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Dive Brief:
- LTL rates made year-over-year gains in April, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index for LTL long-distance trucking increasing 8.2% year over year.
- The federal index for long-distance truckload, which has lingered at a near standstill for almost a year, was negative 4.4% YoY.
- Recently, sweeter deals in truckload have led several LTL customers to consolidate shipments in TL.
Dive Insight:
LTL rates this year have been accelerating compared to last year, taking off especially in February when the PPI increased 3.4% YoY, followed by a 5.2% YoY jump in March.
The trucking indices contain a mix of spot and contract rates, said Scott Sager, a supervisory economist with the bureau’s PPI program. Each index comes from a sample of businesses meant to represent the entire industry. Sample size is not released to preserve anonymity.
Both indices increased less than 1% month over month, but all PPI program indices are not seasonally adjusted, limiting how much industries can deduce from monthly changes.
