According to ACT Research’s latest For-Hire Trucking Index, volume, productivity and the supply-demand balance all declined in September.

“It’s getting choppier out there, with more variance between freight data sets,” Tim Denoyer, vice president and senior analyst at ACT Research, said. “While not comprehensive, our For-Hire Trucking Indexes draw from a strong top-tier community of medium and large fleets with a sharp sense of market conditions and direction. So, we view these results as cautionary leading indicators for the broader market.

“Like clockwork, six months after the market balance turned loose, rates have turned down broadly as contracts are re-priced. Downward pressure on freight demand related to inflation and interest rates, coupled with recovering equipment and driver capacity, will likely keep rates under pressure for a few more quarters.

“The market fell to the loosest level since April 2020 in September, which portends additional rate pressure, but capacity growth has begun to slow, which is key to the bottoming process for rates.”