November 29, 2022
Since there are five non-holiday Mondays in August, and lead costs continue to decrease, expect hire costs to fall further in August.
Trucking employment continues to rise as drivers move from the spot market and are choosing to lease or drive for established carriers. Because of this, truck driver job posting numbers are decreasing, indicating that carriers are starting to cut back on new hiring efforts.
Weakening freight volume, capacity utilization, and rates combined with high fuel costs and an increase in the cost of capital caused FTR to drop their Trucking Conditions Index to negative for trucking companies in June. They expect trucking conditions to be around neutral through the end of the year before slightly weakening further in H1 2023.
Search and Facebook click costs (CPC) in August are both on pace to fall to their lowest level in at least a year and a half. Search costs continue their steady descent and are on pace to be at their lowest level since June 2020. Facebook click costs in August are on pace to decrease by 17% from July and are on pace to be at their lowest level since January 2021.
Display CPC is on pace to be basically unchanged from July. Click costs continue to be higher than in past years, mainly because the digital marketing team at Randall Reilly is focusing on improving lead counts from display ads rather than click counts.
