- Carrier sentiment for business conditions in December 2018 was 6.22, well off of June 2018’s all-time high of 7.68. Month-to-month sentiment fell sharply for respondents with up to 100 power units from 6.47 to 5.87, while sentiment dropped from 6.73 to 6.34 for respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units.
- Month-over-month business conditions in December 2018 also declined, with 22.0% of all respondents saying it was worse and only 13.6% saying it was better than November 2018. 40.7% of survey respondents forecast even better business conditions in the next six months while an increasing number of respondents (22.0%) expect business conditions to worsen.
- 3% of respondents from fleets with up to 100 power units and 72.7% of respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units plan to add full-time employees in the next six months.
- 5% of all respondents plan to increase the size of their fleets in the next six months (33.3% of respondents with more than 100 power units and 52.3% of respondents with up to 100 power units). 1.7% of respondents plan to decrease fleet size, while 50.8% expect to replace aging equipment while maintaining current fleet size or make no change in fleet size.
- Driver availability rose as the top concern for 81.3% of all respondents, up from 71.0% in November. Freight volume is the top concern for 8.5% of all respondents.
Click here to download the full December 2018 CCJ MarketPulse report.
