FTR: LA wildfires having limited overall impact on Calif. freight market

Intermodal industry analyst FTR and load board Truckstop.com have found that despite ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles area, California outbound van volumes were at a “normal” level for early December.    Although there are disruptions in the Los Angeles area to the trucking circuit due to the wildfires that have plagued Southern California since early December, the overall impact to California freight has been limited and looks set to return to normal quickly, freight transportation forecaster FTR said Dec. 14.
   FTR looked at the spot market dynamics in California in partnership with load board Truckstop.com and the analysis found that California outbound van volumes look to be at a ‘normal’ level for early December.
   “Part of the answer may lie in the fact that produce moves are going very strong right now and they are generally outside of the immediate L.A. region. In addition, port activity is staying healthy and most of that activity is away from the fires,” the analysis continued. “Extra miles may be needed to stay away from the affected areas, but overall freight activity is holding up.”
   On the rate side, outbound spot van rates have held up slightly better than normal for California during the early December holiday push,” FTR said, adding that this was in contrast to the modest hit that outbound rates took this past October during the Sonoma Fire in Northern California.
   During the Sonoma Fire event, which destroyed or damaged over 14,000 homes and 4,000 commercial buildings, causing over $2.8 billion in losses, outbound volumes for van freight in California took a significant hit but were close to being back to ‘normal’ within three weeks.
   Outbound van rates were below the pre-fire level for at least four weeks and were well below normal seasonal gains in pricing for that time of year. In that case, inbound rates were likely up to incentivize truckers that knew it would be more difficult to get a load coming out, FTR said.
   The current fires in Los Angeles and the southern and central California coast have already passed the size scale of the Sonoma event from October.
   “The fact that we are in the midst of the holiday and end-of-year freight season causes us to view any results with a skeptical eye,” FTR COO Jonathan Starks said. “We are early in this analysis; however, volumes so far are holding up much better than during the Sonoma event.”