May.28--CASS Information Systems forecasts that intermodal rates will continue to fall in the US as "drops in diesel and oil prices continue to encourage mode shifting to truckload".
The comments come after the transportation intelligence analyst's latest Cass Intermodal Price Index registered a year-on-year decline of 1.9 per cent in April.
This is also the second consecutive month of falling intermodal rates after March 2015 showed a decrease of 1.6 per cent year on year, reported American Shipper.
The index is a measure of market fluctuations in US domestic intermodal costs.
Investment firm Avondale Partners was quoted as saying, "we concede that the extent to which loads can be shifted from domestic intermodal back to over-the-road truck is dependent on trucking capacity.
"But the US$0.20 a mile decline in fuel surcharges collected by truckers in the last year (with most of that decline coming in the most recent four to five months) has to challenge demand and pricing power for domestic intermodal, especially in shorter lengths of haul."
(Source:shippingazette)