SignPost Publishes Pricing Report

SignPost Inc. of Hudson, Wis., which publishes a quarterly survey of driver wages, is offering pricing data with publication of its North American Truckload Rate Index.

The index is based on a survey of dry van truckload carriers in 120 markets in the United States and Canada. Future editions will include shipping points in Mexico. The survey measures key profitability factors, such as waiting time, empty miles, length of haul and revenue per mile.

Using a network pricing model, SignPost computes the rate a typical truckload carrier needs to charge to achieve targeted levels of profitability on each of 14,400 separate traffic lanes. The model compares the profitability of any three consecutive loads and indicates which lanes carriers should consider running empty rather than wait for a backhaul.

“Most truckload carriers get their start running a simple out-and-back operation for one or two shippers. Pricing is relatively straightforward,” SignPost President David R. Goodson said in a press release announcing the product. “Then a shipper asks them to run from point A to B to C and then find a way home from there. Suddenly, they find themselves hauling loads for a broker at 60 cents a mile, never understanding which, if any, of the loads they are hauling is profitable.”

Goodson said the goal of the index is “to show when it is profitable for truckload carriers to haul loads for 60 cents a mile and when $1.60 isn’t enough, to show carriers where they may be leaving money on the table, or where they may be sitting trucks longer than necessary waiting for too high of a price.”

The index is published semiannually with a subscription price of $447 a year. For more information, contact SignPost at 715-386-3943.