Ready for a freight pickup

While shippers and carriers often haggle over rates and contract terms, they typically agree on the fact that post-holiday season freight volumes tend to be lower in the first quarter than the rest of the calendar year.

So with the calendar turning to March 1 today, we are now two-thirds of the way though the first quarter and are seeing some favorable trends so far, which will hopefully serve as a springboard to success for the rest of the year and beyond, when it comes to assessing the marketplace.

Many of these encouraging signs have been mentioned in this space and other sections of www.logisticsmgmt.com in the past. These things include: strong truck tonnage growth, manufacturing momentum, and sustained retail sales growth, among others.

While there are good signs of this year shaping up to be the best one in terms of freight volume growth since before the Great Recession. I would like to think the days of using that word are in the rear-view mirror, but with diesel and oil prices making us cringe on a weekly (or daily) basis, we may be in a holding pattern on that front.

Another reason I am glad that we are on the homestretch of the first quarter is that it means February is officially history. For us in the Northeast, it was one for the ages with storm after storm seemingly every day….and everywhere else pretty much.