28th Annual State of Logistics: Into the great unknown

Over the course of 2016, logisticians and freight business professionals helped U.S. business costs decline for the first time since 2009, even as the booming e-commerce sector “propelled demand” for small parcel delivery services. In the meantime, the traditional transport modes trucking, rail, water and air cargo were challenged in 2016 by overcapacity, rate pressures and sluggish demand. Overall, U.S. business logistics costs fell 34 basis points last year to a near-record 7.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), a number that’s just off the record of 7.4% of GDP set in the Great Recession year of 2009. By comparison, in 1979, the last year before the Motor Carrier Act deregulated the interstate trucking industry, logistics costs were over 18% of GDP in the regulated environment.