Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension

In 2021, The United States trucking industry generated over $400 billion in revenues. As the economy cycles through waves of contractions and expansions, the transportation industry moves through cycles of slack and tension. This research quantifies the relationship between TL market tension metrics...

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Main Authors: Moran, Sean, Tosi, Nicolo
Language:en_US
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152058
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author Moran, Sean
Tosi, Nicolo
author_facet Moran, Sean
Tosi, Nicolo
author_sort Moran, Sean
collection MIT
description In 2021, The United States trucking industry generated over $400 billion in revenues. As the economy cycles through waves of contractions and expansions, the transportation industry moves through cycles of slack and tension. This research quantifies the relationship between TL market tension metrics and key LTL metrics on a national and corridor level. To evaluate the strength of the relationship between the variables we used Pearson's correlation. Our models spanned 6 years of data and used public national LTL carrier data as well private C.H. Robinson data. The research found a positive, statistically significant correlation for key truckload metrics, including from the contract market (route guide depth) and the spot market (cost per mile and load to truck ratio), especially when lagged 1-3 months. We find this relationship to be true for national public LTL carrier data as well as private C.H. Robinson data. However, because the cost per mile data is correlated with future LTL volume and LTL volume is correlated with future cost per mile, we believe route guide depth and load to truck ratio to be better bellwether indicators.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1520582023-09-09T03:17:00Z Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension Moran, Sean Tosi, Nicolo Supply Chain Management Trucking In 2021, The United States trucking industry generated over $400 billion in revenues. As the economy cycles through waves of contractions and expansions, the transportation industry moves through cycles of slack and tension. This research quantifies the relationship between TL market tension metrics and key LTL metrics on a national and corridor level. To evaluate the strength of the relationship between the variables we used Pearson's correlation. Our models spanned 6 years of data and used public national LTL carrier data as well private C.H. Robinson data. The research found a positive, statistically significant correlation for key truckload metrics, including from the contract market (route guide depth) and the spot market (cost per mile and load to truck ratio), especially when lagged 1-3 months. We find this relationship to be true for national public LTL carrier data as well as private C.H. Robinson data. However, because the cost per mile data is correlated with future LTL volume and LTL volume is correlated with future cost per mile, we believe route guide depth and load to truck ratio to be better bellwether indicators. 2023-09-08T17:27:14Z 2023-09-08T17:27:14Z 2023-09-08 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152058 en_US application/pdf
spellingShingle Supply Chain Management
Trucking
Moran, Sean
Tosi, Nicolo
Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title_full Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title_fullStr Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title_full_unstemmed Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title_short Unraveling the Relation between Trucking Modes: A Correlation Analysis between Less Than Truckload Metrics and Truckload Market Tension
title_sort unraveling the relation between trucking modes a correlation analysis between less than truckload metrics and truckload market tension
topic Supply Chain Management
Trucking
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152058
work_keys_str_mv AT moransean unravelingtherelationbetweentruckingmodesacorrelationanalysisbetweenlessthantruckloadmetricsandtruckloadmarkettension
AT tosinicolo unravelingtherelationbetweentruckingmodesacorrelationanalysisbetweenlessthantruckloadmetricsandtruckloadmarkettension