The Cass Freight Index, which measures shipment activity in trucking and other transport modes, edged up 0.1% in September from a year ago, while expenditures jumped by the most since March.
Expenditures — freight payments to carriers by shippers that are processed by Cass — rose 5.2% in September on both a year-over-year and month-to-month basis, St. Louis-based Cass Information Systems said. Month-to-month, shipments rose 2.7% in September from August.
Higher load-to-truck ratios — more volume per truck — as well as greater volumes shipped explained the higher expenditures, rather than rate increases.
“For the first time since the recession, we experienced a peak shipping season bump in volume,” Cass said. “This increase was driven mostly by a return to growth in the manufacturing sector rather than to stocking up for back-to-school or the holiday season.”
The trucking industry “is still in a precarious balance, with over 95% capacity utilization and an abundance of regulatory and cost pressures that indicate a looming capacity problem,” the report said, adding that “the tricky part is forecasting when it will occur.”
Unless there is a sudden surge in freight, which is not expected, or ramped-up enforcement of federal trucking regulations, capacity will be adequate with little room for expansion, the group said.
Cass also said that the ongoing federal government shutdown “will have an impact on the economy in the fourth quarter,” of potentially 0.1% of U.S. gross domestic product.
