The Weekly Report is back with all the latest figures for truck driver recruiting. This week’s story of the week – with new equipment orders backed up, many fleets looking to fill capacity are buying up late-model used trucks and driving up the cost of used trucks.
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Numbers At A Glance – June 2, 2021
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Truck Driver Searches |
| WoW: Δ Up 29% |
|---|
| MoM: ∇ Down 3% |
| YoY: Δ Up 46% |
Load Volume |
| WoW: ∇ Down 6% |
|---|
Volume by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ∇ Down 4% |
|---|
| WoW: Refrigerated Δ Up 7% |
| WoW: Flatbed ∇ Down 9% |
Spot Rates |
| WoW: Δ Up 6¢ per mile *Record high*. |
|---|
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[one_half_last]
Clicks On Truck Driver Postings |
| WoW: ∇ Down 4% |
|---|
| MoM: Δ Up 12% |
| YoY: Δ Up 28% |
Truck Postings |
| WoW: Δ Up 6% |
|---|
Truck Posting by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ∇ Down 1% |
| WoW: Refrigerated Δ Up 5% |
| WoW: Flatbed ∇ Down 12% |
Rates by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van Δ Up 10¢ per mile *Record high*. |
|---|
| WoW: Refrigerated Δ Up 20¢ per mile. *Record high*. |
| WoW: Flatbed Δ Up 4¢ per mile *Record high*. |
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June 2, 2021 Driver Recruiting Insights
Would you like to have your own copy of the trucking industry data? All of the information covered in this week’s report for June 2, 2021, is available for your convenience in PDF form below.
Click the image to download the June 2, 2021, Driver Recruiting Insights PDF.
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Weekly Report – June 2, 2021 Transcript
Welcome back to the Weekly Report, for Randall-Reilly, I’m Joshua Miller. Let’s get right into the report.
THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS
Truck driver searches were up 29% WoW, down 3% MoM, and up 46% YoY. Clicks on driver postings were down 4% WoW, up 12% MoM, and up and 28% YoY.
Bit of a mixed bag here as searches rebounded after that large drop last week, but click activity decreased a bit. Of all the click activity recorded, it was only job postings for inexperienced drivers and/or trainees that received more clicks than the previous week.
One other brief aside here before we jump into the freight numbers. This past Monday was Memorial Day. Hope you all had a great holiday by the way. Now typically, Mondays are high-traffic days for both searches and clicks … except when there’s a holiday. So, just something to keep in mind for when we’re covering the holiday week numbers on our next report, it’s highly likely we’re going to see a WoW drop in activity due to the holiday.
THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT
Load postings fell by 6% WoW. Dry van dropped by 4%, flatbed fell by 9%, but refrigerated increased by 7% WoW.
On the availability side of things, there was an increase of 6% WoW. Here again, we saw both dry van and flatbed decline, by 1% and 12% respectively, while refrigerated climbed by 5% WoW.
Spot rates set yet another record, and this is now the third consecutive week they have done so. Overall rates rose 6¢ per mile WoW, and all three key segments saw record rates. Dry van was up 10¢ WoW, refrigerated surged by 20¢ WoW, and flatbed rose by 4¢ WoW.
NOW OUR STORY OF THE WEEK
The month of April saw 33,500 Class 8 orders. While orders were down by 16% MoM, they remained strong when taking seasonality into consideration. The build rate through the first few months of 2021 practically duplicated what we saw in 2018 that led to the oversupply of new trucks in 2019.
With the numbers being so similar there is some concern out there about possibly repeating that oversupply we saw in 2019, but … delays in the actual delivery of the ordered trucks could help decrease the likelihood of the market being flooded with new inventory.
April orders for example, have an estimated delivery time of over 11 months. This is partly due to all the shortages in semiconductors and other components we’ve mentioned here before, but there were also some labor disruptions that further slowed the process.
May’s build rates should rise, but they will eventual be restrained by those supply chain bottlenecks. Conditions on that front are expected to improve by Q4 of this year. In the meantime, fleets looking for more capacity are buying up late-model used trucks, and this run on used inventory is driving pre-owned truck prices up.
In response, some manufacturers may open order books for 2022 early – we’re talking possibly this month or next month in July – instead of holding off to the more traditional months of September or October. However, with uncertainty surrounding prices on steel, aluminum, and wood, some may also try to hold off as long as possible.
So, the only sure thing is, nothing’s for sure. What else is new right?
That does it for this week’s report, thanks so much for joining us, we look forward to seeing you back here next week with an all-new look at the latest numbers and a new story of the week. If you find our reports useful don’t forget to share, like, subscribe, all that kind of stuff. Until next week, have a great week everybody.
