Pricing

The report’s key metric, the PMI, registered a 46.9 reading (a reading of 50 or higher indicates growth), falling 0.2% off of April’s 47.1 reading.

Quarterly revenue—at $1.91 billion—was up 1% annually, and adjusted earnings per share—at $0.56—rose $0.22 annually, topping Wall Street estimates, at $0.46. Operating income came in at $58 million, down from $63 million a year ago, which XPO said reflected higher transaction costs related to its previous spin-off of RXO. Adjusted EBITA—at $210 million—was up 12%.

Yellow, which controls about 10% of the $58 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) market, suffered a first quarter loss of $54.6 million on revenue of $1.159 billion. That was nearly twice the loss of $27.5 million on $1.26 billion revenue in the year-ago period.

Quarterly revenue—at $22.9 billion—was off 6% annually, and adjusted earnings per share—at $2.20—fell 27.9%, for the same period. Consolidated quarterly operating profit came in at $2.5 billion, which was off 22.8% annually on an adjusted basis.

For January, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI came in at -1.71, a significant improvement over December’s -6.1 and November’s -7.94. That was preceded by October’s -11.25, its lowest level since the April 2020 all-time low, at -28.66. The September TCI reading came in at -2.35.

February’s van freight TVI—at 207—fell 8%, from January to February, and was down 5% annually. The refrigerated (reefer) TVI—at 162—was down 7.9% compared to January and off 4.7% annually. And the flatbed TVI—at 217—was in line with January’s 218 reading and up 7.9% annually. DAT observed that these lower February TVI readings are not uncommon, due to February having fewer days.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Doug Waggoner, CEO of Chicago-based Echo Global Logistics about various topics, including: the freight economy, how Peak Season went, and rates and capacity, among others.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently interviewed Tom Schmitt, CEO of Greenville, Tenn.-based asset-light freight and logistics services provider Forward Air. In a wide-ranging conversation, Schmitt provided Berman with an overview on various supply chain- and logistics-related topics, including: the freight economy, inflation, taking steps to manage driver turnover and Forward Air's road map for growth, among others.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics, the operator of the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America, and Chris Caplice, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL), and also DAT Chief Scientist, about various topics, including: the possibilty of a freight recession, contract and spot rates, fuel, and inflation, among other subjects.

Company officials said that it will leverage this investment “to deliver a ground-breaking neutral platform, driven by machine-learning, for predictive pricing intelligence as well as revenue and yield optimization.”

A Logistics Management reader survey of 100 freight transportation, supply chain, and logistics stakeholders continued to reinforce how inflation continues to affect things, from both an operational and business perspective. Putting the inflationary impact on supply chain and logistics into sharp focus, the LM survey found that 92% of respondents are being affected by the current situation.

Rate forecasts are always challenging for the rail and intermodal sector, says Jason Kuehn, vice president of the consultancy Oliver Wyman. But this one feels more difficult than most.

Freight rates will not normalize until the systemic market disruptions in container shipping, caused by the pandemic, are reduced significantly.

ODFL reported that revenue per day increased 29.9% annually, driven by an 11.5% gain in daily LTL tonnage, as well as LTL revenue per hundredweight heading up. The company said that the change in LTL tons per day was due to a 15.2% increase in LTL shipments per day that was partially offset by a 3.2% decrease in LTL weight per shipment.

Historically, transportation regulations were focused on pricing. For about 90 years the U.S. government monitored, and occasionally enforced, rate reasonableness. Starting with rail, and later expanding on to highway and air modes, the government tried to ensure national coverage and fair pricing.