by Jeff Della Rosa (JDellaRosa@nwabj.com)
The trucking/transportation and logistics industry faces uncertainty in freight demand, including when it will begin to recover.
Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, has seen multiple economic cycles in her past two decades in the industry and offered an optimistic outlook. She’s hopeful the past includes the worst of inflation and consumers right-sizing spending. Still, she doesn’t expect a robust recovery.
“We’re going to toddler-walk out of it…in the way we’ve kind of walked into it,” she said. “We’re upright. We’re just a little unsteady in our steps. The industry as a whole has fared – [in] what is certainly economic uncertainty – fairly well,” added Newton, noting inexplicable demand and high costs. “Most of the members I’m talking with are weathering the uncertainty and trying to find ways…to maintain their talent, watch their costs, and wait until the economy becomes more stable and inflation subsides.”
