Transportation Capacity Hits New Lows – No Relief in Sight from Higher Prices

The Logistics Manager’s Index (LMI) for September reveals that transportation capacity are at all time low levels. The LMI, a survey of leading logistics executives, showed capacity fell to new lows in September, dipping another 770 basis points during the month to a reading of 23.8%. The LMI is a diffusion index, wherein a reading above 50% indicates expansion and a reading below 50% indicates contraction. The survey captures the rate of change in activity for key supply chain trends in areas like transportation, inventory and warehousing. The September transportation capacity reading was the lowest level ever for any of the eight metrics the survey tracks. The capacity situation was even worse for “downstream firms,” or those closest to the consumer, at 16.3%. The lack of available capacity was also is being reflected in the premium firms are paying to move and store goods.