Trucking Conditions Index Reflects Capacity Constraints Continue

FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) reading of 7.54 for February, while down slightly from the previous month, continues to reflect good news for trucking fleets as well as a warning to shippers seeking carriers to move their goods.

According to the report, “the severe weather likely had a bigger impact and is not getting picked up in the data.”

According to FTR, when you adjust for weather, the TCI reading would be pushed above a reading of 10, certainly making this the tightest truck market on record.

FTR expects the TCI to remain in this range throughout 2014, impacted by truck freight demand accompanied by regulatory drag hindering available capacity.

Jonathan Starks, FTR’s Director of Transportation Analysis, commented, “The most recent weekly spot market data shows that the spring thaw has come to truck demand with spot market capacity up and load activity down slightly – a plateau versus the last couple of months when both demand and pricing spiked while capacity was severely constrained. “

Both carriers and shippers have to be on the lookout for a potential tipping point when freight demand is able to keep the current high level of truck use well into the summer months.”

According to the researchers, “such an environment would necessitate shippers bidding up rates to maintain secure capacity during the fall shipping season data to see if the thaw continues.”

Category: General Update, Management