In 2024, the US trucking industry faces a complex landscape marked by familiar challenges. Rising insurance premiums, high-interest rates and inflationary costs are converging at a time when rates remain depressed, creating a daunting scenario for carriers. The harsh reality is that these factors not only make it difficult for existing small carriers to stay afloat, but also deter new entrants from joining the market.
The pivotal shift in 2024 will be if there is a rebounding demand for capacity that coincides with a shrinking carrier supply. Shippers should brace for reemerging challenges in securing the capacity they need to keep their supply chains running smoothly. While 2023 may have allowed shippers to regain some pricing power, 2024 is set to witness a rebalancing of supply and demand, normalizing pricing in the market.
Shippers can adapt to the changing landscape with technology investments by collaborating with tech-savvy carriers to optimize operations, reducing inefficiencies and empty miles. For example, NFI is seeing an emergence of shippers investing in our managed transportation platform to consolidate their data and generate actionable insights that help save money in areas across their network.
Shippers and carriers need to work together to reduce waste in the supply chain, particularly focusing on continuous improvement opportunities that allow operations to run more efficiently to help offset fluctuations in inflationary pricing and fuel costs. This can be accomplished by collaborating with carriers to agree upon dedicated capacity and rate structures that don’t fluctuate excessively with market swings.
One of the primary challenges facing the industry in 2024 is soaring insurance costs. Both parties should focus on risk reduction strategies, addressing safety concerns and putting behavioral-based safety programs in place to help avoid facing devastating nuclear verdicts. Collaboration is the key to supply chain resilience and efficiency in the coming months. To navigate the 2024 US supply chain landscape successfully, shippers must prioritize technology, waste reduction and risk management alongside a trusted and strategic partner who can weather fluctuations that the market will inevitably experience.