The Trucker News Staff

In honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF) recognizes the growing number of women who are supporting the trucking industry and working to keep America moving forward. In 1981, Joyce Sauer Brenny, founder and CEO of Brenny Transportation Inc., began her career as a semi-truck driver, hauling railroad ties. In 1986, she transitioned into sales and management at a large carrier. A decade later, she founded her own logistics and trucking company, based in in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Brenny Transportation, a Certified Women Business Enterprise, has been named a Top Place for Women to Work by Women In Trucking. Brenny, who says she has a “definite passion for people,” has made it her personal mission to support other women at her company and in the transportation workplace. In addition, Brenny said she believes it is “her purpose to improve the trucking industry for those who have dedicated their life to serve in the noble profession of trucking and transportation.” During her career in the trucking industry, Brenny has held numerous leadership positions. She currently serves on the Minnesota Trucking Association board of directors and the American Trucking Associations safety policy committee. She was the first woman trucker to chair the Minnesota Trucking Association. In addition, Brenny serves as president of the St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps truck drivers and their families when an illness or injury causes them to be out of work. Brenny has also received recognition for her work in trucking. In 2012, she was named the most influential woman in trucking by WIT.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) rebounded in January to a +10.37 reading, roughly matching the November index reading. The December TCI was +8.51. Stronger freight rates and volume more than offset higher fuel costs in January, according to FTR. Rising fuel costs will have a more negative impact on the February TCI, but analysts believe the index will remain strong because freight market dynamics are solidly in carriers’ favor. “Market conditions are close to the best ever for trucking companies, and they should remain that way at least through this year,” said Avery Vise, vice president of trucking for FTR. “With stimulus from Washington, extraordinarily lean inventories, and a fading pandemic, solid freight demand is practically baked in. FTR’s latest forecast calls for stronger freight demand through 2021, and analysts expect positive trucking conditions through 2021 even if the current tight driver market loosens somewhat as the pandemic fades. “The bigger risk to good times is that driver capacity comes back too strongly as labor participation rebounds, but with the pipeline of new drivers constricted for the past year, that risk seems low,” Vise noted, adding that the strong freight volume “suggests that the principal issue is the supply of drivers, not demand for them.” The TCI tracks changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market — freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel price and financing. The individual metrics are combined into a single index that reflects the industry’s overall health. A positive score is good, while a negative score represents bad conditions. Readings near zero are consistent with a neutral operating environment, and double-digit readings in either direction suggest significant operating changes are likely. Details of the January TCI can be found in the March 2021 issue of FTR’s Trucking Update, published February 26.

WASHINGTON — A report released by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) March 8 showed a 13.3% drop in transborder freight in 2020 compared to 2019. According to report, which reflects freight moved by truck, rail, pipeline, air and vessel, the decline began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued through November. December’s transborder freight saw a slight increase of 0.4%. Trucking was the most-used mode for transborder shipments, moving $695 billion (65.3%) of the year’s total of $1.06 trillion in freight, but still saw a 10% drop from 2019. Trucks crossing the U.S.-Canada border moved $309 billion, or 58.8% of all northern border freight, while truckers moved $386 billion between the U.S. and Mexico (71.1% of all southern border freight). Shipments between the U.S. and Canada saw a 9.9% drop, while U.S.-Mexico freight fell by 10.1%. The busiest truck border ports, accounting for 44.6% of total transborder truck freight for 2020, were Laredo, Texas ($163 billion); Detroit ($95 billion); and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York ($51 billion). The top three truck commodities, accounting for 48.3% of total transborder truck freight for the year, were computers and parts ($136 billion), electrical machinery ($110 billion) and motor vehicles and parts ($89 billion). Rail was the second-most-used mode for transborder shipments, moving $148 billion (14%) of all freight. The total amount of freight moved between the U.S. and Canada (both directions) by mode was: Truck: $309 billion; Rail: $79 billion; Pipeline: $48 billion; Air: $32 billion; and Vessel: $20 billion. Almost all (99.4%) of pipeline freight between the U.S. and Canada were mineral fuels, primarily oil and gas. Most of these freight flows were on pipelines linking Canada and the American Midwest. Between the U.S. and Mexico (both directions) total freight moved by mode was: Truck: $386 billion; Rail: $70 billion; Vessel: $48 billion; Air: $14 billion; and Pipeline: $5 billion. Of freight by vessel between the U.S. and Mexico, $22 billion, or 44.9% were mineral fuels, primarily oil and gas shipments between Gulf of Mexico ports in the U.S. and Mexico. More than half of those shipments went through Texas ports. Data in the BTS release is not seasonally adjusted and is not adjusted for inflation.

COLUMBUS, Ind. — The latest release of ACT’s For-Hire Trucking Index, which includes data for January 2021, showed a Driver Availability Index that has tightened to its lowest point in the past three years. Tim Denoyer, ACT Research’s Vice President and Senior Analyst commented, “The Driver Availability Index tightened to a new low in January, to 25.0 from 28.1 in December,” said Tim Denoyer, vice president and senior analyst for ACT. “For the second straight month, this was the tightest reading in the three-year history of this index. Rising driver pay for several months has yet to impact the tight driver market. The surge in pandemic cases, which is now reversing, and extended unemployment benefits, which are set to be extended further, are also supply constraints.” The ACT For-Hire Trucking Index is a monthly survey of for-hire trucking service providers; responses are converted into diffusion indexes, where the neutral or flat activity level is 50. “Though many driver schools did not reopen last year, and school capacity will likely be constrained into mid-2021, rising vaccinations and pay should help driver school output recover, along with some recent news of new schools,” Denoyer noted. “Still, demographics and the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse are inhibiting driver re-engagement, though elevated spot rates and rising driver pay should have a larger effect going forward.”