Where Trucking Capacity Sits Right Now, And What The Fleet-Size Split Might Be Signaling

How much trucking capacity is on the road right now depends almost entirely on which carriers you are counting, because the national fleet is really several different markets stacked together, the owner-operators running a truck or two, the mid-sized fleets, and the largest carriers, and each of those groups is in a different place heading into year-end, which is why a single top-line number tends to hide more than it shows. Break the tractor counts out by fleet size and the gaps between those segments become the real capacity story.

Before going tier by tier, it helps to set the backdrop, and the backdrop is not sending one clean signal. The SONAR Truckload Rejection Index, which tracks how often carriers turn down the freight shippers tender to them, sits at 12.95 percent. That is above its trailing 12-month average of 8.18 percent, so capacity is tighter than it was a year ago, but it has also eased down from the mid-teens readings it hit over the summer, so the tightening has lost some momentum rather than accelerating.

This story was originally published by FreightWaves. Read the full story at FreightWaves →