Business conditions for shippers improved in April thanks to a continuing trend of historically low freight rates as the trucking sector grinds along the bottom of a freight recession cycle, according to the transportation industry analyst group FTR.
FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index (SCI) for April improved from March to a reading of 3.0 and is slated to remain strong for a few more months. In the longer term, FTR forecasts some deterioration soon, but that will simply lead to the SCI falling to more neutral readings, as opposed to trading the advantage to freight carriers.
“Freight rates in April were as favorable for shippers as they have been over the past year, but that climate likely will deteriorate modestly soon as capacity utilization has already begun to tighten a bit,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
“However, aside from unpredictable swings in fuel costs, we do not forecast negative SCI readings over the next couple of years that come close to matching the scope of positive readings recorded from mid-2022 through the end of 2023. Much can happen to change the situation, of course, but the freight market is shaping up to be much more balanced between shippers and carriers in 2025.”
The SCI tracks the changes representing four major conditions in the U.S. full-load freight market: freight demand, freight rates, fleet capacity, and fuel price. Combined into a single index, the resulting number represents good, optimistic conditions when positive and bad, pessimistic conditions when negative.
