Group said U.S. intermodal rail service deteriorated further in the fourth quarter from the prior quarter, but it’s now seeing improvement and service could start approaching levels last seen in mid-2013, before last year’s harsh winter, […]
Consumer confidence fell in February as gas prices started to rise from a six-year low and damped Americans’ optimism about the economy. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index decreased to 93.6 from a final January reading of 98.1 that was the highest since the start of 2004. The median projection in a Bloomberg […]
Analysts at GE Capital compiled a list of expected trucking industry trends for 2015. GE highlighted expected outlooks for Freight, Equipment and Rates and Capacity. The analysts believe that carriers were benefitting from an ideal supply and demand environment entering 2015 with profits strengthened by freight trends, pricing leverage due to tight capacity, and lower […]
North American shipment volumes and total spending on freight both dropped in January, according to the Cass Freight Index, but they were also at their highest level for the month in at least three years.
A steep rise in vessel orders risks bringing the recent bonanza in oil tanker shipping to an abrupt end, according to the latest edition of the Tanker Forecaster, published by shipping consultancy Drewry.
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