Trucks May Grow Harder To Find

A recovering economy and recent changes to drivers' hours of service rules are making trucking capacity harder to come by, says PMC Logistics Services LLC, a Plymouth, Mass.-based third-party logistics company. "As tight as capacity has been over the first six months of this year, it will grow even tighter over the next six months with the expected surge of imports in the U.S.," says Mark Wyman, a partner in PMC Logistics Services. "Simply put, there is too much freight and not enough trucks." Truckload carriers have been impacted more severely than less-than-truckload carriers, Wyman claims. The logistics company says customers that give as much advance notice as possible are more likely than others to secure trucks. "Better pricing and availability can be achieved through greater lead time. You will have much better success when giving at least 24 to 48 hours than when requesting same-day moves," says PMC Logistics' Tom Dromey.