Post by HardTimeTrucker on Mar 31, 2009 7:08:23 GMT -5
Truckload Rates Seen Falling 4 Percent
Mar 30, 2009
Maritime News Story
Report says shippers looking to push spot market cuts into annual contracts.
Rates for truckload services will fall about 4 percent this year as U.S. shippers seek to lock low spot market pricing into long-term contracts, a transportation industry analyst said.
In a report released March 30, Justin Yagerman of Wachovia Securities said rates are “in the shipper’s favor for now” as demand is falling faster than carriers can pull capacity from the market.
With talks for annual contracts typically occurring in the spring, the tough spot market could put a cloud over truckload carriers for the rest of 2009.
“Shippers appear to be increasingly positioning themselves to take advantage of the current soft freight market,” Yagerman said in the investment report.
He estimated that after flat pricing in 2008, rates for the largest publicly traded truckload carriers fell about 2 percent in the first quarter. Price cuts would accelerate to a 4.5 percent decline in the second quarter and a 5.6 percent drop in the third quarter before leveling off a bit by the end of the year, the Wachovia report estimated.
Mar 30, 2009
Maritime News Story
Report says shippers looking to push spot market cuts into annual contracts.
Rates for truckload services will fall about 4 percent this year as U.S. shippers seek to lock low spot market pricing into long-term contracts, a transportation industry analyst said.
In a report released March 30, Justin Yagerman of Wachovia Securities said rates are “in the shipper’s favor for now” as demand is falling faster than carriers can pull capacity from the market.
With talks for annual contracts typically occurring in the spring, the tough spot market could put a cloud over truckload carriers for the rest of 2009.
“Shippers appear to be increasingly positioning themselves to take advantage of the current soft freight market,” Yagerman said in the investment report.
He estimated that after flat pricing in 2008, rates for the largest publicly traded truckload carriers fell about 2 percent in the first quarter. Price cuts would accelerate to a 4.5 percent decline in the second quarter and a 5.6 percent drop in the third quarter before leveling off a bit by the end of the year, the Wachovia report estimated.