The freight payment solutions provider has been compiling a national and regional index since 2010, but in the second quarter of 2017 made the data public for the first time.
Freight payment solutions provider U.S. Bank on Thursday released an index of shipments and freight spend nationally and by region.
The bank has been compiling its U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index since 2010, but has now released it publicly for the first time. The index will come out quarterly.
Highlights of the index, which covers activity in the second quarter of 2017, include a 5.8 percent increase in national shipments from the first quarter and a 6.5 percent increase over the second quarter of 2016, the largest year-over-year gain in six years.
“This robust increase put this shipment index to 128.7, which is the highest level since U.S. Bank started the series in 2010,” U.S. Bank said. “Even more impressive, this index is up a total of 9.3 percent through the first half of 2017, compared with the end of 2016.”
Freight spend, however, rose at a much lower rate from the first quarter to the second, at 0.7 percent. More positively, this gain put the National Spend Index at 152, the highest level since the final quarter of 2015. The index has increased for four consecutive quarters for the first time during the current economic expansion, U.S. Bank said.
On a regional level, shipments were up in all regions compared with the previous quarter.
“The Midwest region exhibited the strongest growth, rising 8.9 percent from the first quarter of the year,” U.S. Bank said. “This is likely reflective of better manufacturing activity in the region.”
The index is compiled by U.S. Bank, using source data based on the actual transaction payment date, and contains U.S. Bank’s highest-volume domestic freight modes of truckload and less-than-truckload. The data is both seasonally and calendar adjusted. Bob Costello, chief economist and senior vice president for the American Trucking Associations (ATA), provides commentary on the reports. The index represents freight shipping volumes and spend on national and regional levels. The first quarter 2010 base point is 100.
The full second quarter report is available here.
U.S. Bank freight index shows steady gains in shipments, spend
