Snow plows trucking rates, if you catch our drift

NEW YORK — Sudden winter storms freeze more than your birdbaths and door locks.

They also freeze capacity; which is good news for anyone whose trucks aren’t stuck in a snowbank. 

That’s the word from the venerable New York based investment house Morgan Stanley (MS).

MS issues a regular truckload freight index, a measure of the incremental truckload demand vs supply. In January, coming off Christmas, the index bumped up by about 2. 5 percent, according to the Journal of Commerce. 

But only a month later, it jumped a full 24 percent. And the experts say it’s because of the snowstorms that blindsided much of the American South, Midwest and East coast that month.

"We suspect that winter storms forced a number of trucks off the road and tied up capacity with longer transit times," said Morgan Stanley analysts Adam Longson and William Greene.”

"We wouldn’t be surprised if some carriers were temporarily commanding higher spot rates due to tighter supply.”

Usually, rates fade in February.

The biggest increase came from the Northeast, followed by the South and then Southeast and Midwest — all areas blanketed by snowstorms.

The West remained strong but relatively constant, Longson and Greene said.