Good News

Lots of good news for trucking.

Durable goods are up (here), truck tonnage is up (here) and there is a “growing dearth of drivers”. Which I think is good news. Fleets may not, but if they paid drivers well enough, more people would choose trucking as a career. Their problem isn’t a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of people that will work cheap.

From Fleetowner.com:

Mitchell said. “Meanwhile, the overall rates being charged for transporting goods have been largely constrained. The simple combination of rising operating expenses and constrained rates make for a situation where eventually something is going to have to give.”

Even with all of those factors putting more pressure on trucking operations, strong freight demand is contributing to an upbeat mood; even helping to spur investments in trucks and trailers.

Wabash (trailer) adds jobs, Great Dane (trailer) opens service branch, Freightliner starts a third shift, 693 jobs.

Rates are rising:

However, transportation costs are continuing to escalate. That’s putting a lot of upward pressure on logistics costs for shippers, said Wilson – though to the benefit of truckers.

“Trucking costs increased by $20 billion [totaling $482 billion] in 2003 compared to 2002,” she noted. “Increased demand for their services allowed larger [trucking] companies to be more selective in the freight they were carrying and to push through rate increases. Also, with shippers still constrained by a lack of options, the trucking industry is continuing to be able to push through surcharges to cover surging fuel costs.”

And finally diesel prices drop again.

Originally posted 2008-06-04 20:37:59.

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