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Savannah outbound volumes shoot up 26% as Southeast deals with Hurricane Michael

SONAR Chart Outbound Tender Volume Index Savannah (OTVI.SAV)

FREIGHTWAVES’ SONAR CHART OF THE WEEK (Oct 14 -Oct 20, 2018) 

Werner convoy of relief supplies at a Home Depot fulfilment center in South Georgia

Chart of the Week: Outbound Tender Volume Index- Savannah (SONAR:OTVI.SAV)

SONAR Chart Outbound Tender Volume Index Savannah (OTVI.SAV)

Hurricane Michael has come and gone, but the destruction that is caused will live on with the residents in Florida and the Southern part of Georgia and Carolinas for months, if not longer. The storm, which has was described as the strongest storm to hit the U.S. in decades was credited with knocking out power for nearly a million and ripping through infrastructure. Early indications are that Michael did around $30 billion worth of damages. It would have been much worse had the storm taken a slightly different path.


As we examine the aftermath in freight data, the market that is credited with providing a large percent of the relief supplies and operating as a logistics epicenter for hurricane Michael relief efforts is Savannah.

Savannah, which has always had a major role in being a logistics hub for the South, is strategically positioned as a critical center for hurricane relief logistics, regardless of where storms make landfall. Home Depot and other critical suppliers have a large presence in the market.

In the runup to Michael’s landfall, we saw Savannah’s outbound volumes shoot up by 26%. Using SONAR outbound tender volume data, we saw volumes in the market jump from 75.95 to 96.05, nearly a 27% increase. The index is currently sitting at an elevated 94.31.

What does this mean? The OTVI index measures the volume in the market, indexed to March 1, 2018. This was the highest number recorded so far in 2018. A 26% increase in a market like Savanna is very significant and shows the impact on trucking volumes related to hurricane relief.


About Indices presented in this article

(SONAR: OTVI.SAV) Outbound tender volume: Savannah. The outbound tender volume index provide daily insights on the amount of truckload volume in either specific markets or the entire country, compared to the index date of March 1, 2018. If there are more loads in the market than that date, the index will be above the March 1 index date. For Savannah, the index was at 74.90 on March 1, 2018. The index is currently at 94.31, an increase of 26%.

About Chart of the Week

The FreightWaves Chart of the Week is a chart selection from SONAR that provides an interesting data point to describe the state of the freight markets. A chart is chosen from thousands of potential charts on SONAR to help participants visualize the freight market in real-time. Each week the Sultan of SONAR will post a chart, along with commentary live on the front-page. After that, the Chart of the Week will be archived on FreightWaves.com for future reference.

SONAR aggregates data from hundreds of sources, presenting the data in charts and maps and providing commentary on what freight market experts want to know about the industry- in real time.

The FreightWaves data-science and product teams are releasing new data-sets each week and enhancing the client experience.

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Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Zach Strickland, the “Sultan of SONAR,” curates the weekly market update. Zach is also one of FreightWaves’ Market Experts. With a degree in Finance, Strickland spent the early part of his career in banking before transitioning to transportation in various roles and segments, such as truckload and LTL. He has over 13 years of transportation experience, specializing in data, pricing, and analytics.