The 2020 Outlook for the Freight Industry

This week Convoy hosted a webinar looking back at the key market forces driving the freight industry in 2019, and explored how unresolved questions from the past year might shape the market going into 2020.

There remain substantial uncertainties about the economic outlook for the coming year. To some degree, there always are. But for some sectors of the economy, these uncertainties feel particularly top of mind. No one — much less economists — has a definitive sense of how many of the moment’s most burning unknowns will play out in areas like trade, politics, and regulation. 

What we do know is that many of the factors that held down freight demand in 2019 are likely to ease, though not disappear entirely, in the months ahead. New risks will appear in their place. But after the turmoil in freight markets earlier this year — at least from the perspective of many carriers who felt the squeeze of lower rates — it’s hard to imagine a replay. Indeed, there are some reasons to view the risk to demand and rates skewing modestly toward the upside.

We engage these and other questions in the presentation. You can view the slides below and watch the full, recorded webinar here.

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