Although housing construction activity has slowed faster than most expected, the extensive construction of new commercial warehouses along our nation’s interstate highways is hard to ignore. The flatbed freight market has been surprisingly robust this year following two years driven mainly by record levels of housing construction. The contraction in the latter has been offset…
If you think of tulips, you’d most likely think of the Netherlands and the patchwork quilt of colored tulips this time of the year. The Netherlands now leads the global tulip trade centered around the world’s largest flower auction in Alsmeer, a stone’s throw from Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport. Such is the Dutch global dominance of…
Finding the best loads is key to your business’s profitability. Few tools in your toolbox have as much impact on your bottom line as your load board of choice, and that’s just when it comes to finding freight. When it comes to having a clear picture of your rates, a good load board can show…
U.S. single-family homebuilding increased for a second straight month in March, following a 3.36% sequential gain. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, building permits, a leading indicator of future flatbed demand, increased by 4% m/m, offering some glimmers of hope for the depressed housing market ahead of the busy spring selling season. The industry started…
Last September, we wrote about carrier profitability and operating costs when spot rates fell and diesel came off record highs. At the time, we estimated operating costs for a typical long-haul truck operator to be around $2.01/mile – that includes wages, finance, insurance … basically everything it costs to run a truck and pay a…
As we head into planting season, combine harvester sales in the U.S. and Canada continue to grow while tractor sales are tracking closely with their 5-year average, according to the latest data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). This is good news for flatbed and specialized carriers looking to gauge service demand this season.…
Almost every week, the USDA reports a slight shortage of trucks to haul sweet potatoes in Eastern North Carolina despite the season being well past the shipping peak in November each year. According to the USDA, the coastal plains region of North Carolina produced around 67% of total annual sweet potato production in the last…
The March reading of The Cass Freight Index shipments component fell 1.0% m/m in March as freight markets continue to work through an extended soft patch. “Mild weather this winter and Omicron a year ago supported volume comparisons in January and February, so the lower result in March was unsurprising. Soft real retail sales trends…
At last month’s Mid-America Truck Show (MATS) ProTalk sessions, numerous new carriers in the trucking industry asked what they should focus on. My answer was easy: understanding the demand for what you haul is critical to pricing, lanes, trailer type, freight market strategy, and profitability. In addition, new carriers must also invest in trusted and reliable…
Around 10% of all containers imported into the U.S. are refrigerated, unlike their non-refrigerated counterparts, which mostly come from Asia and arrive on the West Coast—quite the opposite. According to the latest data from IHS Markit/Piers, almost half of March refrigerated imports came from Central America; 25% were loaded with bananas, with just under 60%…