U.S. Bank launched a new barometer for assessing the nation’s shipping industry. The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index will measure 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. Published quarterly, the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index includes regional and national breakdowns along with commentary from Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations.
Highlights and analysis of the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index for the third quarter include:
A unique feature of the index is that it breaks the data down into five U.S. regions – West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast — based on the state of origin for a shipment.
“Freight shipments are generally not uniform across the country,” Costello said. “That’s what makes the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index so useful. It is regional and gives a good snapshot into the differences in economic climate from one end of the country to the other.”
Regional highlights and analysis for Q3/17 include:
“With U.S. Bank and its customers increasingly relying on big data to discover opportunities and make decisions, leveraging our robust data to assist our clients with these insights made a lot of sense,” said U.S. Bank Global Transportation General Manager John Hardin. “The relative changes in the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index indicate trends in the transportation industry and the overall economy, which can be helpful to customers in benchmarking their performance.”
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