Bureau of Transportation Statistics updates U.S. supply chain indicators for November

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U.S. Supply Chain Indicators November

Highlights

Bureau of Transportation Statistics released November supply chain indicators covering port, rail, and truck data, including container movements and bottleneck metrics.
The update features refreshed figures on freight rates between the U.S. and Shanghai, trucking producer prices, diesel prices, and the Freight Transportation Services Index.
Federal agencies use the monthly indicators, launched in 2020, to assess U.S. freight network congestion, equipment utilization, and transport cost trends for industry and policy decisions.

November indicator update across freight networks

The latest monthly release comes from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which compiles the nation’s Supply Chain and Freight Indicators as part of a federal effort to monitor logistics conditions. The dashboard is organized into four sections, port data inside the gate, port data outside the gate, freight movement, and transportation labor and capacity tightness.

The November update includes measures tied to maritime traffic such as containership capacity calling at U.S. ports, loaded import and export containers, empty export containers, and the number of ships anchored offshore or awaiting berths. It also refreshes truck indicators around key freight chokepoints, including average speeds and planning time indexes at 10 bottleneck locations and around the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey.

Rail metrics in the release include average train speed, rail cars online, terminal dwell time, dwell time at major terminals and Class I railroad terminals, non-intermodal carloads, intermodal units, and containers and trailers carried on rail flat cars. BTS also updates market and cost indicators including freight rates between the U.S. and Shanghai, freight rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles, the Freight Transportation Services Index, trucking producer prices, diesel prices, and downbound grain barge rates.

Federal monitoring role and industry relevance

BTS began tracking these supply chain indicators in 2020 at the direction of the White House, giving federal agencies a recurring view of freight network performance and capacity constraints. The Department of Transportation convenes the interagency working group behind the effort, with participation from DOT agencies and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Commerce and Labor.

For shippers, carriers, ports, and logistics operators, the monthly package serves as a broad operational snapshot of congestion, equipment use, transport pricing, and inventory-related demand. By combining port, rail, truck, fuel, and trade-linked measures in one release, the update helps market participants gauge pressure points across the U.S. freight system.

In our earlier article on the surge in crude oil shipping costs, we examined how conflict-related risks and rerouting are driving tanker rates sharply higher and making freight a much larger share of delivered oil prices. We also noted the uneven impact across the market, with import-dependent economies and spot buyers facing the steepest cost increases while tanker owners benefit from record earnings.

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