A key measure of truck capacity and demand dropped 10.7 percent last week, indicating some easing of over-the-road capacity constraints in mid-April. In its second consecutive weekly decline, the April 19 Longbow Research Weekly Truckload Barometer dropped to 144.7 from 162 from the previous week.
Last week's drop was the largest decline in the index in recent months. The index moderated 5.7 percent in the month of March and rose rapidly in early April. Even with the 10.7 percent drop, the index is at levels not seen since the second-quarter inventory restocking surge that launched a freight recovery in 2010. The Upper Midwest and Southeast are currently experiencing the tightest truckload capacity," trucking analyst J. Douglas Woodrich said in a note to investors.
Truck driver pay is heading up, with a 2.2 percent increase in February from January and a 4.6 percent increase year-over-year, according to Longbow Research. The 4.6 percent year-over-year increase in average hourly earnings is the largest jump in driver pay since early 2003, as the economy emerged from a downturn. Both figures represent dramatic increases over previous months, and indicate carriers are putting more money on the table to attract drivers as demand rises. Trucking's payroll dropped 13.4 percent from 2006 through 2009 before rising 1.5 percent in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Spring floods across the northern Great Plains are closing some tracks for major railroads and short lines, delaying some shipments and detouring others. Track closures are reported in parts of North Dakota, where the Red River is at high stage with snowmelt, South Dakota from other streams and in Minnesota and eastern Iowa, where the Mississippi River is swollen.
Although the Red River has crested, BNSF Railway said it still has some sections of track out of service while traffic has resumed elsewhere.
Canadian Pacific Railway said high water at Davenport, Iowa, over the weekend took its line to Kansas City, Mo. out of service. CP said that line could be closed for another week. Union Pacific Railroad said its operations were curbed at St. Paul, Minn., when the city closed its floodgates March 23 and cut off rail access to some shippers. By last week St. Paul was removing the gates in higher elevations as water levels receded for both the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, but the railroad warned customers for that region to be alert to threats from new storms and check regularly on its list of embargoed tracks.
