Despite network congestion and economic headwinds, intermodal freight saw solid growth in 2015, but the level of freight was barely up in the final quarter, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.
Category Archives: CHEMICAL
The battle to recruit and keep truck drivers is heating up. As unemployment levels drop and driver pay and benefits increase, the number of drivers who move from carrier to carrier is rising. To compensate, trucking companies continue to increase pay. Carriers are moving beyond general pay increases to target specific areas, such as detention pay, and specific drivers.
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The average price of diesel fuel continued to fall last week amidst reports that global crude oil production would not be cut to meet lower demand, according to the latest numbers from the Energy Department.
The year now unfolding will be one of “stability for trucking,” contends Transport Capital Partners, given the results of the consultancy’s Q4 survey of motor carrier executives.
TCP said that “despite tempered expectations” most of the respondents “remain optimistic that 2016 will bring solid growth for their companies.”
Spot freight rates on the Asia-U.S. trades held their ground this week, actually rising slightly and ensuring most of the sharp gains made in the Jan. 1 rate increase were retained for the rest of the month. The Shanghai-U.S. East Coast spot rate rose 2 percent to $2,466 per 40-foot container, while on the trans-Pacific the rate was up by 1 percent to $1,388 per FEU, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index.
Last month’s frenzy of deal-making by Congress and the White House on spending and taxes will send deficits widening this year for the first time since 2009, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. Deficits will also widen because economic growth has been lower than expected, tamping down forecasts for how much revenue the government will collect.
Purchases of new homes in the U.S. surged in December to the highest level in 10 months, closing out the best year for housing since 2007.
Sales jumped 10.8 percent last month to a 544,000 annualized pace, a Commerce Department report showed Wednesday. The Bloomberg survey median called for a 500,000 rate. For all of 2015, purchases climbed 14.6 percent to 501,000.
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant expects oil prices will climb toward the end the year, saying the current price of around $30 a barrel is not sustainable.
The economy is expected to continue to expand at a pace slightly above trends for 2016, according to Bill Strauss, senior economist and economic adviser, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Speaking in Las Vegas at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue Monday, Strauss talked about a number of factors affecting the economy and offered his thoughts on what we can expect for the year ahead.
Following up on last fall’s successful campaign to include a port performance statistics program in the federal long-term surface transportation bill, the National Retail Federation is leading a coalition of more than 100 groups in sending specific recommendations to the Department of Transportation.