While freight demand slows to start 2023, other costs such as equipment and labor remain high, pushing smaller companies that gained for-hire authority in recent years to abandon the market and seek company driving jobs.
In mid-2022, the investment advisory service Zack’s touted the benefits of investing in trucking companies. “Upbeat trucking volumes owing to increased freight demand are driving the industry's growth,” said its report. “Higher trucking rates amid capacity constraints contribute to buoyancy in the trucking industry.”
Particularly in the last five months, the primary market where owner-operators and many smaller carriers find and price loads to haul has been on a road to recovery after a time when the marketplace struggled, load board observers say.
Load posts increased to one of the highest levels in the past six years last week. We’ll have details on that and the latest on rates in this week’s market update with DAT.
Although forecasts say the first quarter of 2023 will be particularly tough for the industry, trucking remains the most relied-upon freight transport mode in the U.S. and increased infrastructure spending could be a potential boon.
Our annual gathering of freight transportation industry analysts reveals some common themes, largely around the notion that rates are not likely to increase much—if at all—in some modes and will continue declining in others. Does this mean things are stabilizing?
From new consumer buying patterns to dramatically higher costs for fuel and labor, truckload freight professionals faced fresh challenges in 2022 that have led to a more measured, data-driven approach to 2023, according to a new annual report published by DAT Freight & Analytics.
U.S. import trade is heading into 2023 on a clear downward track. A new report by Descartes Datamyne shows inbound container volumes fell in December to close to pre-pandemic levels, as forecasts point to deeper declines in the coming months.
Economic forces, consumer demand, seasonality, natural disasters and myriad other factors contribute to transport’s cyclical market.
Contract rates have spent the second half of 2022 on a slide, following a downward trendline that spot rates have seen for almost the entire calendar year.