Driveaway Companies Relish the Upward Trend of For-Hire Transportation

The sweet smell of recovery is hitting the trucking industry, slowly but surely. The most recent numbers from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics show a 1.2 percent increase from December to January in for-hire transportation.

With three consecutive months of increases recorded, the industry looks to be recovering firmly from the low point, which was April 2009. After years of ups and downs, the index is squarely up by 18 percent since that April low. The industry saw positive growth in 2011, and in December of that year the Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) hit an all-time high of 114. It was at 111.3 in January.

TSI numbers are released monthly and driveaway companies watch those numbers like a broker watches the stock market. The latest increase is likely a result of inventory growth, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The industry sighed collectively in October last year as Hurricane Sandy affected the numbers with a sizeable drop to 107.1. But the reprieve that came in January was very welcomed, and was actually the second highest spike seen since December 2011.

For those who gain insights from looking back, they’ll notice that over the same December through January period a year ago, the index was actually 3.6 percent lower. But for those looking into the future, what’s the market hold? Experts believe again will look at index data from a decade ago, which shows that from 2003 to the present day, the index is up nearly eight percent. But looking at the data from five years ago, despite recent gains, the index is still a couple of percentage points below the 2008 numbers. To make its projections, the TSI will look at indexes spanning three seasons, which measure changes going back to the year 2000. These indexes include passenger travel, freight shipments, and the industry that combines freight and passenger travel.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said in its January wholesale trade: sales and inventories report that sales of merchant wholsalers was at $415.4 billion, which is down about .8 percent from December. Inventories were recorded at $504.4 billion at the end of January, which represents an increase of 1.2 percent. For a look at the numbers of individual industries, visit http://www2.census.gov/wholesale/pdf/mwts/currentwhl.pdf.

For a look at the TSI over the last several months and to track the passenger, freight and the combined index, visit http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts011_13.