Bulldog

Vol. 2 2016

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1 8 | B U L L D O G | 2 0 1 6 V 2 ON BUSINESS Infrastructure and congestion There is a real concern about the cost of congestion, especially with the additional pressure of HOS rules. According to ATRI (American Transportation Research Institute, a group which conducts trucking industry related research), congestion on U.S. highways cost the industry $49.6 billion dollars in 2014. The estimates come from factoring 728 million hours of lost productivity while trucks idle in traffi c. That works out to nearly 264,500 commercial drivers sitting idle for an entire year. While Congress continues to toss infrastructure costs back and forth, the costs continue to mount. 2015 Top10 Freight Bottlenecks Rank Location Average 2014 Change Speed Rank 1 Atlanta, GA: I-285 at I-85 (North) 40 3 +2 2 Chicago, IL: I-290 at I-90/I-94 27 2 0 3 Fort Lee, NJ: I-95 at SR 4 36 1 -2 4 Louisville, KY: I-65 at I-64/I-71 44 9 +5 5 Houston, TX: I-610 at US 290 38 6 +1 6 Houston, TX: I-10 at I-45 42 13 +7 7 Cincinnati, OH: I-71 at I-75 47 4 -3 8 Houston, TX: I-45 at US 59 39 5 -3 9 Los Angeles, CA: SR 60 at SR 57 45 8 -1 10 Houston, TX: I-10 at US 59 43 16 +6 1 Atlanta, GA: I-285 at I-85 (North) 40 3 +2 3 Fort Lee, NJ: I-95 at SR 4 36 1 -2 5 Houston, TX: I-610 at US 290 38 6 +1 7 Cincinnati, OH: I-71 at I-75 47 4 -3 9 Los Angeles, CA: SR 60 at SR 57 45 8 -1 2015 Top10 Freight Bottlenecks Source: American Transportation Research Institute Freight volume A whopping 61 percent of the executives in the CCJ report said business in July 2016 was worse than in July 2015. As one respondent said, "There is no con- sistency in freight volume from week to week or even day to day some weeks." Driver shortage According to Commercial Carrier Journal's July 2016 Market Pulse report, driver availability is the number one concern of the 200 senior executives of for-hire trucking companies. And they are not alone. Talk to almost any fl eet owner, and you will hear that fi nding drivers is a big concern. A report issued by the American Trucking Associations pegs the current driver shortage at 48,000, a number that is projected to increase to 175,000 by 2024. Ranked near driver recruiting is driver retention. Driver turnover rates continue to be much higher than turnover for other industries, which add costs for recruiting and training. Capacity issues Speaking at the 2016 FTR Conference, Noel Perry, FTR economist for the transportation intelligence company, said the combination of electronic logging devices, greenhouse gas emissions standards and an increase in fuel costs could "push the trucking industry into a full- fl edged capacity crisis as soon at late next year." Confi rmation of that can be seen in the behavior of some shippers as relayed by one of the participants in the CCJ Market Pulse report who said, "We are experiencing an increased Request For Proposal environment during the summer months which typically is experienced during 4Q. I feel this is due to the shipping community preparing for tighter capacity in 2017 because of several issues including: government regulations, increased labor costs and increased equipment and insurance costs." Some think the shipping community is trying to not only lock in prices for 2017 and into 2018 but also ensure their goods get shipped.

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