The Trucking Industry Trends Shaping the Future of Transportation and Logistics Right Now

The transportation industry is awash with change. Let’s take a look at the trucking industry trends shaping both the present and future of the industry right now.

The Trucking Industry Trends Shaping the Future of Transportation and Logistics Right Now

Watching trucking industry trends could help your trucking company uncover new business opportunities or carve out a niche that becomes a competitive advantage. What’s more, understanding what is on the horizon for the transportation industry can be invaluable in helping you develop a long term plan to grow your trucking business in the months and years to come.

Trucking Industry Trends #1: Continued Industry Vitality

If a consumer or business bought something, chances are it was transported by a truck driver at least once, if not more, before it found its final retail outlet. According to the American Trucking Associations, almost 70 percent of all freight tonnage moved in the U.S. is transported via truck.

Whether consumers are making their purchases at a brick-and-mortar retail outlet or online, goods may have been transported by trucks going from manufacturer to distributor, from distributor to retail warehouses, and from retail warehouses to retail outlets before reaching a final destination. When consumers purchase online, goods may also travel from retail outlet or warehouse directly to the consumer by truck; and this doesn’t even take into account the trucks that delivered raw materials to manufacturing facilities by truck as well.

Trucking Industry Trends #2: Increased Pressure to Fill the Driver Shortage

In “Will 2016 Be the Year for Women in Trucking?” we shared another American Trucking Associations report statistic about the current shortage of drivers in the transportation industry. The report says that the U.S. trucking industry is currently 50k drivers short compared to demand, a number which could rise as high as 175k by the year 2024.

Increased pressure to resolve the truck driver shortage is likely to result in higher average starting wages (and higher wages overall) as well as increased benefits and perks that make the job more appealing. Some of the factors that transportation and logistics companies are taking into consideration include improving health and wellness benefits as well as taking a look at ways to improve the work-life balance for their drivers and giving them access to more amenities while they’re on the road (like spas and fitness centers). In addition, manufacturer and technology changes are making the physical requirements of the job less demanding, which will open up the field of truck driving to a wider pool of potential drivers.

Trucking Industry Trends #3:  Increased Costs

Truck fuel prices may be low right now but carriers’ costs may well be significantly higher, given the strategies that will be deployed to fill the driver shortage in addition to the ever-increasing costs of doing business. Increased costs for carriers and owner-operators will mean higher prices for the manufacturers, distributors, retailers and others who need to move freight between point A and point B, which in turn will require that business buyers and consumers pay more for associated goods. New mandates for electronic trip logs (ELD mandate) mean carriers will have increased costs when adding new fleet trucks or retrofitting equipment with the technology needed to comply. Likewise, potential changes to FMCSA rules regarding hours of service and rest periods and whether their personal commutes must count as trip time may impact carriers profit margins by extending the amount of time it takes for trips to be completed.

The same pressures that drive costs upward for carriers, shippers and buyers also inevitably lead to innovations that improve efficiencies and change the logistics and transportation landscape. In the sharing economy, it’s easy to imagine that smaller shippers will find new ways to work together to move freight more efficiently, instead of going it alone. More manufacturers may elect to move facilities to hub areas to lessen their need for transportation or open up direct to consumer outlets which preclude the need for goods to be moved to distribution centers and warehouses prior to delivery to a retail outlet or business buyer.

Trucking Industry Trends #4: Increased Focus on Safety

A high-profile safety incident has the ability to end a driver’s career and put a carrier out of business, or at least out of favor with the public and its buyers. Given the world we live in where anyone with a smartphone can take a photo or video that appears to capture actions of an unsafe driver and instantly share it online, it’s imperative that carriers pay more attention to safety than ever before.

As part of the FAST Act passed in December, carrier safety ratings are currently not provided to the public, pending changes in how ratings are assessed. Once new rules have been approved and ratings assessed, this data will once again be in the public purview. Bad ratings have the potential to damage a carrier’s reputation; conversely, positive scores could be a deciding factor in helping carriers win new business and contracts. Carriers that make safety a top priority in 2016 can use a stellar reputation to marketing advantage in growing a trucking business.

Trucking Industry Trends #5: The Industry of Opportunity

The transportation industry offers countless opportunities for entrepreneurs. From women who are looking to become drivers with a carrier or owner-operators to innovators who can improve logistics processes to new trucking companies that offer a unique approach and use emerging marketplace trends to develop unique business models, the industry offers tremendous room for growth and change.

Nor are driver opportunities limited to driving a semi truck and trailer as an owner operator or as a carrier employee. Jobs for truck drivers exist in distribution, manufacturing, construction, oil and energy, passenger transportation and several other sectors.

Trucking Industry Trends #6: Increased Need for Working Capital

Industrial change rarely occurs without the need for working capital. Growing trucking companies have used invoice factoring companies like My Factoring Brokers to expedite cash flow in order to take on new business or reinvest in their organizations more quickly. The trucking industry is the lifeblood of the American economy, but cash flow is the lifeblood of a trucking company – and especially for carriers and owner-operators that want to grow.

In addition to truck factoring services, we also offer trucking advances, business line of credit and equipment financing programs that can be used to finance equipment including financing for semi trucks and trailers. We would be happy to provide you with more information about our truck fleet financing programs or give you a free, no-obligation quote.

Get the working capital you need to grow a trucking business by expediting cash flow using invoice factoring or get a lump sum of working capital to meet your organization’s financing needs:

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