Author name: Chris Pickett

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line February 2026 Issue] With Q1 2026 now firmly in the rearview mirror and almost a full month into this new quarter, we can’t help but marvel at the stoic consistency of the US truckload freight market cycle. While truckers, shippers, and brokers all endured disruptive winter weather across much of […]

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line January 2026 Issue] As we round the last turn of this Q1 2026 and barrel down the home stretch to close out March, that old adage that as ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ comes to mind. You could say that’s basically the same sentiment as

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line December 2025 Issue] Now halfway through the first quarter of this new year, more and more signals continue to line up in support of the assertion that, after three quarters of battling through the downdraft in US truckload capacity demand triggered by the Trump Trade War, the 6th observed turn

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line November 2025 Issue] Welcome to a new year for the US truckload freight market and the 6th year of continuous monthly installments of America’s favorite market research publication, The Pickett Line. As many of us use the turn of the calendar as a milestone from which to set new goals

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line October 2025 Issue] Well, we made it to another December Ladies and Gentlemen. And in looking back over the 2025 we’ve just about grinded our way through, we can’t help but marvel at how much in the world has changed…yet we find ourselves in virtually the exact same position in

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line September 2025 Issue] Well, here we are on Day 40 of what is now the longest federal shutdown in recent history. And while there are no doubt more disruptive effects like government employees getting furloughed, laid off, or working without pay, and the tragic interruption in the distribution of monthly

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line August 2025 Issue] According to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’”. With last week’s gridlock-induced government shutdown coming off the heels of an executive order announcing a new 25% tariff on imported

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line July 2025 Issue] With Labor Day now well in the rearview mirror and just a couple of weeks left of the Summer, we’re coming down the Q3 home stretch in this July installment of America’s favorite running chronicle of the US Trucking market. You may recall that last month’s theme

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line June 2025 Issue] Welcome to the June issue and the official kickoff to the 3rd quarter of 2025, and as it turns out also the third consecutive quarter of a US Spot TL Linehaul Rate cycle trying to achieve liftoff after technically breaking Y/Y inflationary all the way back in

[Excerpt from The Pickett Line May 2025 Issue] Well, there’s a first time for everything. Over the last fifteen years that we’ve been tracking the US Spot Linehaul Rate Cycle, we often wondered what a deflationary catalyst would have to look like to materially stunt the index trajectory lower once it had decisively broken Y/Y