Freight shipments and expenditures are mixed in February, reports Cass Freight Index

Freight shipments and expenditures readings were mixed in February, according to the new edition of the Cass Freight Index, which was recently issued by Cass Information Systems. 

Many freight transportation and logistics executives and analysts consider the Cass Freight Index to be the most accurate barometer of freight volumes and market conditions, with many analysts noting that the Cass Freight Index sometimes leads the American Trucking Associations (ATA) tonnage index at turning points, which lends to the value of the Cass Freight Index.

What’s more, the Cass Transportation Index accurately measure changes in North American freight activity and costs based on $44 billion in paid freight expenses for the Cass customer base of hundreds of large shippers. 

The February shipments reading, at 1.054, fell 5.5% annually and increased 10.5%, from January to February (with half of that increase attributed to normal seasonality), following an 8.2% annual January decline and a 5.3% decline, from December to January. February shipments up 4.9% on a month-to-month seasonally-adjusted basis and down 9.7% on a two-year stacked change basis.  

“Some of the sequential variation was likely caused by severe January weather, and some of the improvement in February was likely from pre-tariff shipping,” wrote Tim Denoyer, the report’s author and ACT Research vice president and senior analyst, in the report. “This could begin to reverse as soon as March, but normal seasonality would see a narrower 3%-4% y/y drop in March shipments. Private fleet capacity additions of recent years continue to result in soft for-hire market conditions, exemplified by more news of Amazon building an LTL network in recent months.”

February expenditures, at 3.078, decreased 4.6% annually and increased 3.6%, from January to February. The report added that expenditures dropped 23.4% on a two-year stacked change basis and were down 0.3% on a month-to-month seasonally-adjusted basis.

“The y/y decline was more than explained by lower volumes, as shipments fell 5.5%,” wrote Denoyer. “From these respective changes, we infer rates rose 1.0% y/y in February. In SA terms, the index fell 0.3% m/m, with shipments up 4.9% and rates down a touch more, largely due to mix changes, as underlying linehaul rates rose.”