Cass Freight Index Drops 4.3% in June
The Cass Freight Index, a broad measure of freight traffic across all modes of transportation, fell 4.3% year-over-year in June, but improved 1.7% from the May report published by an affiliate of a St. Louis bank.
The year-over-year performance, despite the decline, still was an improvement over the 5.8% drop reported for May compared to 2015. A broader look at June showed that the results were 7.6% below June of 2014.
“Stores are already stocking school supplies, which accounts for some of the [sequential] rise,” the report said. “June’s shipments are in step with patterns that have been observed in the past few years, but are still well below the volume in the last two years. July usually sees a dip in the number of freight shipments, but the first part of July seems to be fairly robust.”
Trucking accounts for most of the freight moved in the report, though rail, barge and air cargo also is included.
“Lackluster trucking volumes and continued weakness in rail traffic [down 7% year-over-year] weighed on the Cass Freight Shipment Index,” said a report from Deutsche Bank analyst Robert Salmon. Weakness in the index persisted despite a rise in spot market freight on load boards.
