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Trucking sector ticked up slightly in August, but still negative

“The road remains bumpy” to reach favorable conditions next year, FTR says.

FTR trucking conditions chart

In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.

Image courtesy of FTR
DC Velocity Staff
By DC Velocity StaffOct 22, 2024
DC Velocity Staff
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Buoyed by a return to consistent decreases in fuel prices, business conditions in the trucking sector improved slightly in August but remain negative overall, according to a measure from transportation analysis group FTR.

FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.

“Trucking is en route to more favorable conditions next year, but the road remains bumpy as both freight volume and capacity utilization are still soft, keeping rates weak. Our forecasts continue to show the truck freight market starting to favor carriers modestly before the second quarter of next year,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.

The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions, and a negative score shows the opposite.

ArticleTruckingEditorialTransportation
avery viseftrtruck freight markettrucking conditions indextrucking
ArticleTruckingEditorialTransportation
avery viseftrtruck freight markettrucking conditions indextrucking

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