Industry looking up, truckers tell surveyors

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Truckers expressed a more hopeful outlook on the future of the economy in a recent survey by Transport Capital Partners, a trucking fleet consulting firm in the U.S.

In its quarterly Business Expectations survey, TCP found that carriers expects conditions such as freight volumes, rate stability, insurance renewals, credit and mergers and acquisitions to improve in the next 12 months.

In general, 36.9 percent of participants anticipate business volumes to pick up in the next year, compared to 21.4 percent in February and 17 percent in November of last year.

Carriers also believe rate pressures may have hit a bottom, with 54 percent saying that rates will stay the same. While the number expecting a drop in rates was deduced by half in relation to the last survey, those that expect rates to increase amounted to 16.4 percent, compared with 11.7 percent of hopefuls in February. 

More truckers are feeling that the sun is
starting to shine on the industry

The Transport Capital survey of truckers’ expectations also line up with the University of Michigan’s reading of consumer confidence in April, which climbed to its highest point since the financial crisis hit in September.

It’s also in tune with recent Canadian reports — namely an Ontario Trucking Association survey that found that, while carriers aren’t overly optimistic for the balance of 2009, they are far less pessimistic than when the year began.

Truckers, the TCP survey found, are also not in a hurry to get out of the industry like they once were. This time around, the number of carriers thinking about throwing in the keys if the environment does not improve in the next six months dropped to 13 percent from 22 percent in the first quarter. Most carriers, 57 percent, are experiencing stable credit relationships, while 37 percent feel their banks have been supportive.

Three out of four firms noted that improving fuel economy by limiting truck speed was their first priority in boosting profit. Reducing the number of non-driving employees was another effective step to increasing profit, with six out of ten implementing this. Other popular methods included reducing driver pay and benefits, reducing non-driver pay and benefits, parking trucks and selling off truck capacity.

— with files from Truckinginfo.com