Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 11/20/20

“Trends is an important record of how the trucking industry is performing,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “That’s why it is on the shelves of business leaders and policymakers across North America. “This year’s edition shows that 2023 was a very challenging year, but the industry weathered the storm, moving more than 11 billion tons of freight during the year,” he said. Among the key findings in this year’s report: *Preliminary figures indicate that trucks moved 11.18 billion tons of freight in 2023, down from the 11.46 billion tons hauled the previous year. *Preliminary figures indicate that the industry saw revenues grow to $987 billion, up from $940.8 billion in 2022. *Trucking employed 8.5 million people in industry-related jobs, including 3.55 million professional drivers in 2023. *The industry remains one made up of small businesses, with 95.5% of carriers operating 10 or fewer trucks and 99.6% operating fewer than 100 power units. *Cross-border trade remained a robust source of freight for motor carriers, with trucks moving 66.5% of surface trade between the US and Canada, and 84.5% of goods across the Mexican border in 2023.

A silver lining in the global economy's post-pandemic supply-chain challenges has been policymakers' heightened attention to long-term issues hampering our domestic freight transportation networks. While shuttered Asian factories, chip shortages and other emerging chokepoints are newer problems particular to COVID-19 shutdowns, they’ve shed light on broader, systemic issues that have long impacted American trucking companies and their ability to keep the supply chain turning. Many of those issues emanate from our maritime ports, where abusive business practices by a cartel of foreign-owned ocean shipping companies have fleeced American trucking companies and U.S. consumers to the tune of billions of dollars. Fortunately, both Congress and the Biden Administration are aligned on the goal of increasing marketplace fairness in our ports and eliminating anti-competitive behavior that's enabled ocean carriers to reap record profits at the expense of truckers and consumers.

The oil prices were bullish in the market as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East dies down. The commodity’s prices managed to hit another milestone despite the astonishing performance of the dollar in the market. The commodity continues to push great performance in the market on multiple factors. The great oil inventories reports and the OPEC agreement to extend the output cut have managed to put the prices on its best figures ones again. Click Read More below for additional information.