The market for on demand trucking

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The trucking industry saw a boom in the early months of the pandemic as consumer demand for goods surged. This caused a key trucking indicator known as the spot market rate to hit historic highs. Today, we learn what the recent decline in the spot rate could mean for the economy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.4	This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Whalen Wong.
0:15.3	And I'm Paddy Hirsch.
0:16.6	Trucks and the truckers who drive them are the lifeblood of the US economy.
0:20.3	Trucking companies move more than 70% of the nation's freight that's everything from
0:24.1	toilet paper to testlers driven from ports and railheads to stores and shipping hubs
0:29.4	and even direct to your door.
0:30.4	I kind of feel like I'm in a commercial right now.
0:33.0	I mean, it's been a big year for truckers.
0:35.8	Because of the pandemic, we've been ordering more and more goods and of course that's
0:38.6	created huge demand for trucking services.
0:41.1	But recently, some of the gauges on the dashboard of the trucking industry have been flickering
0:45.7	a little lower.
0:47.3	One gauge in particular, it's called the Spot Rate and it's often regarded as a bell
0:52.3	weather for the industry, sometimes even the economy.
0:55.2	Yes, and over the last quarter, the Spot Rate for Trucking has been falling and it's
0:58.8	been falling fast.
0:59.8	It's down 15% since the beginning of the year and now I sound a bit like chicken little.
1:05.8	The sky is falling!
1:08.4	The sky is falling!
1:09.6	Are you crazy?
1:10.6	No, I'm not crazy.
	...

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