While small fleets and leased operators report continuing severe freight and rate problems related to COVID-19 restrictions, an increasing share is optimistic that conditions will improve soon, based on a recent Overdrive survey.
One in five respondents expect freight levels to increase in the next 30 days, based on results gathered May 14-19. More broadly, 70% expect freight to stay the same or improve. Asked the same question about a month earlier, the same-or-improve total was only 42%.
Nationwide, recent weeks have seen similar signs of optimism as elected officials have loosened quarantine restrictions. Some manufacturers, restaurants, retailers, casinos and others have taken steps toward reopening. Fuel sales have risen, along with reports of increased traffic.
Michigan-based Eagle Express small fleet owner Leander Richmond, like more than a fifth of survey respondents, has been aggressively pursuing new direct lines of business, given widespread mistrust of brokers during the slowdown.
“We were very hard-hit mid-January through last month,” Richmond said this week, speaking apart from the survey. His 10-plus truck fleet hauls freight on flatbed conestogas. “Things are trending upward now. Last week was a positive week, and this week is very positive, with normal-paying loads.”
Almost all of the survey’s 213 respondents were operators with their own authority. Slightly more than half were one-truck operators, leased or independent.
