Analyst John G. Larkin , managing director and head of transportation capital markets research for Stifel, Nicholaus and Company, delivered both good news and sobering insights to the audience assembled here this week for the 77 th annual Truckload Carriers Association convention. He had plenty of “things are improving, but…” figures to share on issues such as freight capacity constraints, the state of the U.S. labor force and the declining middle class: Auto and light truck market: This market segment has seen “quite a rebound,” Larkin said, although the average age of vehicles in this segment is still 11.4 years, so replacement has not been overwhelmingly strong. In fact, the age of vehicles has increased every year since 2002. There is also good news, at least for OEMs, in these geriatric fleet metrics, however. All those older units represent “a still […]