Fourth-quarter financial results from within the trucking industry showed carriers continue to navigate a sluggish market with little signs of a turnaround, according to analysts.
“On the truckload side, we’re still searching for a way out,” TD Cowen analyst Jason Seidl said. “I think we’re still just bouncing along the bottom, as they say, and it’s been one of the, probably, more prolonged downturns that I can remember.”
Seidl also pointed out that carriers are having to contend with too much capacity and not enough demand amid contract negotiation season. He also noted that prices can’t come down much more because carriers are still facing higher operational costs. He has seen companies express optimism for a turnaround in the back half of the year, but he hasn’t seen much data to support that other than what their customers are telling them.
