Conditions for shippers improve as market regains balance

CCJ‘s Indicators rounds up the latest reports on trucking business indicators on rates, freight, equipment, the economy and more.

Market conditions for shippers, as measured by FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index, improved again in September, reflecting greater balance in the marketplace between shippers and carriers as the recent capacity crunch subsides.

Overall conditions are still not favorable for shippers, but FTR predicts conditions to steadily moderate in 2019. Increasing capacity and productivity in both truck and intermodal, and the resulting stabilization in rate growth, should impact shippers positively through next year, FTR says.

“The slow improvement in conditions for shippers that was present toward the end of the summer continued in September,” said Todd Tranausky, vice president of rail and intermodal at FTR. “But it will be a slow crawl back to a neutral position over the next year. Conditions for shippers are not as bad as they were earlier in 2018, but remain a long way from ideal.”