2020 Was One Quarter Bad for Truck Transportation and the Heavy-Duty Market

ACT Research reports the remarkable rebound of the economy and in truck freight began in the summer

According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, 2020 wasn’t all bad for truck transportation and the heavy-duty market. It wasn’t even half bad. It was one quarter bad.

“The shock and magnitude of the second quarter economic decline was without precedent in post-World War II history, forcing a reach to the Great Depression for parallels,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. He explained, “But the remarkable rebound of the economy and in truck freight began in the summer and gained momentum into autumn. Even during the worst of the trough in April and May, we forecast a second half rebound.”

Vieth continued, “The direction of the second half was correctly called. But the slope of the recovery’s path, and the speed and strength of the freight rebound (and the associated skyrocketing of freight rates), caught us off guard.” He added, “The lessons we learned from underestimating the market snapback are important in the formation of our current view.” Vieth concluded, “Some of the impacting factors in the second half of 2020 included the capacity squeeze, the goods-for-services substitution, expanded migration to e-commerce, low fuel prices, and a housing boom, just to name a few.”

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