Key findings
- Carrier sentiment for business conditions in March 2019 was 6.0, up from 5.83 in February and reversing a three-month drop. Month-to-month sentiment ticked up for respondents with up to 100 power units from 5.37 in February to 5.6 in March, while sentiment rose from 6.05 to 6.2 for respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units.
- Month-over-month business conditions in March 2019 also improved, with 31% of all respondents saying it was better than February 2019 and 21% saying it was worse. Respondents with up to 100 power units are more pessimistic about the next six months, with 20% expecting business conditions to worsen, compared to just 5% of respondents with more than 100 power units. Overall, 43% of respondents expect business conditions to improve in the next six months.
- 34% of all respondents plan to increase the size of their fleets in the next six months, down from 40% in last month’s survey. 2% of respondents plan to decrease fleet size, while 55% expect to replace aging equipment while maintaining current fleet size or make no change in fleet size.
- While it remains No. 1, driver availability continues to plummet as the top concern at 55%, well off the year-long high of 93.2% from last August. Not surprisingly, freight volume (24%) and freight pricing (13%) are up substantially as top concerns compared to last month’s survey.
- Respondents with more than 100 power units reported higher seated truck counts than respondents with up to 100 power units. 62% of all respondents expect to increase recruiting spend in the next six months.
Click here to download the full March 2019 CCJ MarketPulse report.
