Quarterly Wrap-up

Welcome to the Quarterly Wrap-up, a series consolidating some of the top news that could impact fleet operations. Knowing what’s going on — and what’s potentially on the horizon — can help fleets better prepare for operational disruptions and challenges to keep things running as smoothly as possible. But, because the news cycle races by, it can be hard to keep up with — and who can find the time, am I right? That’s why the Quarterly Wrap-up delivers short-and-sweet reporting with links you can take a deep dive into at your convenience. Enjoy!

Fleet Industry News 🚛

ATA Forecasts Renewed Driver Shortages

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimated a driver shortage of 80,000 in 2024, climbing to 85,000 by Q1 2025 as retirements outpaced hires. Despite a reduction in driver shortages over the past few years, ATA SVP and Chief Economist, Bob Costello, explains that these numbers are going down “for all the wrong reasons,” namely reduced demand slowing the need to hire. “I would totally anticipate, if things pick up a little bit better than I’m anticipating, that we would start to see the driver shortage end up rearing its ugly head again,” Costello says.

E-commerce Growth Fuels Last-mile Delivery Demand

E-commerce — an already booming industry — continued to grow in the first quarter of 2025, according to early retail data. While this growth is good, it can definitely put a strain on last-mile delivery fleets with tighter delivery windows battling congested urban roadways.

Technology News 🖥️

GM Leads EV Growth While Infrastructure Lags

GM reported a 17% sales jump in Q1 2025, with EV sales nearly doubling to 31,886 units, led by models like the Equinox EV (10,329 sold). Still, a December 2024 Tesla Supercharger vandalism spree left charging uptime at 70% by March, with rural gaps widest despite 500 new federal stations. Forecasts predict a 20% global EV sales rise in 2025, but U.S. growth may slow if Trump cuts incentives. And, while tariffs have the potential to increase these price tags over the duration of trade negotiations, forecasts, though perhaps more moderate, remain hopeful.

AV Adoption Gains Traction but Faces Roadblocks

Strides are continuing to be made in the autonomous vehicle (AV) sector. “Another quarter has passed in the autonomy economy, and the industry leaders have only grown stronger,” according to The Road to Autonomy. “Over the past three months, Wayve signed its first OEM deal with Nissan, Kodiak initiated the process to go public, and Nuro raised $106 million at a $6 billion valuation.” While real-world pilot results on Texas highways showed a 30% reduction in fuel costs, regulatory hurdles and driver pushback slowed rollout.

Policy News ✍️

Asset Purchase Power may Increase in Coming Months

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates to 4.25–4.5% in late 2024, and by Q1 2025, fleets were financing new assets at lower costs. “Used car prices declined 0.5% but their costs are expected to leap within a couple of months as a 25% tariff on imported cars boosts demand for used cars,” USA Today reports. “Wholesale used car prices are already rising." Although April’s consumer price index (CPI) reported inflation falling to a four-year low, the Fed has been a bit apprehensive when it comes to making another rate cut, citing that tariffs may raise inflation. And while current trade negotiations may have prompted the likes of Honda, Hyundai, Stellantis, Toyota and major parts manufacturer Bosch, among others to announce moving — or ramping up — U.S. production, it’s difficult to determine short-term cost implications. “While new auto assembly plants, stamping plants and auto parts factories take years to bring online, existing production facilities are operating below capacity,” according to Fastmarkets. “This gives automakers avenues for manufacturers to expand production within the year.”

CARB Withdraws Emissions Regulations Request

In January, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) withdrew its request to the EPA for a number of automotive regulations, including Advanced Clean Fleets and In-use Locomotive regulations. This has reportedly been due to the Trump admin’s push to roll back Biden-era EV mandates and boost fossil fuels which, as you can imagine, clashes hard with California’s emissions reduction goals.

Economy News 💰

Inflation Dips, Offering Relief to Fleet Budgets

There’s been quite a bit of drama around the Trump admin’s multi-step plan to tackle inflation, from Independents, Democrats and Republicans alike. A good deal of media talking heads and economists have been vocal about how Trump’s actions will increase inflation, and even Trump said that there will be some pain before things get better. That said, inflation is cooling to unexpected numbers. While January saw inflation stall with a 0.6% rise in wholesale prices, things began changing in February. “Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale prices fell 0.1% [in February] from January, first drop since July,” according to the Associated Press. “Core producer prices rose 3.4%, lower than the 3.8% year-over-year gain in January. The numbers were all lower than economists had expected.” March continued in this direction: “The consumer price index (CPI), which tracks the prices of goods and services, fell by 0.1% in March on a month-over-month basis,” according to Entrepreneur. “Core inflation [...] was 2.8% year-over-year in March, marking its slowest pace since March 2021.”

U.S.–China Tariff Pause Brings Short-term Cost Stability

China has been possibly the number one topic when it comes to the Trump admin’s trade negotiation efforts. The proposed tariff rate on both sides increased multiple times in Q1 2025 with China implementing a 125% tariff and the U.S. going as high as 145% on tariffs against China. The U.S. and China have since agreed to a 90-day pause on tariffs while they handle business. “Each of the world’s two largest economies agreed to take down temporarily most of its tariffs against the other,” according to the Associated Press, which also noted that “The value of the U.S. dollar strengthened against everything from the euro to the Japanese yen to the Swiss franc. And Treasury yields jumped on expectations that the Federal Reserve won’t have to cut interest rates as deeply this year as earlier expected in order to protect the economy from the damage of tariffs.” Both countries have expressed a positive outlook on negotiations moving forward.

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