Freight rates continued to strengthen in September, but freight volume and capacity utilization numbers were weaker, according to FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index.
While market conditions for carriers might have peaked, they remain strong and are forecast to remain in the double-digit positive range for the rest of the year, FTR reports.
Stronger freight rates would have pushed FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index to a third straight record, but those gains were offset by a swing in diesel prices. Still, conditions were robust.
Although most market factors were not quite as strong in April as they were in March, a reversal of March’s higher diesel prices improved overall trucking conditions.
“You could hardly devise better market conditions for trucking companies as demand is robust in both the consumer and industrial sectors," said Avery Vise, FTR’s VP of trucking.
FTR’s latest forecast calls for stronger freight demand and positive trucking conditions through 2021.
The fuel cost component of FTR's Trucking Conditions Index recorded the largest negative change in more than three years.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index fell in November from the previous month’s record high, but the November reading of 10.26 is still strong, as rising freight rates continue to power robust trucking conditions.
FTR is reporting that its Trucking Conditions Index for October 2020 literally went off the charts to the highest reading the research firm has ever recorded.
According to FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index for August, carriers saw a positive rate environment with reading of 8.31.
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