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Aug 6, 2016

TRUCKING MARKET * USA: Is the Party Over?

* Missouri - ANALYSIS, by Sifel Inc.: Temporary excess capacity 

 --- Shippers are benefiting from temporary excess capacity in the truckload market, but analysts say this condition is temporary. The driver situation, increasing regulations, and inventory sell-offs all point to a tighter capacity situation in 2017 and beyond... It’s a buyer’s market right now in the trucking industry, particularly in the $320 billion truckload (TL) sector. Excessive inventory and a less-than-robust overall economy are causing excess capacity, which is resulting in some carriers straining to keep their trucks somewhat full by aggressively cutting rates... According to John Larkin, the veteran trucking analyst with Stifel Inc., the current freight market “remains weak,” with “soft volumes” and very little evidence of the seasonal uptick that we tend to see during the normally robust second and third quarters. The situation is even causing some shippers to press their carriers for further rate discounts... But a confluence of factors, including what Larkin calls a “cavalcade” of pending federal trucking regulations, may cause financial headwinds, particularly for smaller, lesser-capitalized truckload carriers...
St. Louis, MO, USA - Logistic Managements, by John D. Schulz · August 3, 2016

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Oct 23, 2014

TRUCKING MARKET * USA: September 2014

* Virginia - Truck tonnage unchanged for September; up 3.7% from 2013

Arlington,VA,USA -The Trucker News Services -21 Oct 2014: -- American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index was unchanged in September, following a gain of 1.6 percent the previous month... In September the index equaled 132.6 (2000=100), the same as in August and a record high... Compared with September 2013, the SA index increased 3.7 percent, down from August’s 4.5 percent year-over-year gain. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage is up 3.2 percent... The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 135.8 in September which was 1.7 percent above the previous month (133.5)...

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Jul 24, 2013

TRUCKING MARKETS * USA

* Virginia - Fleets hauling more freight than ever but robust profits elusive 

(Photo)
Arlington,VA,USA -Transport Topics, by Daniel P. Bearth -22 July 2013: -- The largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada are hauling more freight than ever, but the slow pace of economic growth and the costs associated with increased government regulation is making it more difficult for many carriers to add capacity and invest in new equipment... While most of the companies on Transport Topics’ 2013 Top 100 For-Hire Carriers list reported higher revenue and profits, trucking executives said business is not sufficiently robust to justify expansion of their fleets... The latest TT100 list, based on carriers’ 2012 revenue, is published in this issue... Many carriers also took on debt during the economic downturn and aren’t yet profitable enough to attract new investment capital... A survey by Transport Topics shows that for-hire carriers plan to add an average of 206 company-owned tractors in the next 12 months, compared with an average of 367 acquired in the past 12 months, a drop of about 44% in planned purchases from one year to the next...

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Apr 17, 2013

* Europe's Trucking Industry: Optimism of the most dynamic companies

* Belgium - Truck and Business Barometer: Points of optimism amid gloom 

(Photo: Lorries in a traffic jam on the E411 dual-carriageway in Sterpenich, Belgium, October 2005) 
Brussels,Belgium -Truck and Business, by Astrid Huyghe -16 April 2013: -- The main indices of Truck and Business Barometer back very slightly from September 2012, but this is mainly due to the optimism of the most dynamic companies. The bottom of the air remains fresh even morose... For the first time since the inception of our business survey in 2003, the Belgian carriers reported having reduced their fleet during the year 2012. This phenomenon is not only due to the weak demand for transport. It also reflects the profound restructuring imposed on the Belgian transport sector crisis on the one hand and competition in international transport on the other... In the last two editions of the Barometer, the tendency to reduce fleet was noticeable, it materializes today announced a decline of more than 2% of the total stock of companies. We can add the effect of failures to achieve a significant reduction in the fleet of heavy goods vehicles registered in Belgium, which is falling short of that experienced by the Dutch market...  Some of these vehicles are now traveling in foreign plate... The very unpredictability of transportation demand also causes a resurgence of the desire to subcontract part of transport operations... In this context, it is reassuring to see that more than half of the companies surveyed maintain a pace considered 'normal' for fleet renewal. With a flat size, however: some of these answers with a further delay of several weeks to several months, until the economic outlook becomes clearer...


