Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/778830
Business 26 | Overdrive | February 2017 NEWS BRIEFS For operators scraping by on 2016's sluggish freight movement, hope springs, say shippers and carriers sur- veyed on their 2017 optimism. Nearly three-quarters of shippers in a recent survey said they expect freight volumes to grow in 2017 compared to 2016. Averitt Express, one of the country's largest carriers, polled more than 2,200 shippers in December. Nearly six in 10 carrier executives responding to the December CCJ MarketPulse survey said they expect- ed business to improve in the next six months. Some yearend data indicates a turn- around already might have begun. Loadboard DAT reported truck- load freight in December grew 8 percent from November – the sixth straight month for spot market growth, DAT noted. Van freight surged in the month, rising 10 per- cent from November and 5.2 percent from last December. Reefer freight also hit its highest mark in nearly two years, up 55 percent from December 2015. Load-to-truck ratios also tightened for each segment, which should put upward pressure on rates, DAT said. December retail sales posted a 4.1 percent gain from a year ago, report- ed Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations. Truck tonnage also jumped in November, according to ATA. Tonnage dipped in December, but signs point to growth, Costello said, citing consumer spending, solid home construction stats and a reduction in retail inventories. Research firm FTR is also bullish. "Trucking is starting the year off with much better footing than we had one year ago," said Jonathan Starks, FTR chief operating officer. "Truck utilization has improved by 3 percent- age points, and the Market Demand Index from Truckstop.com jumped by 40 percent to end 2016. The capacity situation has tightened. The outlook for pricing gains has finally shifted back toward the carriers." Surveys, strong December point to growth Shippers' forecast for 2017 freight Carriers' forecast for first-half business conditions Source: 2017 State of the North American Supply Chain Survey by Averitt Express Source: December 2016 CCJ MarketPulse survey Increase: 73% Improve: 57% Steady: 26% Decrease: 1% Worsen: 4% Hold: 39% USED TRUCK DEPRECIATION accelerated in the second half of 2016, according to J.D. Power's Chris Visser. Three- to five-year-old tractors lost about 30 percent of their value, according to J.D. Power. Averaged over the entire year, used trucks lost about 2.5 percent of their value each month, which Visser said beats J.D. Power's early estimate of 3 to 5 percent. SALES OF NEW Class 8 trucks in North America closed just shy of 250,000 last year, according to ACT Research, well below 2015's total of 285,000. Orders in December, however, hit a six-month high. SCHNEIDER NATIONAL, the eighth-largest for-hire carrier in the country and the largest pri- vately owned carrier, applied to become publicly owned and begin trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange. An initial public offering is planned for this year. TRUCKING EMPLOYMENT grew in the final six months of 2016, gain- ing 10,000 jobs over the year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. OPEN-DECK CONGLOMERATE Daseke entered into a merger deal with investment firm Hennessy Capital and plans to become a publicly traded com- pany on the Nasdaq exchange this year. Following a choppy first half in 2016, second- half trends showed positive momentum for both freight and rates. Analysts say the trends could continue this year. Max Heine