Another weekly decrease in diesel prices across the U.S. has fuel at its lowest price since 2017, according to the latest numbers from the Department of Energy. A 1.1-cent decrease during the week ending Jan. 21 has the U.S.’ average price for a gallon of on-highway diesel at $2.965. The last time prices were lower was Christmas Day 2017 when the national average was $2.903.
Author Archives: Jeffrey Goh
United States-bound waterborne shipments in December capped a record-breaking year for global trade, according to data issued this week by global trade intelligence firm Panjiva.
The current United States federal government shutdown is already the longest in history with no clear end in sight, and industry associations and participants are concerned that aviation and airfreight will suffer in the short- and long-term if it is not resolved soon.
As a new year for US transportation begins, the question of what’s to come inevitably comes to the fore. For intermodal, 2018 was a good year, the best in some time. But it also was a year of missed opportunities. Rather than a springboard for future gains, the industry’s performance may have created new challenges that will need to be overcome in the coming months. Meanwhile, big changes are underway in the underlying intermodal network and service offerings, with uncertain implications for the industry’s growth prospects.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending January 19, 2019. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 543,111 carloads and intermodal units, up 6.9 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending January 19 were 258,833 carloads, up 7.4 percent compared with the same week in 2018, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 284,278 containers and trailers, up 6.5 percent compared to 2018.
As the era of the electronic logging device (ELD) enters its second year, US regulators are focusing their attention on the hours of service (HOS) those ELDs are designed to monitor. They are mulling proposed adjustments to the HOS rules and may be pressed by industry to go even further and consider broader changes to help give truck drivers greater control at the wheel.
Truck tonnage closed out 2018 on a 20-year high with an annual increase of 6.6%, American Trucking Associations announced. The result was the highest for the federation’s seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index since 1998, when truck tonnage rose 10.1%, ATA said. And last year’s gain came despite a downturn in December, when tonnage dipped 4.3% to 111.9 from November’s level of 116.9. In calculating the monthly index, 100 represents 2015.
Mixed economic signals are proving to be somewhat of a Rorschach Test for shippers trying to gauge freight demand levels heading into the strongest part of the 2019 freight season.
America’s days as the world’s most powerful economy are numbered, and when that torch is finally passed, it’ll be tough to get back, according to a recent report. In our call of the day, Standard Chartered predicts that China’s GDP will overtake the U.S. next year. What’s more, within another decade, India is pegged to push the U.S. even further down the list.
The Federal Reserve Opens a New Window.affirmed its optimistic outlook for the U.S. economy Opens a New Window.in 2019. “The economy has good momentum going into 2019,” Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said in an exclusive interview on FOX Business on Monday. “Our priority is pursuing a monetary policy that will achieve our objective, which is full employment and price stability.”