Tracking a recent jump in diesel prices, a measure of business conditions for shippers fell into negative territory in February for the first time since September, according to the transportation analysis firm FTR.
In both months the culprit was the same—diesel prices—Bloomington, Indiana-based FTR said about the results of its Shippers Conditions Index (SCI). Fuel costs aside, the SCI would have been positive in February, but not by much, since other elements of shippers’ market conditions deteriorated slightly as well.
Looking further ahead, the outlook remains for index readings close to neutral in 2024.
“Although February might prove to be a near-term outlier due to the 21-cent spike in diesel prices, the days of favorable market conditions for shippers are numbered. By the first quarter of 2025, we expect a steady but incremental tightening of the truck market to yield a modestly tougher environment for shippers,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
By the numbers, the SCI declined to -1.4 from January’s reading of 3.4. The index tracks the changes representing four major conditions in the U.S. full-load freight market: freight demand, freight rates, fleet capacity, and fuel price. Combined into a single index number, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions in the freight transport sector, while a negative score shows the opposite.
