Trucking fundamentals unlikely changed in first half of 2024, Hutto says

Truckstop.com executive chats spot market at FreightWaves summit

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Domestic Supply Chain Summit on Wednesday.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Freight market conditions and what to keep an eye on in 2024.

DETAILS: Brent Hutto, chief relationship officer at Truckstop.com, explains the recent spot market cycle and why current conditions will likely linger through the first half of 2024.

KEY QUOTES FROM HUTTO:

On why this spot market cycle has been different: “What’s not been normal is fuel. What’s not been normal is inflation and that makes things really hard, especially on small market players. So that’s why you see a lot of the pain inside of the spot market.”

On 2024 outlook: “Kind of more of the same. Kind of just continuing to work out this giant marketplace that we had. Since it increased so much, it’s going to take a little bit longer to get out. These next six months [are] probably just more of the same.”

Why contract rates have remained elevated in comparison to spot rates: “Most shippers don’t want to take the risk of not being able to get goods to market. … [Carriers operating under contracts] have been able to maintain a really positive contract rate inside the marketplace.”

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Todd Maiden

Based in Richmond, VA, Todd is the finance editor at FreightWaves. Prior to joining FreightWaves, he covered the TLs, LTLs, railroads and brokers for RBC Capital Markets and BB&T Capital Markets. Todd began his career in banking and finance before moving over to transportation equity research where he provided stock recommendations for publicly traded transportation companies.