Another perspective on railcar loadings

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This kinda makes some sense, and makes the 7.8% fall in rail traffic seem a lot less dire (for the country, anyway).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-05/why-warren-buffett-s-favorite-indicator-isn-t-giving-an-accurate-read-of-the-u-s-economy

TLDR: Truck traffic is up 5.5%, and truck traffic often steals rail based intermodal business when oil is cheap (as it is now).

So... basically, the picture is much more murky than the rail numbers alone would indicate.

[Frank Amato]

Cool read, thx for posting.  So much for that "truck driver shortage" that has been written about in recent years.

  Frank

[Mark5]

Good read. When it comes to aspects of the economy, the dynamics are rarely as simple as the talking heads make it out to be.

[jmarley76]

Thanks for sharing, Ed!

So much for that "truck driver shortage" that has been written about in recent years.

Yes, I saw that dissolve first hand locally. Con Met has a plant near where I work; they make injection molded parts for truck interiors. I knew all things trucking (including production of new ones) had picked up when they recalled the recent group that had been layed-off at the beginning of the year and started hiring again.

[Blazeman]

As log as the oil patch activity is at low ebb, there are sufficient truck drivers to cover loads today. But if prices would bump back up to $80/bb, things would ramp up and drivers would head back for the big money and repetitive work.