October’s Cass Truckload Linehaul Index continued the increasing rate of acceleration that began in 2017 by posting a 8.2% YoY increase to 143.4, marking yet another record all-time high on a nominal basis. “We expect more nominal record highs in the coming months, with slightly lower percentage increases as comparisons grow increasingly tough through February,” stated Donald Broughton, analyst and commentator for the Cass indexes. “Our realized contract pricing forecast for 2018 of 6% to 12% is essentially ‘in the books.’ We believe that this is the strongest normalized percentage level of truckload pricing achieved since deregulation (‘normalized’ meaning except for extreme periods of recovery from recession).”