* Belgium - The survey confirms the economic ITLB 2012 fall of interstate transportation

Brussels,Belgium -Truck and Business, by Claude Yvens -22 March 2013: -- The economic analysis confirms the ITLB decline in activity of the Belgian road transport international transport. In volume, this activity has now moved to the level that was hers in 1990: 

 * Number of companies: 8548 (-0.8%) 
*  Number of vehicles: 54,004 (-1.6% compared to 2011 - 9.5% compared to 2008)) 
*  Number of newly created companies: 559 
*  Number of delisted companies: 747 

 *  13% of companies have sought a driver (20% in 2011) 
*  3% of companies have sought another function 

 In early 2012, the number of firms reporting to face liquidity problems was quite high (32.7%). But this number has gradually decreased over the years. He still stood at 21% last quarter. At the beginning of the year, the difference between the cost price and the selling price was quite important...  But, given that the cost has increased less strongly during the year, mainly due to changes in fuel prices, the gap between the two prices has gradually narrowed somewhat. For most companies, the level of selling prices is nevertheless insufficient in relation to cost. In the midst of crisis, many customers are even less likely to accept an adjustment of the selling price on the rise and they rise carriers against each other to put pressure on prices...


* Belgium - 88 bankruptcies in the first quarter 

Brussels,Belgium -Truck and Business, by Claude Yvens -8 April 2013: -- According to figures collected by Graydon, 88 transport companies went bankrupt in the first quarter of 2013. This is 4% more than in 2012, and transportation remains one of the five most vulnerable sectors of the Belgian economy. Otherwise, the wave of failures has slowed from a January murderer, and any company with more than 30 employees is gone bankrupt since February 6...

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Oct 21, 2010

TRUCKING MARKETS * Europe - New report sees polarisation of European road freight market

 Medium-sized players will find it difficult to survive


London,EN,UK -Transport Intelligence, by John Manners-Bell -13 Oct 2010: -- The European road freight market will become increasingly dominated by the major operators whilst medium-sized players will find it difficult to survive. This is one of the conclusions of Transport Intelligence's latest report, European Road Freight 2010... The report finds that the economic downturn left the European asset-light networks in an even stronger position with many of them able to increase their margins at the expense of their asset-owning suppliers. At the same time, the mid-sized players have been squeezed by small and micro-enterprises, which have a significantly lower cost base... The lack of barriers to entry and exit mean that the lower end of the market is often in a state of continual flux, which has the effect of driving down rates – good for shippers and asset-light networks which use owner-drivers, but not for the mid-market asset owners... The situation will be made worse for medium-sized companies by further labour and environmental regulations planned by the European Union. Although companies of all sizes will be affected, medium-sized players find it more difficult to cope with the maze of regulations with which they need to comply. Larger rivals are better able to absorb these costs...  (Photo from cordis.europa.eu)



* UK - Row over EU plan to standardise lorry sizes. New rules could see tall trucks banned in a bid to meet EU restrictions

Edinburgh,SCT,UK -The Herald/Scotland, by Damien Henderson -20 Oct 2010:  --  Ministers are braced for a row with Europe over plans to standardise the size of trucks after warnings from a leading academic that the move could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of HGVs on Britain’s roads...   Professor Alan McKinnon, an expert in haulage at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said moves to introduce a standard height of 4m to all new lorry trailers built in Europe would lead to about 7000 double-decker trucks currently in use in the UK being gradually phased out...   He claimed proposals drawn up by the European Commission would exact a “high price” environmentally as trucks would have to travel about 4.5% further to deliver the same quantity of goods, becoming less fuel-efficient and adding about £305 million to the costs incurred by the haulage industry...   He said the figures were significantly higher than anticipated...


* UK - Denby says current truck design is wasteful

Lincoln,Lincolnshire,UK -Road Transport, by Steve Hobson -20 October 2010: -- The existing design of HGVs is "wasteful" and adds to the cost of living for everyone, Dick Denby, director of Denby Transport, told today's Road Transport Group Fleet Management Conference... Fourty-seven "LHVs" replace 74 standard artics and instead of buying three tractor units and trailers operators could move more goods at a lower cost by investing in two B-doubles... Since Denby tried to force the government's hand by taking his Eco-Link onto public roads, he has had further a meeting with the Department for Transport (DfT)... (Photo from mortons.mortonsmedia.net)

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Aug 17, 2009

TRUCKING INDUSTRY * Japan - Improving Profitability in

The trucking industry is facing a perfect storm...

