Of all the investments a company could make to modernize warehouse operations, fleet management is the most unique. Unlike automation, infrastructure or software, lift truck usage has a huge behavioral component that makes measuring and defining success more difficult. Few other elements of materials handling equipment are mobile anywhere between eight and 24 hours a day, and few interact so…
High fuel and equipment prices, labor concerns, shipping rates, inflation, talks of a recession, and other economic factors have followed trucking into what is a historically quiet season for imports and consumer demand at the start of a new year. Because of these lingering headwinds, for the first quarter, carriers are likely concerned about a decrease in rates due to an oversupply of capacity built up from 2021.
The market, however, is cyclical, and trucking remains the most relied-upon freight transport mode in the U.S., with trucks moving some 12.5 billion tons of freight valued at more than $13.1 trillion, according to the newly released Bureau of Transportation Statistics 2022 Transportation Statistics Annual Report.
“I think this year we will see a lot more normality in the market or a lot more seasonality,” explained Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics. “From the time of the pandemic through the end of [2022], we saw little seasonality in the market. There were hints of seasonality, so you saw a little bit of a bump in rates because of the building season in the spring, but the whole peak season never materialized.”
“I think seasonality will emerge this year, but the overarching economic factor right now is higher interest rates and talk of a recession or whether we may already be in one,” Croke added, noting the industry may have already gone through a freight recession of sorts.
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