December freight shipments and expenditures see declines, notes Cass Freight Index

December ended 2024 with sequential and annual freight shipments and expenditures declines, 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 December shipments reading, at 1.007, fell 6.5% annually and was down 7.3% compared to November, with more than half of that being seasonal. This followed a 0.7% annual decline in November, a 2.4% annual decline in October, and a 5.2% annual decline in September, which was preceded by a 1.9% annual decline in August (which was its smallest decline in 18 months through August). December shipments fell 3.1% on a month-to-month seasonally-adjusted basis and were off 13.3% on a two-year stacked change basis.

“On a year-over-year basis, shipments declined by 6.5% in December, the largest decline since January 2024,” wrote Tim Denoyer, the report’s author and ACT Research vice president and senior analyst, in the report. “Ongoing capacity additions are keeping pressure on the for-hire market, and the normal seasonal pattern would have the index down about 6% year-over-year in January. After rising 13% in 2021 and 0.6% in 2022, the index declined 5.5% in 2023 and another 4.1% in 2024.”

The December expenditures reading, at 3.120, fell 3.4% annually and was down 2.6% compared to November. Expenditures rose 0.5% on a month-to-month seasonally-adjusted basis and were off 26.3% on a two-year stacked change basis.

“The decline was from shipments, which fell 7.3% month-to-month, and we infer rates rose 5.1% month-to-month in December in the fourth straight price increase,” wrote Denoyer.