Freight & Equipment Market Intelligence for Carriers and Fleets
Connect freight, rate, capacity, and equipment signals to better fleet planning decisions.
ACT Research helps carriers and fleets understand where freight markets are headed, how capacity is shifting, and what those signals may mean for pricing, utilization, replacement timing, and equipment strategy. With forward-looking forecasts, market data, and analyst interpretation, ACT gives your team a clearer view of the freight and equipment cycle — so you can plan with confidence instead of reacting to the market after it moves.
Get Transportation IntelligencePlan beyond the next load. Understand the cycle behind your next decision.
Carrier performance is shaped by more than today’s freight rate. Rate direction, capacity, driver availability, Class 8 tractor supply, used truck values, equipment demand, and broader economic conditions all influence how and when fleets should act.
ACT helps carriers and fleets connect those signals into a forward-looking market view that supports smarter decisions around pricing, network strategy, fleet replacement, capital planning, and risk management.
Rate & Capacity Planning
Understand freight-rate direction, capacity conditions, and market-cycle timing so your team can make more confident pricing and planning decisions.
Fleet & Equipment Strategy
Connect freight demand, utilization, Class 8 tractor supply, used truck values, and replacement timing to better fleet strategy.
Risk & Scenario Planning
Evaluate market disruptions, economic indicators, and cycle shifts before they create costly surprises.
Operational Decision Support
Use supply-demand intelligence to support decisions around customer mix, lane strategy, service commitments, and asset utilization.
Forecasts your fleet planning team can defend.
ACT Research’s 2024 forecasts for the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index® were 98.8% accurate on average over the past 18 months and were spot on from 13 months out.
ACT’s freight forecasts help carriers evaluate where rates, volumes, and market conditions may be headed — and how those changes may affect fleet planning, pricing, capacity, and investment decisions.
When your team needs to defend assumptions around the market ahead, ACT provides forward-looking intelligence backed by data, methodology, and analyst interpretation.
Connect supply, demand, and equipment signals before the market shifts.
Carriers need to anticipate market shifts, manage capacity, price with discipline, and make informed decisions about fleet size, replacement timing, and customer strategy.
There are many sources that show what has already happened in freight markets. ACT helps carriers look ahead by connecting freight demand, rate direction, Class 8 tractor supply, used truck values, economic indicators, and analyst perspective into a more complete view of the market cycle.
With ACT Research, your team can use:
- Class 8 tractor forecasts to better understand active tractor capacity and future equipment supply.
- DAT spot and contract rate forecasts to evaluate dry van, refrigerated, and flatbed rate direction.
- Cass-powered freight volume and mode insights to understand broader freight movement across truckload, LTL, and intermodal markets.
- Freight-weighted economic indicators to connect consumer demand and economic activity to freight and fleet planning.
- ACT analyst interpretation from a team with more than 250 years of combined industry experience.
Three strengths behind ACT’s carrier intelligence
ACT’s freight and carrier-focused intelligence combines proprietary data, disciplined methodology, and experienced analyst interpretation to help carriers understand not only what changed in the market, but what it may mean for the decisions ahead.
- ACT Proprietary Data
- ACT Methodology
- ACT Human Intelligence
ACT Proprietary Data
ACT’s market view begins with direct visibility into the freight, equipment, and commercial vehicle signals that shape transportation planning decisions.
By tracking market indicators across commercial vehicles, freight, trailers, used equipment, and broader economic activity, ACT helps customers understand what is changing, how signals connect, and what those shifts may mean for the road ahead.
ACT Methodology
ACT’s forecasting methodology is built on decades of market-cycle experience, industry relationships, historical data, and disciplined analysis.
We connect freight demand, equipment supply, economic activity, production trends, used equipment values, regulatory factors, and customer behavior to help customers evaluate the market with a balanced, forward-looking view.
ACT Human Intelligence
ACT’s analysts bring deep experience across freight, equipment, commercial vehicle, used truck, trailer, regulatory, and economic markets.
We do not simply report the data. We interpret what market signals may mean, how they connect across the transportation cycle, and what decisions they may help inform.
Use market intelligence to make stronger fleet decisions.
Predictive Insights
Understand where freight rates, volumes, and capacity conditions may be headed so your team can prepare before market changes affect pricing, utilization, and profitability.
