Spot market freight volume and demand patterns remained on a typical seasonal trajectory in January, according to data recently issued by Portland, Oregon-based freight marketplace platform and information provider DAT.
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Mentions of a recession-like environment from top transportation executives and lackluster growth in domestic and international freight volumes are sparking fears that a U.S. freight recession is upon us that could be a harbinger of something even worse: an outright economic recession.
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U.S. businesses boosted their stockpiles slightly in December, as sales dropped sharply. This combination has stoked anxieties about weakening economic growth, as sales over the entire year dropped for the first time since the Great Recession.
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.
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.
Apple Inc. fell the most in five months after forecasting a sales decline for the first time in more than a decade, adding to evidence that the market for smartphones is becoming saturated and that expansion in China is no longer enough to maintain the company’s unprecedented run of growth.