IMC traffic grows faster than revenues

Railway Age, April, 1997

For intermodal marketing companies (IMCs), 1996 was a year of "explosive growth in traffic levels and moderate growth in revenue levels," reports the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). IMCs posted a 23.5% increase in total loads last year but revenues rose only 7.1%. That reversed the trend of 1995, when traffic rose 3.8% but revenues were up 6.7%.

For last year's disparity between traffic and revenue growth, Michael J. Arendes, IANA's director of research and policy, blamed "over capacity. of equipment in the freight transportation industry."