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Truckload rates up 3.8% in April

Investment firm Avondale Partners expects truckload pricing to increase 4%-9% in 2015.

   Truckload rates increased 3.8 percent in April 2015 compared to April 2014, according to the latest Cass Truckload Linehaul Index. Cass Information Systems Inc., a transportation intelligence analyst, said the April reading represented an additional increase from the 5.7 percent year-over-year jump seen in the index in April 2014.
   The company attributed the growth in rates to continued growth in demand and capacity remaining tight. Cass expects it will “continue to see contract rate increases filter into our index at higher levels.”
   Investment firm Avondale Partners said of the March index reading, “We would point out that contract pricing (which applies to 95+ percent of the public carriers’ freight) has been accelerating after a drawn-out bid season last year.
   “As a result, although spot market pricing has decelerated somewhat (it remains strong), we see TL pricing increasing between 4% and 9% in 2015, depending on how much rate increase each carrier was successful in obtaining in 2014 and when those rate increases were achieved,” added Avondale.