Outlook for the Domestic Freight Industry - Eat or Be Eaten: The Year of Separation in Freight

The report examines trends, including capacity shortages’ effect on transportation prices, the ascent of non-asset 3PLs in recent years, and future growth drivers in the freight transportation and logistics sectors.

CarrierDirect President Joel Clum said that since July 2014, when freight levels were coming off of a very strong second quarter due to the aftereffect of the early 2014 Polar Vortex and pent-up demand, it raised the question of whether the growth was for real or more tied to the challenges that occurred during the first quarter of 2014.

The report cited some key themes for what is ahead in the freight market and what asset and non-asset companies should be doing, including:

• investing in new technologies and service offerings that will continue to support innovation in the global supply chain to reduce costs and provide better reliability to freight movements;
• consolidation in the non-asset 3PL sector will give way to larger, full-service brokerages vs. a fragmented marketplace with small, independent firms with single mode competencies; and
• in 2015 carriers and 3PLs should be focused on a handful of core initiatives in order to compete in a changing marketplace where customers and competitors are doing new things