Soaring Cost of Trucking Threatens to Stoke U.S. Inflation

The tightest trucking market in years is testing the limits of an otherwise well-conditioned U.S. economic expansion. It’s also tinder for accelerating inflation should the capacity constraints spark moves by companies to pass on those higher delivery costs.

A shortage of drivers, new regulations and solid demand are driving up rates charged by trucking companies to haul loads over the country’s more than 46,000 miles of interstate highways. Combined with higher materials prices, partly due to the Trump administration’s tariffs, rising transportation costs are putting pressure on goods producers.