Not Out of the Woods Yet

While there are some hopeful signs that the US trucking industry is finally crawling out of a punishing two-year freight recession, our analysis below suggests it may take some time to restore financial stability.

We compared the Producer Price Index for general trucking (the best general indicator of trucking revenue) with the TruckAnswers National Trucking Profitability Index (NTPI) over the last six years.

Key things to note:

• Fleet profitability was ahead of rates from 2019 all the way through to late 2023. An indicator that fleets could take advantage of the billions of dollars pumped into the economy during the pandemic.
• Since late 2023, fleet profits have continued on a downward trend, even as rates have plateaued. An indicator that many fleets are short on cash and now have a lot more debt on their balance sheets.

We'll be doing a deeper dive into fleet financials over the coming weeks to explain what needs to happen to get overall fleet profitability back on an upward trend. We'll also break it down by industry sector to reflect the disparate impact of current economic policy on each sector. Sign up below for a Premium TruckAnswers Membership to get early access. The first seven days are on us.