The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index showed gains in both spending and shipments during Q4/17, but the scope of the advances differed widely.

Spending for trucking services advanced by the highest rates so far this decade, reflecting solid demand coupled with tighter capacity due to driver shortages and new regulations. Shipments, on the other hand, increased by the smallest amount of any quarter in 2017, fitting with expected economic output deceleration during the final quarter of the year.

“The growth in shipments for the fourth quarter was solid, just not quite the torrid pace of the previous two quarters,” said Bob Costello, American Trucking Associations’ chief economist. “This matches with the broader economic picture, where gross domestic product is expected to show a slowing down for Q4. The concurrent strength in spending can be traced in part to solid demand, but also to a driver shortage accentuated by the new federal requirement that trucks be equipped with electronic logging devices, or ELDs, to track driver hours-of-service, which took effect in December.”

Highlights and analysis of the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index for Q4/17 include:

• The National Spending Index jumped 12.5% from the third quarter and 24.8% over the same quarter a year earlier. The two gains were both records for the index dating back to 2010.
• The National Shipments Index increased just 1.6% during the quarter, significantly below the 5.8% and 3.3% gains of the second and third quarters, respectively. Still, it was the best for a fourth quarter of any year since 2014, and notably better than Q4/16, when the index fell 4%.
• Truck shipments were quite mixed by region during the quarter, ranging from a drop of 1.4% in the Midwest to a surge of 9.1% in the Southwest.
• All regions saw double-digit gains in spending, the largest jump coming in the Northeast (16%) and the smallest being the Southeast (just under 11%).

The quarterly U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index measures quantitative changes in shipment and spend activity based on data from transactions processed through U.S. Bank Freight Payment. These transactions are made on behalf of clients across a range of industries, including automotive, manufacturing, food and retail. U.S. Bank Freight Payment processes around $23 billion in global freight payments annually for some of the world’s largest corporations and government agencies.