Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 9/4/20

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 1.5% in June after falling 1% in May. In June, the index equaled 111.6 (2015=100) compared with 113.3 in May. “Tonnage has definitely flattened out, on average, over the last six to nine months,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “The good news is that it remains slightly above 2020 levels. “Supply chain issues are likely putting some downward pressure on tonnage,” he said. “But it is also likely that tonnage isn’t growing as much as it could because of industry-specific supply constraints. This index is dominated by contract freight, and the for-hire truckload carriers have seen their tractor counts fall because they are having difficulty finding qualified drivers. It is difficult to move more tonnage with less equipment, which is why we are seeing strong volumes in the spot market as shippers scramble to get loads moved.”

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $2.188; Month Ago: $2.190; Year Ago: $2.603. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $2.423; Month Ago: $2.434; Year Ago: $2.945.

Coyote Logistics, a leading global third-party logistics (3PL) provider, expanded its Dynamic Route Optimization program that aims to streamline supply chain operations and reduce uncertainty for carriers by maximizing the efficiency of their fleets and delivering load consistency through optimized weekly routing plans. Dynamic Route Optimization builds suggested weekly route plans that optimally direct drivers to and from their domicile location by taking numerous parameters into account, including drivers’ hours provided by the carrier, load attributes, average load and unload times, market cost, mile per hour bands by region, home base city, among others and layering them over Coyote’s open and available loads.