---
title: "Which drives freight volume: low inventories or consumer spending?"
description: Normally spending, however, I think the level of inventories at this point is so extraordinarily low that it will lead to an increase in freight volume.
---

[FTR | Ask the Experts ](https://ask.ftrintel.com)

# [Which drives freight volume: low inventories or consumer spending?](https://ask.ftrintel.com/which-is-a-stronger-driver-of-freight-volume-low-inventories-or-consumer-spending)

 Written by [Avery Vise, VP of Trucking](https://ask.ftrintel.com/author/avery-vise) | Dec 21, 2020 10:08:00 PM

**The FTR Experts were posed with the question, "Which drives freight volume: low inventories or consumer spending?"**

Following *The 2021 Outlook*, the final session of the[ FTR Engage](https://freight.ftrintel.com/ftrengage) virtual speaking series, the FTR Experts sat down to answer listener questions beyond what was covered during the Q&A within the presentation.

 

**Key Takeaways:**

- Retail sales has a bigger impact on freight volumes in a normal economy.
- We have to keep in mind that consumer spending includes both goods and services. 
- You can have an increase in freight just based on sales alone without any change in inventories, but you’re not necessarily going to have much of a change in freight with some modest increase in inventories without the increase in sales.
- Our current situation is largely unprecedented. In essentially two months we dropped more than 12 percent in inventories in retail, so I think that the level of inventories at this point is so extraordinarily low that it will lead to an increase in freight volumes.

Listen to the full discussion on the [State of Freight Podcast](https://www.ftrintel.com/podcast#SpecialEpisodes) or read the fully transcribed Q&A on the [FTR Blog](https://www.ftrintel.com/blog/2021outlook/).

[View full post](https://ask.ftrintel.com/which-is-a-stronger-driver-of-freight-volume-low-inventories-or-consumer-spending)

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