The new edition of the Shippers Conditions Index, which was issued this week by freight transportation consultancy FTR, remained in positive territory for the fourth consecutive month, after several months of declines.
FTR describes the SCI as an indicator that sums up all market influences that affect the transport environment for shippers, with a reading above zero being favorable and a reading below being unfavorable and a “less-than-ideal environment for shippers.”
For July, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI came in at 0.5, up slightly from June’s 0.3 and down from April’s 3.0 and May’s 4.5 readings.
FTR cited softer capacity utilization and slightly weaker freight rates driving a marginally better overall market for shippers in July, in turn, offsetting less favorable fuel costs. Looking ahead, it said the outlook for shippers’ conditions over the next couple of years is still soft “but not especially negative with index readings forecast at close to neutral territory. And it added that fuel costs could determine whether the SCI is either slightly positive or slightly negative in any given month.
“Aside from disruptions caused by labor strife at the ports or by weather, shippers likely will not see much change market conditions during the months ahead,” said Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking. “We expect an incremental tightening of capacity and, eventually, freight rates but nothing that resembles the upcycles of 2017 or 2020, for example.”
