Bad news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about coverage of rail prices: We will continue to receive intermodal and carload price data, but the carload detail on the various commodities being hauled has been eliminated from the survey.(RAIL)

Logistics Management (Highlands Ranch, Co.), September, 2005

Bad news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about coverage of rail prices: We will continue to receive intermodal and carload price data, but the carload detail on the various commodities being hauled has been eliminated from the survey. Our analysis goes on nonetheless. With North American rail capacity strained to the limit, pricing power continues to reside with railroads, so it was unexpected to see carload prices fall 0.3% from June to July. Intermodal picked up the slack by jumping 2.2% over the same time period. Those one-month trends belie the long-term picture. In the first seven months of the year, average prices for hauling freight in carloads increased by 10.7% compared to the same period a year earlier, while intermodal was up a more manageable 1.6%....

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