In The News

May 2014 Syleconomics

Year over Year growth is still very healthy, but companies still struggle to attract and retain drivers.

May 2014 vs. May 2013:  May 2014 continues the trend this year of continuing year-over-year growth momentum.  May 2014 had one fewer (5% fewer) business days than May2013, yet still managed a healthy 21% revenue jump over the same period last year with only a 7% load increase.  So, if we factor in the fewer number of business days, the revenue could have been 22% and loads 8 % higher than last year. So May actually saw a continued increase in rates year-over-year.      May is typically a stronger month than April, yet slower than June.  All in all, it continues to be a great way to start 2014!  
 
May 2014 versus April 2014: May 2014 had the same number of business days compared to April 2014, so the data needs no adjustment.  May is usually a stronger month compared to April, so this year the seasonality factor held true.   For the second straight month we saw a slight drop in line-haul rate per mile.  It dropped 1% (from $1.72 to $1.71) between April to May.  The January-March revenue per mile was buoyed by the driver shortage and severe winter weather that caused disruption in the supply chain.  Although the rate/mile had quite a drop from March to April (and a bit more in May), it is still well ahead of prior year’s rate per mile.
 
The year-to-date figures show that 2014 continues on a record start.  Total revenues up 27% with business volumes up 12% and rate/mile values all showing strong increases year-over-year.  The most important rate, the line-haul rate/mile is up 10% this year vs. last year.  We saw a slight dip in rate/mile in April and May, but once demand picks up, the rate will likely rebound and 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 went as high as 99% in early May, but has dropped back to 97%, so carriers are having difficulty adding capacity.  This is another indication that the driver shortage is still a contributing factor to fleet growth.
 
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 until the slower month of April (which is typical) but rose in May.  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)



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