Strategic Planning
Use forward-looking market analysis to support decisions about customer mix, fleet size, replacement timing, capital investment, and long-term growth strategy.
Risk Mitigation
Identify market, capacity, economic, and equipment-cycle risks earlier so your team can build more resilient plans and avoid being caught off guard.
Operational Efficiency
Connect supply-demand conditions, rate trends, and equipment signals to decisions around network balance, service commitments, lane strategy, and asset utilization.
ACT Research is one of the best resources you can have to make those accurate forecasts. ACT has allowed us to take what we know from our 20-plus years of business in freight brokerage and allowed us to quantify those feelings and allowed us to set the course for the business that we felt was appropriate but gave us the data to back those decisions and made us smarter in the process as well.
Christopher Thornycroft
Redwood Logistics
Updated May 27, 2026
Market Update - Carriers
May 2026 Update
For-Hire Carriers Face a Crossroads: Tightening Capacity, Fragile Margins, and Embedded Cost Pressures
May brings a more constructive operating backdrop for carriers, but the improvement is still uneven. ACT’s latest Freight Forecast shows spot market conditions tightened meaningfully around Roadcheck, with dry van load-to-truck ratios and rates reaching new cycle highs. Contract rates are also moving higher, reflecting a market that is shifting from bottoming conditions toward early-cycle rate recovery.
For-hire carriers are benefiting from tighter capacity, improving freight rates, and reduced excess supply, but cost pressure remains a limiting factor. Driver availability, FMCSA-related actions, ELD scrutiny, and policy-driven capacity effects are reinforcing rate floors even though freight demand remains mixed. From an operating perspective, carriers should treat the current environment as an opportunity to protect yield, improve network balance, and avoid adding capacity ahead of durable demand confirmation.
Class 8 Orders Signal Early-Cycle Stabilization
Class 8 order activity moderated from March to April, but ACT’s latest Classes 5–8 report frames that movement as consistent with normal seasonality as the market enters a slower order period before 2027 orderboards open later this year. The more important signal for carriers is that Class 8 demand is being supported by stronger freight rates, tighter capacity, and regulatory clarity.
Fleet purchasing remains disciplined and primarily tied to replacement needs, 2027 planning, and confidence in rate recovery. Used truck signals are also improving at the margin. ACT’s May Used Trucks report shows April same-dealer used Class 8 retail activity improved year over year, while pricing moved higher, supported by lower average mileage and younger equipment. For fleet planning teams, that may improve trade-cycle visibility, residual assumptions, and replacement timing discussions.
Profitability Hinges on Execution as Pricing Floors Reset Higher
Carrier profitability is increasingly tied to execution as pricing floors improve. Spot rates are leading the recovery, while contract rates are beginning to follow. That creates a more favorable commercial backdrop, but margins remain exposed to fuel, insurance, maintenance, labor, financing, and compliance costs.
The Cass Freight Index® – Shipments component remains an important demand-side check. Shipments have improved modestly but remain below prior-cycle norms on a seasonally adjusted basis, reinforcing that the rate recovery is being driven more by constrained capacity than by a broad freight-demand surge.
Carriers maintaining relative advantage should continue to focus on route and lane discipline, customer mix, empty-mile reduction, equipment utilization, and pricing quality. In the current environment, modest improvements in utilization and network balance can have a larger margin impact than they did during the oversupplied phase.
EPA 2027: Clarity Improves, Costs Remain
EPA 2027 remains a central planning issue for carriers. Regulatory timing may influence replacement decisions, buyer behavior, procurement windows, and the pace of any demand pull-forward. ACT’s latest Classes 5–8 report notes that regulatory clarity has helped support order activity, alongside improving freight conditions.
For carriers, the planning challenge is balancing optionality with capital discipline. Stronger freight rates and tighter capacity may improve confidence, but higher equipment costs, financing pressure, and still-recovering profitability argue against aggressive forward commitments. Carriers should continue evaluating replacement exposure, 2027-spec availability, financing flexibility, and where newer equipment may improve fuel efficiency or maintenance performance.
