A recent survey reveals that some individuals in the trucking industry are optimistic that freight conditions will improve before the end of 2024.
The semi-annual freight broker survey by Bloomberg | Truckstop indicates that brokers are hopeful demand will increase in the second half of the year.
“Though freight brokers continued to face challenging demand and rates in the first half of the year, there are some signs that the worst may be over,” said Lee Klaskow, senior freight transportation and logistics analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “We believe a return to seasonal demand, higher import levels and inventory restocking will help drive a recovery later this year.”
The Bloomberg | Truckstop survey for the first half of 2024 shows brokers are hopeful the market may finally be moving toward equilibrium:
Most brokers are optimistic about volume growth being imminent despite current demand challenges. Approximately 49% predict a volume increase in the next three to six months, 31% expect stable loads, and 20% foresee a decline. An increasing number of brokers believe that rates have bottomed out, with 76% of respondents projecting rates to stay flat or rise over the next three to six months, three percentage points higher than the second half of 2023. Truckstop’s Market Demand Index, which measures relative demand in the North American trucking market, rose by an average of 24% in the second quarter compared to last year.
About 44% of respondents reported lower gross margins in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, which is 13 percentage points worse than the results from the second half of 2023. Brokers are not optimistic about margins for the rest of the year, with 30% expecting margins to worsen over the next six months, seven percentage points more than in the second half of 2023. The increased use of AI-powered tools could help improve margins through better pricing, productivity gains, and network optimization. However, the brokerage industry is still in the early stages of AI adoption, with only 36% of respondents currently using such tools in their operations.
“Despite the improved outlook over the past six months, brokers remain skeptical about their ability to increase gross margins,” said Kendra Tucker, chief executive officer of Truckstop.
The Bloomberg | Truckstop survey of freight brokers offers timely insights into the market’s health. The latest survey included a sample size of 113, consisting of freight forwarders, third-party logistics providers, broker agents, as well as asset-based and non-asset-based brokers. The majority of respondents (70%) have 1-50 employees. Among those surveyed, non-asset-based brokers were the largest group (44%), followed by broker agents (25%) and third-party logistics providers (16%).
