Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 8/18/23

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.400; Month Ago: $3.153; Year Ago: $3.446. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $4.053; Month Ago: $3.948; Year Ago: $4.377.

Transportation prices fell in February at the fastest rate recorded in the six-and-a-half-year history of a monthly survey of supply chain executives. The Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) registered a reading of 36.1 for transportation costs in February, 5.9 percentage points lower than in January and below the prior record, which was established in December. A level below 50 indicates contraction while one above signals expansion. The report said the rate declines were “a little more pronounced in the later portions of the month than in the beginning of the month.” “February is generally a low point seasonally due to the consumer spending hangover from the holidays in the U.S. combined with slowness in imports due to Chinese New Year, and that was certainly reflected this year,” the report stated.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller calls the truck driver shortage a “myth” in a recent piece of self-promotion, but his assertion collapses under the weight of facts and data. Fuller claims the mythical shortage is an ATA fabrication—a narrative perpetuated for our convenience. Of course, we’re not alone in reporting this issue. Driver shortages are global in scope, with growing vacancies felt across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and documented in IRU’s 2022 Global Driver Shortage Report: In Europe, driver shortages jumped by 42% from 2020 to 2021, with vacant driver positions reaching 71,000 in Romania, 80,000 in both Poland and Germany, and 100,000 in the UK. In Mexico, shortages rose by 30% to reach 54,000, while in China, they increased by 140%, reaching 1.8 million.