IMAGE: JIM ALLEN/FREIGHTWAVES
Lincoln’s Logs is brought to you by FreightWaves’ Lincoln Duff
Hello and welcome to another edition of Lincoln’s Logs, where I point out some of my favorite datasets in SONAR that can empower you to make actionable decisions to help keep your trucks rolling and increase revenues.
Today I’m coming to you from the Delta lounge in DTW, after a hot breakfast and large cup of coffee, I’m fueled up and ready to jump into the data. I mention that I’m in Detroit because of an observation I made as I sat squished between my seatmate in 3C, who I imagine was a practicing sumo wrestler (or at least possessed the proper physique) and the window on the small CRJ from Chattanooga. As my body was contorted sideways to accommodate his frame, I couldn’t help but look out the window as we started our approach to Detroit. I began to see factories with racetracks outside and lots of newly made cars in the parking lots.
But something stood out to me: I didn’t see many trucks. Generally as you get closer to an airport you start to see lots of trailers, trucks and warehouses (At least, these are the things I look for when I fly, I’m sure you do it as well, as I hope I’m not the only freak out there doing this). As we know, every good factory needs a steady stream of outbound freight activity. With the continuation of this GM strike, freight volumes are down from the Detroit area, but what effect does that have on the surrounding areas? Is there a market benefitting from the current stall in the Motor City?
When I pulled up SONAR I began to look at the Outbound Tender Volume Levels (OTVI) for Detroit and the surrounding markets. The trends were the same for most markets. Since the beginning of the strike OTVI is down significantly for Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Cleveland and Toledo. But one surrounding market stands out as an outlier: South Bend. Now, I know that Notre Dame is good this year, and they’re probably selling a lot more hats, T-shirts and jerseys than normal, but we’re really seen a huge jump in OTVI in the last week and a half. Outbound volume is up almost 100%, bringing the total market share (OTMS) of South Bend to 0.37% of the countries total freight. That might not seem like a large number, but that uptick in outbound freight, moved South Bend up 30 spots to the 77th ranked market out of the 135 that we track.
CHART: FREIGHTWAVES SONAR
What does this mean for you?
There’s freight to be had in South Bend. If you have lanes or spot loads that take you into Mich or the surrounding area, look to South Bend for backhaul freight. Loads should be abundant and you should have no problem keeping your truck rolling.
Hammer down!