Trucking Conditions Improve, but Industry is Still Hurting

The FTR Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) for October 2009 increased for the third consecutive month to -16.4, the highest reading since November 2008. However, the index, a combination of five truck industry statistics into one metric, remains significantly below a neutral reading of zero.

As Eric Starks, president of FTR, explains, “The continued negative TCI reading is a clear sign that the transportation industry is still struggling from the steep downturn seen late last year and into 2009. Real acceleration in the trucking fundamentals that we track for this index will likely wait for a substantial recovery in volumes and capacity utilization which we don’t expect to occur for at least another year.”

FTR, which offers transportation forecasting services, uses available data and proprietary calculations to forecast the upcoming demand for freight services.