The recent rally in diesel prices put enough pressure on rates and demand to push intermodal pricing to yet another all-time high in March. The March Cass Intermodal Index, at 151.9, increased 3.8% sequentially and was 6.1% higher on a year-over-year basis. This marked the thirtieth consecutive month of year-over-year increases. Throughout much of 2018, tight truckload capacity and higher diesel prices created incremental demand and pricing power for domestic intermodal. With the recent rise in WTI crude from as low as $42 a barrel in late December of last year to just over $64 a barrel, we are expecting the price of fuel’s influence on the demand and pricing power for intermodal services to continue to increase in coming months.
Total pricing (all-in costs) for intermodal carriers jumped 6.1% in March (over the previous year), after increasing 6.2% in February, 6.8% in January, 8.6% in December, 10.6% in November, 10.9% in October, 10.1% in September, 11.4% in August.
