Key findings
- Carrier sentiment for business conditions in February 2019 was 5.83, the third straight monthly decline. Month-to-month sentiment fell sharply for respondents with up to 100 power units from 5.95 in January to 5.37 in February, while sentiment dropped from 6.29 to 6.05 for respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units.
- Month-over-month business conditions in February 2019 eroded, with 45% of all respondents saying it was worse and only 31% saying it was better than January 2019. Despite that news, only 5% of respondents expect business conditions to worsen over the next six months and 55%of respondents expect business conditions to improve.
- 40% of all respondents plan to increase the size of their fleets in the next six months (44% of respondents with more than 100 power units and 32% of respondents with up to 100 power units). 2% of respondents plan to decrease fleet size, while 58% expect to replace aging equipment while maintaining current fleet size or make no change in fleet size.
- Driver availability has fallen sharply as a top concern the last two months (66% in February 2019 compared to 81.3% in December 2018. Freight volume has risen as a top concern for 19% of all respondents.
- Respondents with more than 100 power units reported higher seated truck counts than respondents with up to 100 power units. But 58% of respondents with more than 100 power units also expect to increase recruiting spend compared to 50% of respondents with up to 100 power units.
Click here to download the full February 2019 CCJ MarketPulse report.
