Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/510235
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MAY 2015 41 try may have an impact on retail sales. In other words, retail sales are dependent on fl eet activity, a leading eco- nomic indicator. "We believe this is because in order to generate retail sales, there fi rst needs to be economic activity that allows for retail sales to take place – most notably delivery of goods, but also business and home services," Fuller said. On a national basis, the data suggests that as the total number of miles driven by small business service companies increases, so do retail sales. The report also examined regional differences that drive the activities of service companies in four markets: New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. The result was a breakdown of the most prominent indicators of small business economic activity and correlation to retail sales in each core market. Harbinger of doom? As for the accuracy of the predictions, the report found that during the fi rst two months of 2015, fl eet activity – as measured by total miles driven, total number of active vehicle days and the number of unique vehicles that experienced movement – decreased about 30 percent compared to the same period last year. Does that spell the economy's demise? On the contrary, the report at- tributed the drop in fl eet activity to the unusual bad weather many regions experienced in early 2015. Taking this aside, the data actually showed that retail sales would increase in March 2015. The Fleetmatics report came out in mid-April, about the same time as numbers for March retail sales became available. Retail sales rose for the fi rst time since November as consumers stepped up purchases of automobiles and other goods, suggesting the sharp slowdown in economic growth in the fi rst quarter was temporary. It appears that fleets that were looking at their data may have been the first to know that the sharp slow- down in economic growth in the first quarter would be temporary. AARON HUFF is Senior Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail ahuff @ccjmagazine.com or call (801) 754-4296. There first needs to be economic activity that allows for retail sales to take place – most notably delivery of goods. – Dr. Stephen Fuller, university professor and director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University INTERESTED IN TRUCKING TECHNOLOGY? Scan the barcode or go to www.goo.gl/Ph9JK to subscribe to the CCJ Technology Weekly e-mail newsletter.