News / US trucking still on a bumpy road – but 'freight demand will return'

© Dm Stock Production

Most shippers expect a degree of normalisation this year, with stock levels stabilising, according to Morgan Stanley’s Freight Pulse for April.

Nearly 75% of shippers polled expect inventories to normalise, with nearly 50% predicting this in the second half.

Other numbers, however, are less encouraging. The American Trucking Association’s (ATA) monthly index fell 5.4% in March, the largest monthly drop since April 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The scope of the decline was sobering.

“Falling home construction, decreasing factory output and ...