NASHVILLE, IN. — If you’re in the business of moving durable goods — which means running flatbeds and dry vans — this is a pretty good recovery.

That’s the word from FTR Associates’ senior consultant Noel Perry, who made the observations during a wide-ranging industry webinar last week. The presentation was called “The State of Freight: Another Turning Point.”

“Industrial production is not growing as rapidly as we’d like, but is still growing,” Perry said. “The latest data is four percent year-over-year growth, and this is very good for trucking, because we move the things that industries produce.

The housing industry is in recovery — albeit in a baby-steps sort of way — and he said the flatbed and dry van truckers are biggest beneficiaries at the moment.

“Industrial production is not growing as rapidly as we’d like, but is still growing,” he said.

“There’s a lot good about this economy, and it’s heavily concentrated in hard goods — dry van and flatbeds.”