by George Jared (gjared@talkbusiness.net)

The transportation sector and trucking in particular have been mired in an economic downturn for more than a year, and several stakeholders within the sector told Talk Business & Politics that there probably won’t be an uptick until the early part of 2025.

Arkansas Trucking Association President Shannon Newton said the trucking industry is suffering from a “freight recession” spurred by inflation, high interest rates and higher fuel prices.

“Economic conditions continue to languish in a lackluster stage. … There are mixed signals on an economic uptick. Even this week, new numbers were released showing a miniscule improvement over last month, but still underperforming from where we were a year ago, which wasn’t great then,” she said.

State of the State Mid-Year 2024: ‘Freight recession’ continues for trucking industry

by Jeff Della Rosa (JDellaRosa@nwabj.com)

Editor’s note: The State of the State series provides reports twice a year on Arkansas’ key economic sectors. The series publishes stories to begin a year and stories in July/August to provide a broad mid-year update on the state’s economy. Link here for the State of the State page and previous stories.

Executives in the trucking/transportation and logistics industry look forward to a freight volume recovery, but it might be modest and slow, coming in the back half of the year or 2025. The market softness has pressured an industry challenged to cover rising costs.

Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said the economic challenges and uncertainty carriers faced in 2023 eclipsed issues, like shaping regulatory and legislative policy and public image. Carriers focused on remaining in business and maintaining their customers and employees.

State of the State 2024: Freight recession might not end until later this year, 2025