FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index in June fell to -3.6, driven primarily by a spike in fuel prices

FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index for June fell to -3.6 as shippers faced their toughest market conditions in three years, although a big element contributing to the decline was the spike in fuel prices due to the now-eased tensions with Iran. Fuel volatility aside, the market looks basically neutral for shippers in the near term.

Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, commented, “The freight market still looks soft well into next year but not quite as soft as it did a month ago. While that’s not great news for shippers, it’s not really bad news, either. Still, the range of possibilities remains broad due to an uncertain impact from recent tariff hikes potentially offset by a boost in activity due to lower financing costs and July’s enactment of tax cuts. Another wild card is capacity, which has been surprisingly resilient but might not be able to withstand rising insurance costs and other cost and regulatory pressures.”

The August FTR’s Shippers Update, published August 7, also discusses the potential consequences of a transcontinental railroad merger and examines the first month of out-of-service violations for truck drivers’ English language proficiency requirement.

The Shippers Conditions Index tracks the changes representing four major conditions in the U.S. full-load freight market. These conditions are freight demand, freight rates, fleet capacity, and fuel price. The individual metrics are combined into a single index that tracks the market conditions that influence the shippers’ freight transport environment. A positive score represents good, optimistic conditions. A negative score represents bad, pessimistic conditions. The index summarizes the industry’s health at a glance.