Odd Lots · Thursday, August 13, 2026
The trucking industry is experiencing a significant rebound, with freight rates increasing due to a combination of factors including new government regulations and a reduction in available truck capacity. This has led to a more complex and potentially more expensive market for freight brokers.
“So coming out of COVID, you know, starting in mid basically mid twenty twenty two, mid to late twenty twenty two, we saw rates fall and we were in essentially a three plus year lull, and most folks were saying, most of the talking heads were saying that demand returning was the only thing that was going to drive rates up, like that was going to be the only thing. But what we've seen in really the last you know, since the new administration took office, we've seen a massive kind of crackdown on English language proficiency, on non domiciled CDLs, and there's been as a result, a lot of capacity has kind of structurally been chopped out of the market, and so supply has really dwindled.”
“And so there's so many kind of like supply things that are affecting the rates and that are kind of structurally affecting the barrier to entry so that next time there is a demand spike and you are seeing demand spikes and pockets of the market. Right, Like Joe, you talked about data centers, right, flatbed has been booming and data centers have a lot in construction has a lot to do with that.”
“And so there's there's so many kind of like supply things that are affecting the rates and that are kind of structurally affecting the barrier to entry so that next time there is a demand spike and you are seeing demand spikes and pockets of the market. Right, Like Joe, you talked about data centers, right, flatbed has been booming and data centers have a lot in construction has a lot to do with that.”