This whole eventful year has definitely been chaotic for the trucking community. So many Owner-Operators have been licking their wounds after. Of course, the message of the owner-operator business has been to “be better.”

Within the recent months, there are signals that there are overall improvements will replace the rock-bottom that has hit the industry. Every owner-operator will be expected to handle stability throughout freight rates and overall volumes.

This all occurs throughout the modesty of the past several months in an improved sense of net income, as well as income-per-mile-measures.

Throughout recent months, there has been much differentiation in progress.

Spot rates and load-to-truck ratios within the latest months have been witness to more volume entering the market similar to the quantity of carriers that operate out there.

As experts have noted, if the rates in trucking become more balanced, the spot markets themselves will have had to make a correction to be accountable for the post-pandemic cost inflation, Such results will show up in the charts very prominently.

But there are other factors involved.

Truck Payments are constantly rising throughout the long-term, all while pricing in the used market has gone down about 25% from year after year, even after the ridiculous COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, another incredible result of positive versus negative instances for owner-operators who wish to keep surviving the year of unfortunate events is a clear emphasis on staffing on a widespread and more sincere range.

Due to multiple roadside and internal reviews of employment and checking to see if truckers are under the influence when driving, hiring has been at an all-time high because of so much vacancy being caused by cleaning out the old guards of fleets, owner-operators, logistics and other facets of the trucking community.

Charts and data from the ATBS show a vast contrast of data from July 2022 to June 2023. This time period is representative of the trailing twelve months or TTM and shows how the slump has affected monthly income for all sorts of owner-operators.

From that corresponding data, owner-operator income, has been lost by about 9% in overall yearly estimates. Therefore resulting in a major dip of depressing values for the average trucker.

Out of all occupations, flatbed fees and dry van pullers had suffered the greatest subtractions.

For ATBS clients, these losses resulted in an average of a new total for yearly salary: $63,114.

In the spot market, weekly averages have staggered between $1.56 and $1.66 at nearly uncontrollable patterns.

These glaring issues aside, there is hope that the springtime of 2024 could provide the blossoming trucking needs to finally hit the ground running in order to meet the fiscal demands of the U.S. economy.