As speculation swirls about the trucking market’s eventual recovery, the latest data, published Tuesday, serves as a reality check.
The truck freight market continued to wane during the first quarter of the year, the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index revealed.
Q1 2024 national freight market overviewU.S. Bank
It showed a decline from both the final quarter of 2023 and a year earlier. Spending by shippers dipped by almost 28% from Q1 of 2023, and around 17% from Q4 of 2023. Shipments were also down by more than 21% year-over-year for the quarter.
Though there was hope for a freight market turnaround at the beginning of the year, data showed challenges continued, said Bobby Holland, director of freight business analytics, U.S. Bank. “Nationally, this was the eighth straight quarter of year-over-year volume decreases and the fifth straight with a drop in spending.”
“Spending fell disproportionately to the drop in volume, which suggests downward rates pressure to start the year,” said Bob Castello, senior vice president and chief economist at the American Trucking Associations.
