Some of you just received the December report from us. Here's the correct report for this month: January 2021.

The story is the rates.

Once again In January, our data tells a story of rising freight costs, showing the fastest rate of acceleration since 2009-2011, with the exception of a a few months in late 2018. Many factors play into this – tight capacity and new contract rates taking effect to name a few.

• When the increase in overall freight spending outpaces the increase in shipments, our new “implied freight rates” series is positive. At +10% y/y in January, this is a signal of the high delta between overall rates (across all modes) a year ago and today. Our implied freight rate has been positive five of the past six months.
• Truckload linehaul rates, specifically, have now risen for seven straight months for a total gain of 8.1% since June.
• A semiconductor shortage – impeding truck manufacturers’ ability to get new capacity into the market – will continue to cause upward pressure on freight rates.

The Cass Transportation Indexes accurately measure changes in North American freight activity and costs based on more than $26 billion in paid freight expenses for the Cass customer base of hundreds of large shippers.