Thursday, February 6, 2014

Cass Freight Shipping Index

The Cass Freight Index

Data within the Index includes all domestic freight modes and is derived from $23 billion in freight transactions processed by Cass annually on behalf of its client base of hundreds of large shippers. These companies represent a broad sampling of industries including consumer packaged goods, food, automotive, chemical, OEM, retail and heavy equipment. Annual freight volume per organization ranges from $1 million to over $1 billion. The diversity of shippers and aggregate volume provide a statistically valid representation of North American shipping activity.

The following chart shows the annual average of the index (to remove seasonal variations).


Click to enlarge.

Looks like we've got zero chance of making it back to 2006 levels. Oh, well.

The following chart shows the year over year percentage change.


Click to enlarge.

Look at that strong and robust recovery! Ignore the part where the growth is stagnant or negative (the last 2 years or so).

The future's so bright, I gotta swear, "Hades!"

Oops. Somebody moved the "s" and added a comma. D'oh!

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #1
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart #2

3 comments:

mab said...

Looks like we've got zero chance of making it back to 2006 levels.

We can attribute the weakness to a structural shift in the weather.

Long term, put me down for the under on everything! :(

mab said...

I'm watching CNBC. What's the deal? The "experts" keep blaming our economic ills on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth!

Weird.

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

We can attribute the weakness to a structural shift in the weather.

I know! We just need to put a stop to the weather.

It was SO cold this year that people could not leave their homes to buy snow blowers, power generators, or any other cold weather gear that would have normally been useful in cold weather.

That's how cold it was!

The "experts" keep blaming our economic ills on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth!

I didn't hear it but I'll trust you. Musical tribute in your honor! ;)

Our Economic Plague Ship (Musical Tribute)