Cass Freight Index

December data from Cass Information Systems shows further rate stabilization, albeit at depressed levels.

Data from the November Cass Freight Index shows both shipments and expenditures remained pressured.

On Wednesday, FreightWaves hosted the Domestic Supply Chain Summit, a virtual event with RXO Chief Strategy Officer Jared Weisfeld as the keynote speaker. The interview, conducted by enterprise trucking carrier expert Thomas Wasson, included an outlook for 2024 and highlighted the biggest supply chain challenges and opportunities.

The changing freight media landscape was on full display at the F3: Future of Freight Festival last week in Chattanooga Tennessee, as influencers, salespeople, presenters and executives intermingled during and after the events.

October freight data from Cass Information Systems showed continued softness into peak season.

Seattle-based digital freight broker Convoy on Wednesday canceled all shipments from its marketplace and company representatives promised more details of a business transition were forthcoming. By Thursday, company employees were told in a meeting that Convoy was “closing down its core business operations.”

Cass’ shipment data was up sequentially for a second straight month in September and the truckload linehaul index was positive for the first time in more than a year.

A report published Tuesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must make its complaint database more transparent and publicly available.

Monday data from Cass Information Systems showed slight improvement from July to August but the comparisons to 2022 worsened.

On Thursday, self-driving trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Pilot Co. opened their first truckport for autonomous vehicles at the Pilot Travel Center in Villa Rica, Georgia. According to the news release, the truckport will be used by Kodiak to launch and land its autonomous trucks and serve as a hub for drivers to pick and drop off loads for first- and last-mile deliveries.

Shipment declines accelerated in July while total freight spend remained under pressure.

The closely watched Cass report sees a new cycle, which is actually the start of the market bottom in freight markets.

Freight volumes and spending fell sharply in May, but Cass Information Systems maintains an outlook that the bottom of the cycle is near.

Load board fraud is gaining attention after The Wall Street Journal reported Truckstop, a leading load board provider, found reports of fraud increased 400% from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022, the highest level since 2004, when it began tracking the data. This article prompted Craig Fuller, CEO and founder of FreightWaves, to write an article on Tuesday arguing for massive load board providers to take greater responsibility for instances of fraud that take place on their platforms.

Data published Monday from freight payments provider Cass says the industry may be close to entering a new cycle.

Earnings season is upon us and the freight recession lingers worse than salmonella-carrying potato salad at a tailgate party. Wisconsin-based truckload carrier Martin Transport reported its Q1 2023 earnings Tuesday. While operating revenue improved 3.7% from $287.3 million in Q1 2022 to $298 million this year, the actual operating income declined from $35.9 million to $29 million.

Transportation shipments and rates back up during March, according to Cass Information Systems.

A report from Cass Information Systems suggests the current softness in freight markets is likely to hang around for “several more months.”

On Thursday, according to a news release, BP Products North America Inc., a subsidiary of BP, reached an agreement to purchase TravelCenters of America for $1.3 billion in cash. The purchase of TA is expected to add around 280 travel centers and double BP’s global convenience gross margin.

A Tuesday report from Cass Information Systems showed freight shipments in January were flat with December on a seasonally adjusted basis.