Tallies, totals and other trend data in the freight transportation realm
3/15/2021
-12
In January, overall new business volume for surveyed equipment finance companies was $8.1 billion, down 12% year-over-year from new business volume in January 2020, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index showed on Feb. 24. Volume for surveyed member companies was down 33% month-to-month from $12.1 billion in December following the typical end-of-quarter, end-of-year spike in new business activity, ELFA officials said.
-10.9
FTR’s Shipping Conditions Index for December 2020 “deteriorated slightly from the previous month” to a reading of -10.9, FTR officials announced on Feb. 19. And “the new year has not been kind to shippers as weather-related disruptions chewed up capacity and higher fuel prices will likely further erode their position in the marketplace in the first quarter,” said Todd Tranausky, FTR’s vice president of rail and intermodal. “Fuel prices increased significantly in the first two months of the year and will likely increase further as large refineries the produce significant amounts of diesel were forced offline from weather-related issues in February.”
1.4
American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 1.4% in January after rising 1.2% in December, ATA officials announced on Feb. 23. In January, the index equaled 114.6 (2015=100) compared with 113.1 in December. “Over the last four months, the tonnage index has increased a total of 3.3%, which is obviously good news” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “However, the index is still off 2.8% from the high in March as tonnage plunged 9% in April alone. I continue to expect a nice climb up for the economy and truck freight as we get more economic stimulus and increased vaccination numbers.”
5
“Demand for e-fulfillment and returns management expertise is surging at our existing sites, and it's spurring new commercial opportunities,” said XPO Logistics Inc. Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Jeremy Fassler during XPO’s Feb. 11 Q4 2020 earnings call. “In 2020, we shipped about 5 times as many units using robotic automation than we did in the prior year.”
8.1
“Truckload line-haul rates … have now risen for seven straight months for a total gain of 8.1% since June,” Cass Information Systems Inc. in a Feb. 18 statement accompanying its January indexes.
9.3
The Northwest Seaport Alliance handled 288,289 TEUs in January, a 9.3% increase compared with January 2020’s total, alliance officials announced Feb. 18. Full imports increased 10.9%, while full exports decreased 13.4%.
10
On Feb. 24, The American Transportation Research Institute released its annual list of the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in the United States. For the third-straight year, the intersection of I-95 and SR 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, ranked first. The rest of the top 10: I-71 at I-75 in Cincinnati; I-285 at I-85 (North) in Atlanta; I-20 at I-285 (West) in Atlanta; I-45 at I-69/US 59 in Houston; I-290 at I-90/I-94 in Chicago; I-75 at I-24 in Chattanooga, Tennessee; I-64/I-55 at I-44 in St. Louis; I-95 at I-287 in Rye, New York; and I-10 at I-15 in San Bernardino, California. The 2021 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system.
10.37
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) rebounded in January to a +10.37 reading, roughly matching the November 2020 index reading, FTR officials announced on March 8. “Stronger freight rates and volume more than offset higher fuel costs in January,” they said. “Rising fuel costs will have a more negative impact on the February TCI, but the index will remain very strong because freight market dynamics are solidly in carriers’ favor.”
19
“Coal’s share of U.S. electricity generation fell from 45% in 2010 to a record low of 19% in 2020. In 2020, 774 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were produced from coal, down 20% from 2019 and down 33% from 2018. This follows declines averaging 6% per year from 2011-2018.” — from the Association of American Railroads’ Rail Time Indicators, issued March 5
19.2
In January, the Port of Virginia set a new record for monthly TEU volume, handling nearly 271,000 units, a 19.2% increase compared with the total from the same 2020 period, port officials announced on Feb. 11.
44.1
In March, retail container imports will be up 44.1% — to 1.98 million TEUs — compared with the total from the same 2020 period, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released March 8 by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
54
“Heavy-duty repair shops saw a significant drop in revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a report from American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Technology & Maintenance Council and Fullbay issued Feb. 17. Annual gross revenue per shop was between $500,000 and $2 million, but 54% of respondents said they saw a decrease in revenue in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ATA.
57
Women account for more than 57% of Dachser Americas’ workforce “even while the supply chain and logistics profession continues to be dominated by men,” the company said on March 3. “This announcement reflects family-owned Dachser’s commitment to a culture empowerment to its workforce regardless of gender, race or age.” Miami-based Dachser Americas is a subsidiary of global logistics provider Dachser.
59
As of March 5, Schneider National Inc.’s outbound volumes are 59% higher than they were at the same time in 2020, and 55% higher than 2019, according to the trucking Transportation Market Update, issued March 5. “There has been a rebound in tender volumes as negative weather impact fades,” Schneider officials said. “Outbound tender rejects increased to 27%, also an impact of severe weather — and a 408% increase year-over-year.”
64
FTR reports that preliminary U.S. net trailer orders continued to moderate in February, falling 23% m/m to a total of 23,100 units, FTR reported on March 12. "Although orders fell m/m they were still 64% above February last year. February order activity is very consistent with seasonal trends, following a record-setting Q4 in 2020," FTR officials said, adding that trailer orders for the past 12 months totaled 322,000. “Fleets have placed large orders for trailers in response to the robust freight demand," said Don Ake, FTR vice president of commercial vehicles. "OEMs are under pressure to fill these orders due to bottlenecks in the supply chain. Suppliers are facing worker shortages; some raw materials are scarce and there are still delays getting some imported parts through the West Coast ports. Once the situation improves, production will be steady, at high volumes for an extended time.”
209%
In February, preliminary North American Class 8 net orders stood at 44,000 units, up 3% compared with February 2020’s total, and up and 209% year over year, FTR announced on March 2. “There is intense pressure on freight hauling capacity to get more trucks into service,” said Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles. “There are severe bottlenecks in the supply chain involving computer chips, wiring harnesses, and a whole host of various parts. OEMs are under intense pressure to deliver as many vehicles as they can, as soon as they can.”
800
During the next three months, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. expects to hire 800 Class A commercial driver’s license (CDL) truck drivers to “accommodate business growth,” officials said on March 4. More than 1,200 jobs were open as of early March, including drivers, dock workers and clerical positions.
1988
“The U.S. freight rail network is subject to, and sometimes at the mercy of, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other whims of nature. In February, the whims included exceptionally cold and icy conditions in most of the country, including in many areas that aren’t used to it. For rail, it meant reduced operations and, in some areas, complete temporary shutdowns. It was so bad, in fact, that total U.S. rail carloads in the third week of February were the lowest of any week in our records that go back to 1988.” — from the Association of American Railroads’ Rail Time Indicators, issued March 5
6,000
“Encouraging that J.B. Hunt has ordered some 6,000 containers; it is my opinion that the rails had a huge unforced error in 2018 when they didn’t have enough capacity to handle the spillover opportunity from the (regulatory-enhanced) record tight trucking market; the result is that much of the big rail IM growth of that year was in TOFC. That is, of course, the most fungible of all rail commodities and, indeed, much of that business returned to the highway in the loose market conditions of 2019.” — independent transportation analyst Tony Hatch in a March 10 email to clients.
392,511
“As of March 1, 392,511 freight cars — 23.7% of the 1.654 million-unit North American rail freight car fleet — had not moved while loaded in the previous 60 days and have moved empty since their last loaded move. We consider these cars as “in storage,” since they have been available, but loads have not.” — Association of American Railroads’ Rail Time Indicators, issued March 5
$13 million
“Short Line sales boom, continued: Watco has made a small ($13 million) purchase of a line from the state of South Dakota to be called something out of a Zane Grey novel — the ‘Ringneck & Western’!” — independent transportation analyst Tony Hatch in a March 10 email to clients.