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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
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