The following is an excerpt from FTR’s February 2018 Transportation Intelligence Commentary by Avery Vise, VP of Trucking. To download the white paper, or learn more about FTR State of Freight TODAY forecast, click here!
We might not have seen the peak of the ELD impact due to a delay in hard enforcement and temporary relief for agricultural commodity haulers (and other operations), but the data show an obvious correlation between spot-market demand and the implementation. Yes, freight is unusually strong for Q1, but according to Truckstop.com data, ratio of loads to available trucks since mid-December has been consistently higher than at any point in 2017 except for the spike related to hurricanes Harvey and Irma. With the Polar Vortex that straddled the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, this ratio — the Market Demand Index (MDI)* — soared above the hurricane levels to a record high. To be clear, the MDI was above the five-year average throughout 2017, so capacity was tight to begin with. However, with no recent major weather-related disruptions the MDI still sits at about 40 to 1— more than three times the five-year average.
States eye bills to suspend ELD enforcement, ask Congress for mandate repeal Read more.
Profits at large truckload carriers soared in 2017 on heels of hot freight economy Read more.