Outlook: Transitioning from Survival to Stabilization
ACT’s May reports point to a carrier market moving further into stabilization. Spot rates are stronger, contract rates are responding, driver availability is tightening, and capacity contraction is improving the operating balance. However, freight demand remains uneven, and cost inflation continues to pressure margins.
For carriers, the practical takeaway is discipline. The market is improving, but the advantage will likely accrue to operators that manage pricing, network quality, driver availability, equipment timing, and liquidity with precision. Carriers that stay focused on yield protection, customer selection, utilization, and replacement planning will be better positioned as the market continues to rebalance through 2026 and into 2027.
Why carriers and fleets choose ACT Research
Carrier decisions depend on more than one data point. ACT combines direct market data, proven methodology, analyst expertise, forecast accuracy, and trusted industry relationships to help carriers understand the freight and equipment signals shaping the market ahead.
- Proprietary Data
- Methodology
- Human Intelligence
- Track record of forecast accuracy and industry use
- Trusted by transportation, manufacturing, leasing, finance, and investment leaders
Market guidance for carrier planning decisions
ACT helps carriers understand the market signals that affect fleet planning, pricing, capacity management, and strategic growth.
Our intelligence supports teams responsible for finance, pricing, equipment, procurement, market analysis, and executive planning with a clearer view of freight rate direction, capacity trends, equipment supply, and broader transportation market conditions.
With ACT Research, carrier teams can:
- Make more informed decisions with forward-looking market analysis and forecasts.
- Connect freight conditions to equipment and replacement planning.
- Evaluate pricing, procurement, and customer strategy with stronger market context.
- Identify risk and opportunity earlier in the freight and equipment cycle.
- Support financial planning with intelligence your team can defend.
Ready to connect freight conditions to your next fleet decision?
ACT helps carriers and fleets understand the freight, capacity, and equipment signals shaping the market ahead. Whether your team is planning pricing strategy, fleet replacement, capital investment, procurement, or future capacity, ACT can help you build a clearer market view.
Use ACT’s forward-looking intelligence and analyst perspective to move from reacting to market conditions to planning around them.
- Make stronger strategic decisions with current market analysis and forward-looking forecasts.
- Evaluate pricing and procurement strategy with better visibility into rates, capacity, and freight-cycle timing.
- Connect tractor supply to fleet planning with Class 8 order, build, sales, and population data.
- Improve replacement planning with intelligence on equipment demand and used truck values.
- Spot risks and opportunities earlier across freight, economic, regulatory, and equipment-cycle signals.
- Support financial plans with defensible assumptions for budget, executive, and long-term planning discussions.
We use this data [from ACT Research] to extract and share these insights with our carriers and shippers…We also use this data in building our internal dashboards, key variables we track, and we found out that a lot of the data points we receive from ACT Research are actually very relevant to our macroeconomic analysis in general.
Mazen Danaf
Uber Freight
Trusted by transportation and commercial vehicle leaders for more than 35 years.
ACT serves more than 400 customers across the freight, transportation, commercial vehicle, equipment, finance, and investment markets.
- Truck OEMs
- Trailer OEMs
- Tier 1 Suppliers
- Tier 2 Suppliers
- Rental & Leasing
- Carriers & Fleets
- Shippers
- Brokers
- Dealers
- Finance & Capital Markets
- Investors
Frequently Asked Questions
ACT’s freight rate and volume forecasts are updated monthly. Updates are typically published on or near the 13th of each month, depending on the calendar and the release timing of partner data.
ACT Research agreements include up to four user seats with portal access. Additional seats may be purchased for an additional per-person fee.
ACT Research service agreements are typically 12 months from the date of agreement. Customers receive access to insights and downloadable files through the ACT Research portal.
ACT’s freight rate forecast provides a three-year outlook, broken into monthly periods and updated monthly.
ACT receives Class 8 tractor data directly from North American OEMs. This includes backlog, build, new orders, cancellations, net orders, inventory, and retail sales data that supports ACT’s view of tractor supply and freight-market capacity. The current page notes this OEM data has been provided since 1986.
Ready to connect freight conditions to your next fleet decision?
ACT helps carriers and fleets understand the freight, capacity, and equipment signals shaping the market ahead. Whether your team is planning pricing strategy, fleet replacement, capital investment, or future capacity, ACT can help you build a clearer market view.