According to data from Tech.co, Texas is the US state that faces the highest freight demand, but it’s certainly not the only one on the hot seat when it comes to the supply chain.
In 2025, freight demand is steadily on the rise across the country. That would be great, if there wasn’t a persistent trucker shortage that continues to hamper businesses’ ability to meet this increasing demand.
The Moving Goods With Fewer Hands report from Tech.co provides a wide range of insights about the logistics industry, and we’re going to outline exactly how freight demand and trucker shortages are impacting the US, state by state.
Texas Leads US States With Highest Freight Demand
In our data, Texas was the state with the highest freight demand, with 21% of survey respondents reporting significant or slight increases over the past year. Here are how the other states in the top five compared:
- Texas – 21%
- California – 20%
- New York – 16%
- Florida – 14%
- Georgia – 13%
While Texas does represent the state with the largest number of truckers — employing 172,000 individuals across the state in the profession — the trend is nationwide. 63% of US logistics businesses report an increase in freight demand over the past year.
“On the surface, it’s good news. Recent Tech.co research shows that for the vast majority of the logistics industry, there’s more than enough freight demand. However, with ongoing issues including economic conditions and supply chain disruption, it’s a volatile time for the industry, and the increased demand is in danger of stretching some companies to breaking point.” – Jack Turner, Tech.co editor
Trucker Shortage vs Freight Demand
While freight demand is far from a bad thing, it can cause a lot of problems when companies don’t have the bandwidth to keep up. With 84% of businesses operating at near-full capacity in 2025, even a bit more demand could result in some serious drawbacks.
The trucker shortage threatened to make this freight demand catastrophe far worse, too. In fact, we found that 69% of logistic businesses say that driver shortages have impacted their ability to meet freight demand.
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It doesn’t appear to be getting better, either. Our survey found that 63% of businesses say that driver recruitment and retention has stagnated or gotten worse in the past year.
What’s Fueling Changes in Freight Demand?
There have been a lot of changes in freight demand over just the last few years, and our data found overwhelmingly that economic conditions (63%) were cited as the primary reason. Here are some of the other factors impacting freight demand in 2025:
- Economic conditions – 63%
- Supply chain disruptions – 48%
- Ecommerce growth – 36%
- Seasonal shifts – 32%
- Policy changes – 24%
While the reasons to do vary, economic conditions like inflation, interest rates, and consumer spending habits are creating the biggest changes in the logistics industry.
