Third Quarter Indicators Show Relative Road Sea And Air Freight Decline3PL Providers Statistics Demonstrate Recent Trends


US – WORLDWIDE – An analysis of the figures released yesterday by third party logistics management company C.H. Robinson can be interpreted as a summation of the current state of the global freight market. Robinson’s figures were, as expected, down across the board in all relevant sectors. Not, however, as bad as some had predicted and the breakdown of the individual components makes for interesting reading.

Overall the company’s revenues, broken down into relative three and nine month comparisons with 2008, show a small increase in profits (2%) for the past three months and a reduction in running costs of 2.6%. The nine month figures are a mere 1% and 0.1% by comparison.

Of most interest to industry observers however, having disregarded acquisitions and othe extraneous factors, is that truck revenues are up whilst the other sources, sea and air freight plus intermodal, all show a decline to varying degrees, over 30% in the case of intermodal, 13.3% for air freight.

The fact that Robinson’s are principally a 3PL provider cannot disguise the fact that their road sector figures, including less than truck loads (LTL), are slightly improved over both periods at a time when all and sundry are bewailing the state of the road haulage industry.

If the company’s figures do in fact reflect universal trends it appears that the industry across the board may have indeed bottomed out. Once the dust settles and those players too inefficient to survive have vanished into the sunset, perhaps we can begin the long slow climb to recovery.