Recent sustained rate stabilization has given hope to motor carriers that trucking conditions have bottomed out and a rebound is just beyond the horizon.
"We do start to appear to have rates finding a floor. So in other words, this deflationary cycle we've been seeing take place over the past year seems to be drawing to a close," said Jason Miller, supply chain professor at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State and veteran transportation economist. "The two sectors in particular are the general freight long-distance less than truckload sector, where essentially the May producer price index is unchanged from April. And also then the specialized freight sector. So that's going to be your long-distance flatbed, refrigerated, auto haulers, chemical haulers, where, again, we're starting to see evidence that that producer price indices capturing the revenue they're obtaining essentially per load, has effectively been flat in May from April."
01:05 Manufacturing
01:54 Containerized imports
03:42 LTL & specialized rates
