Domestic
Status: YELLOW
- Fuel surcharges are on the rise. The recent increase of 4.2 cents per gallon, bringing the price to $3.713 a gallon, would normally be considered a relatively large upward move for one week. But in the volatile market of the past year, it’s just another large but common increase and is actually the smallest of the past four weeks. Per-gallon increases in the past four weeks have been 7.1, 10.9, and 8.5 cents, respectively. Combined with the latest increase, it has put the DOE/EIA price up 30.7 cents a gallon, rising from $3.406 a gallon on Sept. 27.
- Lingering problems surrounding the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to cause negative downstream impacts on domestic surface transportation. Both spot and contract rates from these markets are at record-shattering all-time highs.
- The driver shortage continues to surge during peak season. The lack of qualified drivers entering the industry paired with a large portion of the workforce closing in on retirement will continue to be a major concern across the industry. This ongoing issue has only intensified by the coronavirus pandemic as employers attempt to lure laborers back to work. The industry continues to find ways to attract drivers while the shippers and warehouse operations struggle to hire material handlers to keep the cycle flowing.
- Peak season is here. We spoke about this last month, numerous carriers have taken precautions through oversize fees and regional surcharges in an effort to protect capacity.
- Last month we reported that warehouse demand for the domestic space has climbed sharply and the national warehouse vacancy is very tight at 4.8%. Industrial warehouse vacancies surged to a record 3.2% while asking prices are at all-time highs. Prime warehouse space near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles has shrunk even more to microscopic levels.
- In September, we presumed that FTL spot rates had plateaued because historically, truckload spot rates tend to decline in the Fall. While 2020 and 2021 are the exceptions, seasonality did finally make a brief appearance last week as load-to-truck ratios started their downward trend.
|
IT :
Status: GREEN
- The current challenges in the business environment create the perfect opportunity for learning. Pegasus strives to have a culture of continuous improvement which has led us to go through our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and improve our plan. Click the link below to read our article on what makes the Pegasus BCP exceptional.
|
STATUS KEY:
RED: Selective lanes not moving, driver/labor shortages, regulatory shutdowns, geographic hotspots, border closures
YELLOW: Freight is moving with less capacity, increased expense, reduced handling, with potential risk of future unknowns
GREEN: Freight is moving with no abnormalities |
|