Rates

With the dust settling from the exit of Yellow Corp. in the less-than-truckload (LTL) market, following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing earlier this month, various industry stakeholders have taken time since then to assess what Yellow’s departure, as well as its 8%-to-9% sector market share, means for LTL and the freight transportation sector, too.

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor for Logistics Management and the Peerless Media Supply Chain Group, interviews Glenn Koepke, GM, Network Collaboration, for Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms.

July’s shipment reading—at 1.122—was down 8.9% annually and down 2.2% compared to June. July expenditures, at 3.423, were down 24.4% annually, in line with June’s 24.5% annual decline and were off 2.8% compared to June.

Survey of transportation leaders finds most expect plenty of freight capacity.

As freight transportation, logistics, and supply chain stakeholders (likely) breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday, following the new five-year tentative agreement reached yesterday between Atlanta-based global freight transportation and logistics services provider UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, there has been no shortage of opinions and views on how this agreement, assuming it is ratified by UPS Teamsters members next month, will impact shippers, especially as it relates to pricing.

Logistics Management Group News Editor spoke with Frank Hurst, Executive Vice President, LTL, for Chicago-based third-party logistics and technology-enabled transportation services provider Echo Global Logistics, at this week’s SMC3 Connections conference in Orlando. Hurst addressed various supply chain and logistics trends and themes over the course of their conversation.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Jared Weisfeld, Chief Strategy Officer, for Charlotte-based RXO, the fourth-largest full truckload broker in the United States, and asset-light transportation services provider. Weisfeld provided Berman with a broad overview of how RXO views current market trends, including inventories, what may be in store for Peak Season, and capacity management, among others. Their conversation follows below. 

For March, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI reading fell to 4.5, following February’s 5.1 reading and January’s 5.4. These readings are nearly half of December’s 10.3, to finish 2022. November’s 3.0 reading was preceded by -3.1 and -0.3 readings in September and October, respectively.

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.

FTR said that the February reading reflects an environment “that is mostly favorable and stable for shippers.” And it added that slightly lower fuel costs and relatively weak freight demand offset stronger rates and utilization in the month.

For January, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI came in at 5.4, which was nearly half of December’s 10.3 reading. November’s 3.0 reading was preceded by -3.1 and -0.3 readings in September and October, respectively.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Adam Satterfield, CFO of Thomasville, North Carolina-based national less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers Old Dominion Freight Line about various industry trends and themes, including: the current state of the LTL market, the freight economy, rates and pricing, and supply chain shifts, among others.

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.

Shippers hoping to capitalize on excess capacity in the trucking industry are advised to act fast as top trucking executives say they expect boom times in the second half of this year. Meantime, those executives are bracing for a so-so first half followed by what they hope will be a solid second half of 2023.

As businesses of all sizes continue to scramble to find savings to offset the weight of these heavy annual increases, from FedEx and UPS, the major parcel carriers have again leveraged their duopoly of the industry and implemented widespread increases.