Surface Transportation

Consumer Sentiment Index fell again in October, to 46.3, the third straight monthly decline and a five-month low.

Pressuring prices

With high fuel costs and inflation affecting the freight economy, shippers continue to pay more for truck and rail transportation and parcel service, all of which are measured by the Cass Freight Index.

The shipper expenditure portion of the index rose 6.7 % month over month in September and was up 20.4 % year over year. That’ s up from a 5.8 % sequential monthly increase and an 18.3 % annualized increase in August.

Reflecting this situation, US truckload spot rates rose in early October, with spot rates increasing across dry-van, refrigerated and flatbed markets. The average US dry-van

Manufacturing growth helped boost freight demand 1.9 % in September after a 2.1 % August gain. Jetta Productions Inc. / Getty Images

Intermodal growth puts focus on localized drayage driver shortages

By Ari Ashe

Pockets of the domestic US drayage network are under pressure from surging intermodal volumes, according to service providers and analysts.

That pressure has become so intense, in fact, that it forced J. B. Hunt Transport Services to take“ unnatural” steps behind the scenes to preserve first- and final-mile service, said CEO Shelley Simpson. Although she said the constraints are not widespread, Simpson acknowledged that the company is working through“ growing pains” as domestic intermodal volumes rise.

“ I don’ t know that our customers have seen as much of the challenge as maybe what’ s really happening behind the scenes,” Simpson said during the Journal of Commerce Inland26 Conference.“ Keeping our intermodal service up is something we work on every single day.”

Although J. B. Hunt did not disclose its third-quarter volume, domestic container volumes across North America rose 11.9 % year over year in June, July and August, according to the Intermodal Association of North America( IANA). Journal of Commerce estimates a 98.5 % probability that third-quarter domestic container volumes will set a record once September data is reported.

The problem is that efforts to rebuild the drayage driver base have not kept pace with demand.

J. B. Hunt, for its part, is raising pay and offering bonuses, while training less-experienced drivers and working with outsourced carriers to add drayage capacity.

“ I can’ t remember a time when our drayage capacity for the industry was more of a challenge,” Darren Field, president of J. B. Hunt’ s intermodal division, said at a Morgan Stanley conference in mid-September.

Rick LaGore, president of InTek Freight and Logistics, a non-asset intermodal marketing company( IMC), said drayage capacity is a critical issue to resolve.

“ Right now, the drayage network is really tapped out, and the lynchpin of successful intermodal service is drayage,” LaGore told the Inland26 conference.

That matters because customer service and first- and final-mile execution are closely tied to shipper loyalty.

An analysis of Journal of Commerce Intermodal Service Scorecard surveys since 2023 found that customer service, on-time pickup and on-time delivery accounted for 68 % of the factors associated with whether a shipper was a net promoter of its intermodal provider, compared with just 8 % for pricing.

The relationship was even stronger for J. B. Hunt. An analysis of nearly 500 shipper votes found customer service, on-time pickup and on-time delivery accounted for about 77 % of whether a shipper became a net promoter, while pricing accounted for less than 5 %.

Intermodal on pace for third straight quarterly record

North American domestic intermodal rail volume, 53-foot containers and trailers

Containers and trailers

850,000 800,000 750,000 450,000 700,000 650,000 600,000

30 %

-10 %

Containers and trailers

Source: Intermodal Association of North America

Year-over-year % change

20 %

0 %

Year-over-year % change

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42 Journal of Commerce | November 2, 2026 www. joc. com