According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, truckload contract rates turned negative in the third quarter of 2019, down 2 percent year-over-year, and loaded miles per tractor fell 5 percent in the same period. Less-than-truckload revenue growth, net fuel, also turned negative, falling 1.6 percent year-over-year.

“In the truckload market, based on our publicly traded carrier database, ACT is seeing some carriers move assets to more stable dedicated contracts, even as a weak freight environment has exposed carriers to a bit more spot freight,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. He added, “While the loaded miles for these carriers are down, it is still a bit better than we saw in the previous quarter as the soft freight environment met near-record high US tractor capacity growth.”

Regarding the less-than-truckload segment, Vieth commented, “The carriers we track in our database represent about 70 percent of the LTL industry, and we saw revenue growth drop in 2019’s third quarter, as tonnage declines worsened and yields softened modestly. Tonnage dropped for the fourth consecutive quarterly.”