Under 2 weeks until potential East/Gulf Coast Strike, Biden says he won't invoke Taft-Hartley

Weekly Updates

9//2024

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·???????? Parcel – FedEx had a rough earnings call for its fiscal Q1 – reporting earnings per share at $3.60 compared to Wall Street expectations of $4.64. Low overall volumes and the shift from premium to deferred services are being blamed for the low results.

·???????? Parcel – Peak season surcharges are the parcel carriers’ way of improving profitability when their networks are dealing with the heaviest volumes. FedEx anticipates its clients to accept the charges without much issue.

·???????? LTL – Susquehanna Financial Group has cut its earnings expectations for LTL carriers after understanding the volume trends for August.

·???????? Truckload – Truckload rates rose YoY in August for the first time since March 2022.

·???????? Truckload – Load posts on the DAT One network increased last week, but not at the same pace as truck posts. As a result, load-to-truck ratios dropped, signaling a looser spot market. National average spot rates continue to decline seasonally. Here are the truckload modal spot postings and rate comparisons (WoW/MoM/YoY).

o??? Van: Load-To-Truck: -14.9%/-13.2%/-8.4% - Rates: -1.5%/-2.5%/-3.5%

o??? Flatbed: Load-To-Truck:?-1.6%/-17.0%/+19.1% - Rates: -1.3%/-2.8%/-4.2%

o??? Reefer: Load-To-Truck: -13.0%/-8.3%/-8.3% - Rates: -1.2%/-1.5%/-3.7%

·???????? Trucking – Marten Transport, citing headwinds in the transportation marketplace, has announced a salary reduction for six executive team members.

·???????? Trucking – e-Bills of Lading (eBOLs) are slowly beginning to make their way into US domestic transportation. There are process, system and infrastructure challenges to making them industry standard.

·???????? International – With less than two weeks until the October 1st strike deadline for the East/Gulf Coast ports, shippers are running out of time to align contingency plans. Supply Chain Dive provides a deep dive to the disagreement and potential options shipper have to mitigate the impact of a possible strike.

·???????? International – The Biden Administration has signaled that it will not intervene to stop a strike – a power the president has under the Taft-Harley Act.

·???????? International - ?The United States has warned its allies that Russia is targeting cargo shipping companies as it seeks to disrupt Ukraine’s partners.

·???????? International – Maersk expects global demand for container shipping to remain strong into the fourth quarter – particularly due to high import volumes to North and Latin America.

·???????? Supply Chain – After the Federal Reserve cut the main interest rate by .5% on Thursday, experts are warning that the cut will still likely have a minimal impact on manufacturing.