Every trucking freight segment fell in July

Every major trucking freight segment lost ground in July. The Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index for truck transportation as a whole fell 1.9% to 205.4, and every sub-segment beneath it moved the same way.

Dry van truckload fell 1.3% to 195.6. Flatbed and specialised freight fell 1.2% to 168.2. General freight trucking dropped 2.3% to 216.6. Less-than-truckload fell hardest, down 4.6%; local specialised work fell least, off 0.3%. Nothing rose.

For a driver, the read is direction, not disaster. Every one of these indices is still higher than a year ago — the all-trucking measure by 8.2%, dry van by 8.1%, flatbed and specialised by 9.4%. July was a monthly pullback across the board, not a return to the rates that pushed carriers out of business in the down years. But it was a broad one: when the blended index and each of its parts fall in the same month, no segment is quietly carrying the others.

A caution on what these numbers are. They are indices, not dollars per mile: they track change from a December 2003 base rather than what lands on a rate confirmation. They also blend contract and spot business, so they move later and more gently than the spot market a driver watches week to week — a down month here reflects softening the spot boards likely registered earlier. The July figures are preliminary and can be revised.

One more caveat on the flatbed line: it is broader than flatbed alone. It covers most specialised long-distance hauling except household goods, because no free source isolates flatbed by itself.