ACT Research hosted its 74th commercial vehicle outlook seminar, Market Vitals: The Current & Future Health of the Industry, on Feb. 18 – 19.
Day 1 featured an OEM panel including Chris Hammond, executive vice president of sales at Great Dane; Dave Sowers, head of ram professional operations at Stellantis; and Ryan Rockafellow, CEO at EnTrans International.
Panelists agree that sentiment across the industry and with their customers has started to shift positive in January and February, but, although truck utilization has gotten better and spot rates are up, the industry is questioning, “Is it real?” There is still an excess of equipment in the market, and carrier profitability is still down, so that means less capex spent on equipment. Expectations are that it will take at least a quarter or two before fleet profitability flips and equipment buying picks up.
During a dealer panel with Mike Jacques, vice president at Inland Kenworth; Steve Oliver, vice president of sales and marketing at Taylor & Martin; and Jacob Brazier, senior vice president, sales at TEL, panelists discussed how and why 2025 was challenging, and why expectations for a turnaround are on the rise. Additionally, panelists shared the different revenue streams that provided a source of stability and resilience to counterbalance the downturn challenges.
The third panel of the day, with Matthew Leffler, lawyer at Armchair Attorney; Thom Albrecht, chief revenue officer at Reliance Partners; and Anthony Johnson, president at Marvin Johnson & Associations, covered insurance and litigation pressures in the freight market. Panelists discussed the latest issues regarding nondomiciled CDLS, nuclear verdicts and motor carrier insurance.
