A \u201ctrucker\u2019s market\u201d is due to finally arrive in 2018, says Stifel Nicolaus trucking analyst John Larkin, although he cautions that supply and demand is tight across the industry as the domestic economy continues to grow at a slow, steady pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe primary driver of the supply\/demand tightness is the economy-wide shortage of skilled, blue collar labour,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has become very challenging to find drug free, compliant drivers \u2026 \u00a0While driver pay scales began to rise in the second half of 2017 \u2026 it may (still) take multiple wage hikes before we see any alleviation of this chronic challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larkin notes that on\u00a0December 18, 2017\u00a0the Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) mandate will be fully implemented, and that this may \u201cadd insult to injury,\u201d further compressing an already tight market.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, truckload rates are soaring. \u00a0Larkin recalls that he first witnessed \u201can inflection\u201d in spot rates in mid-2016. \u00a0He adds that normally contract rate increases follow with a six-month lag. \u00a0Recently however, this cycle extended for over a year.<\/p>\n
And, with the advent of the ELD mandate, additional rate increases may be forthcoming.<\/p>\n
This may be especially true for those shippers that treated carriers harshly in the\u00a02H15\u00a0and 2016, says Larkin: \u201cSome shippers abandoned their collaborative approach and then resorted to old fashioned rate reduction demands.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, the positive rate environment will cut across all the truckload sectors (i.e., dry van, reefer, flats, bulk, et. al.) and could have staying power unless autonomous trucks are pressed into widespread service. This scenario, adds Larkin is \u201cunlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larkin observes that the less-than-truckload (LTL) industry, which is much more consolidated than the highly fragmented truckload sector, has seen rates rise modestly over the past couple of years, even as truckload carriers succumbed to widespread pricing pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, reports have surfaced recently suggesting that LTL capacity is becoming scarce in some regions,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cIt seems that LTL carriers are picking up some overflow freight from the truckload industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A \u201ctrucker\u2019s market\u201d is due to finally arrive in 2018, says Stifel Nicolaus trucking analyst John Larkin, although he cautions that supply and demand is tight across the industry as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,28],"tags":[30,21,73,166,167,136,98,1062,137],"class_list":["post-2307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-conditions","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","tag-capacity","tag-economy","tag-elds","tag-freight-rates","tag-freight-volumes","tag-ltl","tag-shippers","tag-trucking-market","tag-truckload"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}