Tokyo,Japan -Thunder Post, by Shawn -August 15, 2009: -- For those working in Japan’s logistics industry, it is not news that the trucking industry is facing a perfect storm of high fuel prices, tightening environmental restrictions, driver shortages, low pricing power, and growing competition due to deregulation–all placing unprecedented pressure on profit margins, especially for the small- to mid-sized players leaning heavily on their trucking business to sustain revenues. As a result, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been running a series of research seminars aimed at “up-and-coming” trucking managers... One of the recent reports from the participants in this seminar series is titled “Prescription for the Profitable Success of Small- to Mid-sized Trucking Businesses” and a summary appears in the 7/31 issue of Logistics Japan (as you might have noticed, there are many interesting articles in this issue). The report attempts to lay out points and hints for success and presents a stance and countermeasures aimed at profitability improvement... Convincing a smaller Japanese firm of this criticality will be particularly difficult if the critical mass of a firm’s leadership is entrenched in a status quo enshrined many years in the past. In such a scenario, the firm will be prepared to defend the status quo via “this is the way the industry works” excuses rather than engage in vigorous and objective self-reflection that challenges such long entrenched assumptions and practices... For the change agents looking to drive transformation in this sector of the transportation industry, the key will be in maintaining a solid patience while developing the ability to identify those industry leaders with the true vision and will to bring about positive change via transformative decision-making. Combining the change agent’s tools and knowledge with the experience of these industry leaders will provide a foundational start to a potentially disruptive yet positive development for Japan’s transportation future...


* Japan Inc's relationship with opposition Democrats

Tokyo,Japan -Reuters, by Yoko Nishikawa -Aug 17, 2009: -- Voter surveys show the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has its best shot ever at beating the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the Aug. 30 election after an almost unbroken LDP reign of more than 50 years... Below are some questions and answers about the Democrats' relationship with big business: ... Healthcare, trucking and shipping firms will probably benefit from a DPJ win because of the plan for a stronger social safety net and eliminating tolls on Japanese highways...

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Apr 24, 2009

TRUCKING MARKETS * Ghana - Delays at ports affect importers, exporters

A 2008 World Bank study reported that each day of delays along an export corridor reduces a country’s export volumes by about one percent

Accra,Ghana -GBN -23 April, 2009: -- Of all costs aside from taxes ­that importers and exporters pay, delays at various ports plague the movement of goods and people with negative consequences and account for the largest chunk representing as much as 70 percent, a new research has shown... A sub-regional study conducted last year by the Hub identifies overloading trucks as a common problem which prompts checkpoint officials like policemen and custom officials to extort bribes from truckers... Additionally, the trucks carrying goods across the region are mostly old and break down too often, decreasing efficiency and contributing to road accidents and fatalities... Truck drivers in the informal sector are also often illiterate. This adds to delays of imports and exports which take place in a bureaucratic environment of documentation... A 2008 World Bank study partly blamed the region’s high costs for road transportation on the lack of competition within the sector... The study said that agreement between coastal countries and landlocked countries that allocate one-third of cargo to trucking companies in the coastal country and two-thirds to those in the landlocked country had allowed monopolies to develop. Experts urged African governments to consider dismantling the systems that cause the monopolies... (Photo from wikipedia, by Stig Nygaard -Copenhagen,Denmark-: High load truck Ghana 2006)


* Zimbabwe - Export Competitiveness Gains World Popularity


Harare,Zimbabwe -All Africa -24 April 2009: -- Export competitiveness has become the buzzword in the new thrust for rapid economic growth and development in the world's less developed countries. Landlocked countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, DRC and other Sadc states remain encumbered by the high transport costs for their major exports due to poor infrastructure and facilities on their trade routes... It takes two to three for a single cargo of copper from the Zambian Copperbelt to reach Durban at present, for example, compared with 48 hours in Europe over the same distance. With the price of copper plummeting on the world markets, the loss of income to Zambia becomes phenomenal when you take into account the transport costs... This is exacerbated further by the inefficiency of the North-South Corridor, linking the Southern African hinterland to Durban, and which carries the highest volumes and freight in the region. This indeed makes the cost of trading and transport in the region rank amongst the highest in the world. It is estimated that, on average, transport costs in Southern Africa are more than 70 percent higher than in Europe and the United States. Competitiveness for exports is thus compromised... (Photo hill-delamain.co.zm: Hill & Delamain -Zambia- Road Freight)

