In The News

March 2014 Syleconomics - Another great month!

March 2014 vs. March 2013:  Wow!  March 2014, on the heels of a great few months, continued the momentum!  March 2014 had the same number of business days as March 2013, and managed a whopping 37% revenue jump over the same period last year with only an 18% increase in loads.  So March actually saw a significant increase in rates year-over-year.  March 2014 saw a continuation of the severe weather situations that began in December. Blizzards, extreme cold and other weather related factors affected capacity and schedules, which put a strain on available drivers/trucks and upward pressure on prices.  This is, by far, the strongest March we have recorded which follows on the heels of one of the strongest December-January-February activity we have ever recorded.  Companies usually look to come out of the first quarter with “break even” or “minor losses”.  We suspect that many companies exited March with their greatest start to the year.  What is very exciting is that March’s revenue per mile stayed at the all-time high recorded in February, and the majority of that increase is in line-haul (fuel remained stable and accessorial actually declined February to March).  All in all, it continues to be a great way to start 2014!   
 
How about capacity?  Capacity numbers are showing a relative stability but we have yet to reach 2007 levels.  Trucking is now exiting the traditional “slow period” (January through to early March), so the lean capacity number combined with the weather-related impact on demand has spiked prices.  See charts below for more information. Good news—this is the 10th month in a row where we see year-over-year revenue growth and volume. We started 2014 much stronger than we ended 2013 after stagnant or no growth for the first half of 2013.
 
March 2014 versus February 2014: March 2014 had one more (5 percent more) business days compared to February 2014, so the business increase of 15% shown in the tables below should really be more like a 10-12% increase if adjusted for business days.  March is usually a strong month as it is the end of the “First Quarter” and after adjusting for business days, makes it very strong compared to the strongFebruary.  What is really impressive is how the rate-per-mile was maintained in March – the best rate-per-mile on record since we started recording 8 years ago.
 
The year-to-date figures show that 2014 is a record start.  Total revenues up 31% with business volumes up 15% and rate/mile values all showing strong increases year-over-year.  The most important rate, the line-haul rate/mile is up 11% this year vs. last year.  The question is will this rate increase continue or stabilize?  Right now, anyone with capacity and is a quality carrier has an advantage when it comes to pricing.
 
Capacity continues to lag and has still not reached 2007 levels. Lower capacity will put continued stress on rate per mile.  The capacity index started at .94 in early March and is currently at .97, so carriers are slowly adding capacity.
 
Truck Searches and Load Postings: Both charts show a healthy growth in 2014.  The load posting has had a surprising start for the first month of 2014 and continued strong in March.  Again this is reflecting the capacity crunch as companies look for creative ways to cover excess freight.
 
Below, is a breakdown of the metrics: (Note: To be included in the data analysis, companies had to be on our system for all reporting periods – consider this the “same store” concept)
 

 
Breakout of Revenue by Type:
In the above table, we show changes in TOTAL revenue and then the changes in the components of total revenue (line-haul, fuel and accessorial).  Below, is the breakout by percentage of revenue.
 
Line-haul revenue represents 76.6% of the total revenue Fuel revenue represents 11.1% of the total revenue Accessorial revenue represents 12.3% of the total revenue


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