TRUCKING STATISTICS * USA - NAFTA Surface Trade Posts Record Value

Trade hit $80.8 billion in March, up 15 percent year-over-year

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Joseph Bonney -May 31, 2011: -- The value of surface transportation trade between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico hit a record $80.8 billion in March, a year-over-year gain of 15.6 percent, the Transportation Department reported... It was the highest monthly total since 1994, when the DOT began collecting data on trade with the United States’ partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The statistics are not adjusted for inflation... Freight value in March rose 21.5 percent from February... Trucks carry more than 85 percent of the value of U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico. U.S.-Canada surface transportation trade totaled $48.7 billion, up 15.7 percent from March 2010. U.S.-Mexico volumes amounted to $32.1 billion, up 15.3 percent...

TRUCKING STATISTICS * USA - Truck Tonnage Rises 4.8% in April

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -25 May 2011: -- Truck tonnage rose 4.8% in April from a year ago, American Trucking Associations said in its monthly seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage report...  Month-to-month, the index decreased 0.7% in April...  The index came in at a reading of 114.9, down from 115.6 in March, with the year 2000 as a baseline reading of 100. January’s 116.6 reading had been the highest in three years...  ATA Chief Economist, Bob Costello, said he expects economic activity, along with truck freight levels, to grow moderately in coming months...  ATA calculates the tonnage each month based on reports by its member trucking companies...

* Truckload Rates 'Firm' Despite Falling Loads

New York,NY,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 25, 2011: -- Truckload carriers are holding onto rate increases despite a decline in truck tonnage and loads, according to a report from Jefferies Equity Research Americas... Despite slower load growth, dry van truckload pricing jumped 9.6 percent in March, compared with an 8.1 percent gain from a year ago in February, Jefferies said... Tonnage was up in March, but growth in truckloads decelerated from a 4.1 percent year-over-year increase in February to 1.7 percent in March, the research firm said... Truckload revenue per mile, net of fuel, was up 6.2 percent in March... Jefferies said American Trucking Associations data show rates for loads shipped fewer than 500 miles were down 3.9 percent year-over-year in March... The seasonally adjusted ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index dropped 0.7 percent in April after climbing 1.9 percent in March. Durable goods shipments also declined... While some analysts argue a looming capacity crunch will drive up rates, Nesvold said sustained price increases will depend more on higher truckload demand...

TRUCKING STATISTICS * WORLDWIDE

Global Transport and logistics revenues rebound 15%

London,EN,UK -Road Transport, by Chris Druce -13 May 2011: -- Global transport and logistics revenues rebounded 15% last year to $197.8bn (£121.20bn), according to a new report by consultancy Transport Intelligence (TI)...  However, this means that, in real terms, industry revenues have barely shifted from the 2007 levels...  The newly published Global Transport &Logistics Sector Leaders 2011, which tracks 19 listed players in the field including DHL, Wincanton and Kuehne + Nagel, also found that industry profit margins remain perilously thin at less than 5%...  The report states that haulage, more so than any other part of the transport sector, suffered a major decline in profitability in the recent recession and is yet to truly recover...

TRUCKING STATISTICS * USA - DOT Freight Transport Index Rises 4.8%

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -11 May 2011: -- The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index for March rose 4.8% from a year ago, to the highest level since July 2008, DOT said Wednesday... The freight TSI rose 1.9% from February, the department said in its monthly report... Freight shipments have increased in 17 of the past 23 months but are down 2.1% in the five years from March 2006... The March index rose to a reading of 108.6, which compares with the peak reading of 113.3 set in January 2005. DOT uses a reading of 100 from the year 2000 as a baseline reading... The TSI measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry including trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight...

* Truckload Capacity Seen Tightening

Independence,OH,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 10, 2011: -- Four-week slide in barometer index ends, capacity 17 percent tighter than year ago...  The weekly Longbow Research Truckload Barometer increased 1.3 percent last week, ending a month-long drop in April, indicating tighter availability of trucks in parts of the U.S., the investment research firm said Tuesday...  The barometer was up 46 percent year-over-year April 11 and is now up 17 percent from a year ago, indicating that demand and supply are closer to equilibrium...  The weekly index measures available freight against available truckload equipment, climbing higher as capacity contracts, the Wall Street investment firm said... 

* USA - Intermodal Volume Rises 9% in First Quarter

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -13 May 2011: -- Intermodal traffic volume rose 9% in the first quarter, the fifth straight year-over-year increase, the Intermodal Association of North America said Friday... International container volume rose 9.6% in the quarter to 1.76 million units, IANA said in a statement... Domestic container volume increased 8.8% to 1.12 million units, slightly below the fourth-quarter’s 8.9% year-to-year rise... Trailer volume rose 7.5% to about 412,000 units, and 53-foot trailers jumped 21.7%, the biggest such increase since the first quarter of 2005... Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip...  (Photo from farm4.static.flickr)

* UCLA-Ceridian Trucking Index Drops 0.5 Percent

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 13, 2011: -- April’s decline followed ‘exceptional’ March gain in fuel-based index... The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index fell 0.5 percent in April after rising 2.7 percent in March, underscoring what the index sponsors called a “fitful” recovery... The index also showed shipping increased in the “heavily trucked” Midwest but declined elsewhere, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic and East North Central states... The fuel-based index rose 3.5 percent year-over-year in April, its 17th consecutive month of growth, the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Ceridian said... The Ceridian-UCLA index rose 3.6 percent year-over-year in March and 1.8 percent in February, and has been rising on an annualized basis since December 2009... The index is based on trucker fuel purchases paid for using Ceridian’s electronic card network. Ceridian and UCLA track the location and volume of fuel purchased...

* Truck Market Tightens for Shippers, Index Shows

Nashville,IN,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 13, 2011: -- Truck capacity, costs creating ‘difficult’ environment for shippers, FTR says...  Market conditions are worsening for U.S. shippers as truck capacity tightens and fuel prices and surcharges rise, an index released by FTR Associates shows...  The FTR Shippers’ Condition Index dropped 48 percent from minus-7.7 in February to minus-11.4 in March. Any index number below zero is unfavorable to shippers...  At the same time, FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index has been rising, climbing 34 percent in the same period to 13.30, the company said...  Any reading above zero indicates an “adequate” environment for truckers, FTR said, and a reading above 10 signals prices, volumes and margins are “in a good range” ...  Normal seasonal weakness early in the first quarter obscured the shifting supply and demand balance in trucking, said Eric Starks, president of FTR...

* Truck Spot Market Volume Slipped in April

Hummelstown,PENN,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 17, 2011: --  TransCore’s North American Freight Index fell 14 percent in April from March, when the index reached its highest level since 2005 after three months of posting record numbers...  Spot market truckload volume in the U.S. and Canada, as measured by the TransCore index, rose 23 percent in March from February and 40 percent year-over-year...  Despite the drop in April, the index, which measures truck freight movements on the spot market, is still 12 percent higher than it was in April 2010, TransCore said...  That indicates the economy is still advancing, though perhaps at a slower pace...  TransCore noted that both spot market load volume and truck capacity declined in April, with the load-to-truck ratio dropping three weeks in a row by April 30...