Price Trends
Elizabeth Baatz -- Logistics Management, 8/1/2008
Click here to download an Excel chart with this month's data.
Source: Elizabeth Baatz, Thinking Cap Solutions. E-mail: ebaatz@alertdata.com
Trucking
In June, average transaction prices reported by all trucking companies increased 2.3% from a month ago and surged 10.1% from the same month a year ago. That clinched an 8% year-ago gain in the second quarter of 2008, which is the highest inflation rate over the past 18 years. By comparison, in the final quarter of 2000 the industry registered a 6.5% year-ago quarterly price hike. Looking at the second quarter of 2008 against the same period a year ago, local trucking led the inflationary charge with a 12.7% gain, followed by 8.7% for specialized freight trucking, 7.8% for long-distance LTL, and 6.2% for TL. Our forecast for all trucking now calls for prices to be up 7.7% in 2008 and 4.1% in 2009.
| % CHANGE VS.: | 1 month ago | 6 mos. ago | 1 yr. ago |
| General freight - local | 2.0 | 10.3 | 15.3 |
| Truckload | 2.9 | 6.3 | 9.0 |
| Less-than-truckload | 2.3 | 8.9 | 9.3 |
| Tanker & other specialized freight | 1.4 | 5.2 | 10.2 |
Air
U.S. airlines in June reported their cargo prices were up 2.7% from a month ago and 17.5% from the same month a year ago. For the entire second quarter of 2008, airfreight tags jumped a whopping 15.4% from a year ago, which, on the heels of a 10% year-ago price gain in the first quarter of 2008, pushed airfreight fees to nearly the same plateau as LTL trucking tags. Indeed, against our 2001 benchmark year, airfreight prices now are just six percentage points below LTL. Inflation in domestic and international air courier service, meanwhile, has shown no propensity to take a breather, with average prices in the second quarter of 2008 up a respective 14.5% and 15.5% from the same period a year ago.
| % CHANGE VS.: | 1 month ago | 6 mos. ago | 1 yr. ago |
| Scheduled air freight | 2.7 | 10.4 | 17.5 |
| Chartered air freight & passenger | 3.3 | 4.4 | 11.3 |
| Domestic air courier | 1.6 | 6.5 | 15.5 |
| International air courier | 1.9 | 6.5 | 16.4 |
Water
Waterborne cargo carriers made a splash in June by raising average transaction prices 3.8% from a month ago and 13.7% from the same month a year ago. Not since July and September 2003 have shippers been swamped by such a sharp price hike. The underlying push for higher prices came from deep-sea and inland waterway shipping companies. According to the Department of Labor’s survey of U.S.-based companies, from May to June deep sea and inland waterway transportation prices increased by a respective 6% and 5.5%. For the entire second quarter of 2008, inland waterway prices registered the largest year-ago price jump, up 22.7%. At the same time, coastal and Great Lakes transportation tags increased 10.6% and deep sea was up 7.9%.
| % CHANGE VS.: | 1 month ago | 6 mos. ago | 1 yr. ago |
| Deep-sea freight | 6.0 | 9.2 | 12.8 |
| Coastal & intercoastal freight | 0.1 | 3.8 | 6.2 |
| Grt. Lks.-St. Lawrence Seaway | 0.7 | 2.2 | 16.2 |
| Inland water freight | 5.5 | 10.8 | 25.6 |
Rail
Intermodal rail companies posted a 4.6% increase in their transaction prices in June, marking the fourth month in a row that the mode saw a monthly hike of 2% or more. Worse yet, compared to June 2007, intermodal prices had jumped a budget-bruising 24.7%. Carload rail fares also increased in June, but more modestly, up 2% from month-ago and 12.3% from same-month-year-ago price levels. Our forecast for all rail industry prices to increase 11.5% in 2008 may end up being too low. From the same period a year ago the rail industry saw tags jump 11.8% in the first quarter and 13.1% in the second. Our forecast implies prices will increase 11.5% and 9.1% in the third and fourth quarters.
| % CHANGE VS.: | 1 month ago | 6 mos. ago | 1 yr. ago |
| Rail freight | 2.3 | 5.2 | 13.5 |
| Intermodal | 4.6 | 15.0 | 24.7 |
| Carload | 2.0 | 4.0 | 12.3 |
View All On-Demand WebcastsPrice Trends
11/01/2009Price Trends
04/30/2008Price Trends
07/31/2005
