Cass Freight Index posts best numbers to date for 2015

In picking up where April left off, the May edition of the Cass Freight Index Report from Cass Information Systems included the best results of the report on a year-to-date basis.

Many freight transportation and logistics executives and analysts consider the Cass Freight Index to be the most accurate barometer of freight volumes and market conditions, with many analysts noting that the Cass Freight Index sometimes leads the American Trucking Associations (ATA) tonnage index at turning points, which lends to the value of the Cass Freight Index.

May freight shipments—at 1.158—hit its highest point in 2015, with a 2.3 percent improvement over April, while posting a 1.3 percent annual decline. Shipments showed growth for the fourth month in a row, following a tough January to start the year and was marred by bad weather and delays resultant from the West Coast port labor situation, according to Cass.

May represented the 57th month that shipments topped the 1.0 mark. Cass noted that the 1.3 percent annual decline is attributable to the fact that 2014 was the best year for freight since the Great Recession, and the first six months of 2014 were particularly strong, which Cass said “partially dilutes” freight shipments’ output over the first five months of 2015. And as data from the Association of American Railroads recently pointed out, rail intermodal loadings were higher than carloadings for the first time, as coal, nonmetallic minerals, forest products and other commodities were down in May.

Expenditures, like shipments, showed growth for the fourth straight month and also posted a 2015 high at 2.537, which was 1.5 percent ahead of April and down 4.2 percent compared to May 2015. Cass explained that since the number of shipments increased at a higher rate than payments it resulted in flat rates. On a year-to-date basis, rates are up 2.6 percent annually and Cass explained that despite widespread reports of tightening capacity, “rates remain stubbornly immovable.”

“While 2015 opened with negative GDP growth, freight growth has been strong,” wrote Rosalyn Wilson, senior business analyst with Parsons, and author of the annual CSCMP State of Logistics report and contributor to the Cass report. “Freight shipments are mirroring the rise in 2014, without the spring stumbles we have experienced in recent years. The overall time is taking more time to ratchet back up from the negative start.”