Big shopping season predicted, Mexico becomes no. 1 U.S. importer, trucking market recovery appears nigh

Transportation technology company Motive predicts a strong holiday season for retail, a record year for Mexican imports, and growth for the trucking market by November. 

Motive, an integrated operations platform provider, released its monthly economic report this week, summarizing July’s trucking and economic behaviors based on the Motive network, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and other publicly available data from government agencies.

Motive predicts a big 2024 shopping season

Retailers significantly grew their restocking quantities in July, with “truck visits to the top 50 retailer warehouses rising 10.2% year over year,” the Motive Big Box Retail Index shows. The year-over-year increase for apparel, electronics, and department stores is even more significant, with a restocking momentum increase of 30.7% from July 2023. Superstores and grocery stores’ restocking also rose by 16.6% year over year, which Motive notes is the best monthly performance of 2024.

While Motive predicted a strong holiday season for retail in its last report, Hamish Woodrow, Motive’s head of strategic analytics, told FleetOwner that the numbers in this month’s report were quite strong.

“Despite the fact that it was trending stronger, the strength of the July uptick on retailer restocking surprised me,” Woodrow said. “It was interesting to see that despite all the noise at the start of August around recession alarm bells, this has yet to permeate to buying trends across the top 50 retailers.”

See also: Report: How July’s predicted higher retail sales affect the trucking economy