John’s Blog

3-29-10

Dear Friends

Over the weekend the big news was the recess appointment of Craig Becker and Mark Pearce by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board. Craig Becker is the former general counsel for the Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO and a radical pro-labor lawyer. Watch out for pro-union rulings making union organization easier.

It is amazing to me that at a time when the nation needs jobs that the administration seems to make life in business harder.

US consumer confidence remained unchanged from February with a March reading of 73.6. This was a little higher than economists had expected. It is reflected in an increase in consumer spending which should help the economy.

The American Trucking Association said that truck tonnage improved by 2.6% year over year in February. For the first two months of the year the seasonally adjusted index was up 3.5 over the same period in 2009. The ATA forecasts moderate growth throughout the year.

The US Census Bureau reported that orders for durable goods increased 0.5% in February which is the third straight month of increase. Unfilled orders and inventory increased for the second month in a row.

Container traffic continues to be better with Savannah GA reporting their box traffic jumped 20.6% year over year in February. Seattle recorded strong gains as a result of joint service with Maersk and CMA CGM reporting a 84% increase in inbound containers. This gain looks like it came at the expense of Tacoma and Portland whose numbers are down.

At Wagner we continue to see opportunity and most recently are getting more requests for rail transload projects. I suspect that this is a result of carrier capacity getting a little tighter. With a ratio of 3 to 4 truckloads per boxcar (depends on commodity) it makes sense to convert long haul trucks to boxcar with a destination transload & delivery.

Wagner is now fully operational in Aurora OH with systems and staffing implemented. My thanks to the Wagner team for another flawless implementation.

Have a great week!

John