Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Office Use Growth Stalls, War Hitting Trucking Firm Revenue

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

March 01, 2022

Office Use Growth Stalls

Growth in office use stalled across much of the country last week, which included a federal holiday.

Most major metropolitan areas tracked by Falls Church, Virginia-based security firm Kastle Systems saw either little growth or some backtracking in the week that ended Feb. 23.

Kastle gathers anonymous employee data from workplaces where it provides access-control technology. While it is only a sampling of buildings by one security company, the data gives a peek into how employees and employers are responding to office use during the pandemic.

The Dallas area, for example, fell by 3.3 percentage points to 44.1% after a big jump the previous week. San Antonio, however, jumped 4.8 percentage points to 48%, while Austin rose further beyond the midway point to 53.4%.

Usage in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area fell 6 percentage points to 36.7%, for the largest decline among metros.

War Hitting Trucking Firm's Revenue

The war in Ukraine is beginning to hit home financially for U.S.-based companies.

Jacksonville, Florida-based freight broker and third-party logistics company Landstar System reported Monday that its quarterly revenue could take a $100 million hit because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company suspended operations in the country over the weekend, industry trade website Freightwaves reported.

Landstar operates through independent sales agents and a network of owner-operators. The company said in the SEC filing that its largest independent commission sales agency, which is based in the U.S., has major operations in eastern Ukraine. Another of its largest U.S.-based sales agencies has operations in western Ukraine.

Together, the two agencies generated about $860 million in revenue for Landstar of the $6.5 billion reported last year, a record for the company. The company said the disrupted operations are running about $20 million to $25 million with four weeks left in the quarter.

Source: www.CoStar.com

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.