Tracking J.B. Hunt gives a good picture of what is happening in the marketplace:
- Lower fuel prices = lower carrier revenues. Revenue/tractor/week dropped 6.4%
- Networks are less efficient – deadhead miles for over-the-road trucks are up (19.1% vs. 18.6% Q2 2019 and 16.7% in 2018), but trucks are doing ~17% more loads each week
- Still no investment in OTR fleet expansion (flat year over year)
- Dedicated carriage is still killing it. Revenue is down 1%, but profits are up 9%
- Intermodal – still a long-haul favorite with an average length of haul of 1676 miles. Revenue down 7% – profits down 14% – but ~2% of that was uncollected customer accounts
- Brokerage – price is increasing. Load volume is down 11% – but revenue per load is up 2% (add in the impact of fuel – and it looks like brokered vehicles are becoming more expensive)
- Brokerage favoring contracts vs. spot…now 71% of loads and 63% of revenue