Key findings:
- Carrier sentiment for business conditions continue to surge during the COVID shutdown recovery, up to 6.83 in August 2020 compared to 6.35 in July 2020. Month-to-month sentiment rose for respondents with up to 100 power units from 6.24 in July to 6.47 in August, while sentiment for respondents from fleets with more than 100 power units rose from 6.4 to 7.0.
- 56% of all respondents said month-over-month business conditions improved, and only 10% saying it was worse. Business conditions were also up on a year-over-year basis, with 55% of all respondents indicating an increase in business compared to August 2019.
- Respondents from both groups are more optimistic about the next six months, with 64% expecting business conditions to improve, compared to just 6% of respondents who expect conditions to deteriorate.
- 37% of all respondents plan to increase the size of their fleets in the next six months. 8% 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.
- The gap between driver availability (58%) and freight volume (13%) as a top concern among respondents continues to widen since the trough in April, indicating tighter capacity led by better business conditions and an inability for fleets to hire drivers to return to pre-COVID levels.
- Respondents with more than 100 power units reported higher seated truck counts than respondents with up to 100 power units. 24% of all respondents expect to increase recruiting spend in the next six months, while 6% plan to cut recruiting spend.
Click here to download the full August 2020 CCJ MarketPulse report.
