10 Trucking Industry Trends For 2019

The e-commerce market is expanding its trucking industry trends. Correspondingly, it continues to expand to the number of $3.2 trillion by the year 2020.

These trucking industry trends are considered as a great idea for other industries as well, not only the transportation. However, it seems to represent a major problem for the freight market.

In addition, there are shippers who are looking for ways to keep up with the latest and constantly changing trucking industry trends.

The fact is, they reflect on the entire industry. Starting with the shippers, the logistics providers, truckers etc.

In order to achieve on the market in your industry, you need to take massive and extensive steps in order to become a leader.

For example, it is crucial to consider the following services:

  • Full truckload
  • Less than truckload (LTL)
  • Multimodal
  • Small package
  • Last-mile delivery

Due to the upcoming trucking industry trends, transportation is entering into a new era with a potential to become stronger than the previous.

According to DAT, the shipping will robust in this year. Having said this, here are the important trends to implement in your business plan for 2018.

1. Capacity Crunch

The trucking industry is experiencing a low truck supply but a high demand for freight. One of the main reasons why is this happening is the driver shortage.

Each year, the older drivers are retiring and there are very few younger drivers left to take their place.

This is mostly due to the difficulty of the occupation. In addition to this, there are a lot of factors involved here:

Source: www.hubinternational.com

This shortage of drivers means that there will be few trucks on the road transporting freight. Consequently, this will worsen the economy and other industries.

It is like a fall from a high altitude – the trucking industry is pulling down the rest of the industries together.

The Factors Affecting it

Despite the drivers’ shortage, another factor affecting the industry is increased government regulations. This includes obeying the FMCSA, SAFER, DMV etc.

Moreover, besides these regulations, there are the electronic logging devices (ELD) which highly impact the drivers.

According to the ELD mandate, every motor carrier must install an electronic device in their trucks so that the hours of service are automatically tracked.

Source: www.cdn.shopify.com

In addition, the law states that drivers are allowed to drive for 11 hours only while having a 10-hour rest on a daily basis.

Prior to the mandate, most drivers kept manual log books to track their hours of service, while some of the larger carriers already had ELDs.

Most of the smaller carriers have complaints on the ELD, however, there are those having issues with the cost. The others dislike the fact of someone having them tracked down.

The rest probably has issues with the installing process which is why it is good when someone knows how to install a hardwired device.



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Regulations such as these are implemented with the intention of creating safer roads.

However, they are also perceived by drivers because a lot of them consider that their trucks will be away from home.

2. Rising Rates

There were rates rising in 2018 and will continue to rise in 2019 as well. The rates go straight proportionally with the capacity crunch.

To continue with, as the freight demand rises the rates rise as well but mostly to the supply fall.

In other words, there are 2 types of rates in the trucking industry: spot market rates and contract rates.

To emphasize,  the spot rates are those that are quoted on the spot and are typically done for freight that is ready to move.

Source: www.hubinternational.com

On the other hand, the contract rates are those that are locked in with a carrier via contract with the shipper and are usually based on a year-long estimate of freight volume.

It is predicted that the rates will stabilize but as long as capacity is tight, the rates will continue to rise.

The increased rates known as one of trucking industry trends are probably the great transition from highway transport to rail freight.

Intermodal rates are usually less expensive due to the nature of the mode. Due to this matter, there are shippers who switch to intermodal in order to decrease rate issues of the highway.

3. Trucking Industry Trends Technology

Each year there are new technologies breaking into the world of trucks. There are companies which are launching apps that ease the job of the trucking industry and drivers as well.

To put in another way, there are companies helping other trucking businesses by also offering on-demand freight apps.

These apps usually help them by matching their companies with shippers on the market. In this way, they can easily succeed in the market share.

Source: www.askthetrucker.com

Continually, there are applications which have limited geographic use, however, there is a high growth potential.

In addition, the shippers are embracing any solution that will provide them with an ease of the job. Further, carriers are also embracing the platforms which offer them a higher and a faster payment.

Another potential growth is the autonomous vehicle. There are companies which use technology to create electric semi-trucks. These trucks usually have 500 miles range.

Source: www.overdriveonline.com

Companies are making pre-orders which shows the large interest in the technology.

By using electric vehicles company owners will no longer have to pay for fuel. Notably, this is one of the important trucking industry trends to transportation companies.

Companies are usually into the new technology because they want to show their customers they cope with the latest trucking industry trends.

Moreover, they show no ignorance of the innovative technology which may be the new era of trucking.

4. Changing Behaviors

It is strongly noted that shippers and carriers need to be flexible when it comes to shipping. There are individuals who are changing their behavior to avoid bad situations.



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