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Sep 18, 2008

COMMENTS * USA - Wall Street meltdown hurts trucking, too

The upshot for trucking is it will take even longer to get relief from tight credit-- not to mention to see any rise in the rate of consumer and business spending significant enough to boost the economy

USA -Fleet Owner (subscription), by David Cullen -Sep 16, 2008: -- The turmoil roiling top investment banks is colossal enough to further tamp down the anemic U.S. economy... The Wall Street mess is so big it shoved Hurricane Ike right out of the headlines and it isn’t even over yet... But even if lower interest rates could be offered, that doesn’t mean loans would be, points out analyst Chris Brady, president of Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting... Brady said the main direct concern from this for truck fleets is whether businesses with good credit will be able to borrow—which of course would impact both new and used truck sales...

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Jan 10, 2008

TRUCKING INDUSTRY ANALYSIS * USA - Rates falling in LTL; truckload "flattish" analyst says

New York,NY,USA -Today's Trucking (CAN) -7 Jan 2008: -- After some gains in the first part of the decade, carriers haven't been able to pass along rate increases as easily over the last couple years and that looks to remain the case in the near future, says a leading New York-based transportation market research firm... A large U.S. retailer, putting out its first formal TL and LTL freight bids in the last five years this coming first quarter, told Bear Stearns that he expects a 3 to percent year-to-year reduction in his LTL rates and flattish TL rates in 2008... The only real pressure on the shipper's transport budget, the firm continues, has come from higher fuel surcharges... The shipper does not plan to squeeze its core TL carriers too aggressively for rate reductions in the near term, but instead plans to pay "flattish" rates in 2008 -- and likely beyond -- in exchange for longer-term agreements... Because of his lower overall freight volumes, the contact says he has used less spot market and brokerage carriers and consolidated loads with his core carriers in order to increase his volumes with them. He has also increased his utilization of intermodal carriers and consolidated drop & hook shipments... (Some shippers choose not to squeeze carriers too aggressively for rate reductions in exchange for longer term agreements.)


* UPS chief says more risk than before of recession

Atlanta,GA,USA -The Associated Press/The Trucker, by HARRY R. WEBER -9 Jan 2008: -- The country is at increased risk of falling into a recession, and it’s not clear when the slowing economy will rebound, the chief executive of UPS Inc. said Wednesday... CEO Scott Davis, who took over the helm of the world’s largest shipping carrier earlier this month following Mike Eskew’s retirement, told a Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce gathering that overall economic growth is lethargic... He said he could not say for sure if the U.S. will fall into a recession, but he added, “There’s more risk than there was before.”... (Photo courtesy UPS Inc.)

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Oct 18, 2007

TRUCKING MARKET COMMENT * USA - Present Tense, Future Imperfect.

Things do look very nasty indeed.

USA -Road Transport (UK) -12 Oct 2007: -- US Class 8 trucks sales have fallen for the fifth month in a row, and, in September, the units sold – 9677 – represent a 58.8 per cent decline over a year ago – when 23499 units changed hands... During the first nine months of 2007, 116,853 Class 8 trucks have been sold, down 44.3 per cent from the 209,938 units sold during the first three quarters of 2006... There seems to be a larger picture playing out here. On the one hand, it is very difficult to postpone the replacement cycle indefinitely. Sooner or later, US truck operators will have to begin to buy EPA 07 compliant vehicles. Indeed, when the issues surrounding SCR are clarified, it would seem – should everything else remain equal - entirely probable that there will be a rush towards pre-empting the EPA 10 deadline with EGR-equipped vehicles... But the market is still dead... Granted, legislation has created a cyclical market within the Triad – pre-buying ahead of new legislation is mirrored by a downturn after it has been imposed. But legislation itself does not drive the US truck industry. What underpins it is demand for the services of those trucks, and that can only come from the economy at large. If the US economy shrinks next year, then so, logically, will demand for trucks. There will be some positive movement courtesy of the replacement cycle, but, on balance, we believe that any recovery will be muted at best... How long can the truck industry sustain this downturn? Can it afford to retain capacity prior to a pre EPA 10 upturn? We don’t know, but we do know that any attempt so to do is going to cost. That’s another hit on OEM and supplier margins, and so a vicious circle develops. And, the more exposed the OEM to the US market, the more it's going to hurt. Whither Navistar and Paccar, we ask... ("Virtual Trucks" from: www.digitalmasters.com.au)

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