Noel Perry, managing director and senior consultant with FTR, said during the company’s State of Freight Webinar that the current economic recovery has been unusually steady, if slow. This has been good news for carriers, since volatility during an economic recovery causes people to overreact and makes planning very difficult. That said, Noel warned we may not be so fortunate as to enjoy continued stability during the recovery. He explains…

“This recovery has been unvolatile,” Noel said. “Even though we’ve had disappointing growth, we’ve had stable conditions that makes it easy to invest and easy to manage a truck fleet because you’re not trying to chase the market up or down. One of the critical variables over the next couple of years is, will this stability continue? History says it won’t and therefore, my strong recommendation is that you keep your operations and your investment horizon flexible, because things can change rapidly.”