The report, which contains insights from several established market analysts, is free to download.
Among other things, the document looks into how can manufacturers and trading companies can cope with the chaotic situation the market finds itself in. As far this is concerned, the report finds that logistics managers have no doubt: what remains is a need to respond flexibly to the market situation and obtain cargo space from various sources.
In the report, experts from “Market Insights ON” have analyzed data from the transportation market over the past two years, while trying to draw conclusions for the coming months. Successive waves of pandemics and lockdowns, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, inflation – all these factors have had an impact on the freight market.
“I recently heard an accurate joke that freight forwarders tell each other. What’s better: a contract carrier or Christmas? Obviously a contract carrier, but Christmas is more often,” comments Rafal Jablonski, CEO at System Transport, one of the experts at Market Insights ON.
Piotr Roczniak of Trans.EU, another analyst who contributed to the report, uses the metaphor of the “black swan” in reference to the current situation. The concept, introduced a dozen years ago by prominent statistician and economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is that forecasts often fail due to the occurence of unpredictable phenomena. The transportation market and the economy as a whole are hobbled every now and then by just such “black swans,” he adds.
The report also sees Market Insights ON analysts attempt to deduce, based on the available data, what awaits supply chains in the coming months: how freight and fuel prices may develop, what the inflation rate may be, and the availability of new trucks.
“If we refer to the aforementioned metaphor with swans, I would say that we can rather expect gray swans. After all, the transport market will be influenced by many different events in the near future, but not necessarily sudden and unexpected ones,” says Dr. Jacek Karcz, an expert in road transport and courier services and advisor at Gruber Logistics.
This detailed data is in the first issue of Market Insights ON, available to download for free: Download Market Insights ON.
The publisher of the report is CargoON, a provider of an automated and flexible road transportation management system that is part of the Trans.EU Group.