Averitt releases 2021 “State of the North American Supply Chain” survey results

Averitt Express has released the results from its sixth annual State of The North American Supply Chain Survey. Nearly 1,800 shippers from a wide variety of industries throughout North America participated in the survey, which was conducted in late 2020.

The survey consisted of a series of questions aimed at gauging the supply chain challenges that shippers experienced in 2020. They were also asked questions to measure the use of and interest in various supply chain services in comparison to data taken from the previous years’ surveys.

Some of the questions asked in the survey included:

• Are businesses predicting an increase or decrease in shipments in 2021?
  
• Did freight capacity pose a challenge for your business in 2020?
  
• Did tariffs have a negative or positive impact on your business in 2020?
  

Results from the survey were compiled into a white paper that is available to download for free on Averitt’s website. The white paper will be a valuable resource that shippers can use to help plan their supply chain strategy for the year ahead.

Conclusions drawn from the survey of shippers included:

• 73.44% anticipate increased shipping volumes in 2020 – a 7.21 percentage point increase from the previous year’s survey results that marked the lowest confidence level recorded in the survey’s six-year history
  
• 24.88% of respondents struggled with capacity challenges in 2020 compared to 12.34% that reported issues in 2019
  
• 28.84% viewed trade tariffs as having a negative impact on their business in 2020 (a significant decrease of 14.48 percentage points from the previous year) in comparison to 8.39% that reported positive effects (an increase of 3.19 percentage points from the previous year) and 63.20% that felt unsure (an increase of 12.01 percentage points from the previous year)