Key findings
- Carrier sentiment for business conditions in April 2019 was 6.2, up from 6.0 in March. Month-to-month sentiment ticked up for respondents with up to 100 power units from 5.6 in March to 5.8 in April, while sentiment rose from 6.2 to 6.4 for respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units.
- Month-over-month business conditions in April 2019 leveled out, with 70% of all respondents saying it was the same as March 2019, 11% saying it was worse and 19% saying it was better. Respondents with up to 100 power units are more pessimistic about the next six months, with 15% expecting business conditions to worsen, compared to 8% of respondents with more than 100 power units. Overall, 36% of respondents expect business conditions to improve in the next six months.
- 26% of all respondents plan to increase the size of their fleets in the next six months. 4% of respondents plan to decrease fleet size, while 70% expect to replace aging equipment while maintaining current fleet size or make no change in fleet size.
- Driver availability remains the top concern for 57% of all survey respondents, but that number is well off the year-long high of 93.2% from last August. Freight volume (25%) and freight pricing (11%) are the second- and third-highest concerns.
- 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 April 2019 CCJ MarketPulse report.
