Trucking

By Daryl Delano -- Logistics Management, 4/1/1998

Inflation within the broad trucking sector moderated somewhat during February, with prices rising only 0.4 percent after jumping 1.2 percent during January. Truckload prices were up just 0.2 percent in the latest month, but LTL prices took an unexpected dip, following a huge 2.9-percent increase the month before. The 4.1-percent over-the-year increase in the LTL index--though higher than for other trucking categories--represents the lowest annual inflation for this sector since mid-'96. We expect inflation in overall truck-freight movements to be about 2.0 percent this year.

% CHANGE VS.: 1 month ago 6 mos. ago 1 yr. ago

Less-than-truckload -0.3 +3.4 +4.1

Truckload +0.2 +1.0 +1.4

Agricultural - not local 0.0 -0.1 +1.5

General freight - local 0.0 -1.9 +0.2

Agricultural - local 0.0 0.0 0.0