Trucking companies experiencing an “everything” shortage: ACT Research

by Today's Trucking

Trucking capacity remains “range-bound” according to the latest Commercial Vehicle Dealer Digest report from ACT Research, as fleets experience a shortage of “everything.”

“While the focus is on silicon and semiconductors, it is really an ‘everything’ shortage, said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president and senior analyst. “Those constraints are not localized commercial vehicle industry specific challenges, but continue as pandemic-driven failures in a globally reliant web of interrelated supply chains. Rebuilding complex global networks requires the system to spin at roughly the same speed, which it is decidedly not doing at present.”

Paccar engine assembly
(Photo: Paccar)

Vieth said the supply shortages affecting commercial vehicle makers are “transient.”

“The issues impacting production will pass,” he said. “Of course, while transient implies a return to a normalized, demand driven, state of activity, the word does not imply either magnitude or duration. Were this a traditional cycle, soaring market indicators and already massive backlogs would put us in the easiest part of the cycle to forecast as carrier profitability is at the heart of the vehicle demand equation.”

And on carrier profits and freight, he continued, “To that end, the publicly traded truckload carriers saw profitability land just short of best-ever profit margins in Q3, with seasonal adjustment boosting net profits to a record 8.6%, eclipsing the previous record set in Q1’21. Additionally, we tend not to view freight as a backlog business, but rather a real-time expression of economic activity. In this unusual period, an actual freight backlog argues for strong freight fundamentals well into 2022.”


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  • Not just on the hardware side but also on the “software” side ,HR is struggling to find experienced personel: city last /first mile, regional, long haul drivers,drivers willing to work teams , front line supervisors, dispatchers , coordinators, fork lift drivers, freight handlers. Trucking is a 24/7 operation as personel get older and with seniority, they move into day positions, and we struggle to find personel willing to work the 2nd and 3rd shift never mind the weekends.
    Never mind special commodity and over dimensional. Who wants to tarp a load .