Top 25 LTL Trucking Companies

Central Freight Lines reached out toward the East Coast last month by acquiring the less-than-truckload assets and business of Drug Transport, a Georgia-based company that in August filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in bankruptcy court in Atlanta.

William R. Davidson, a veteran Teamsters labor relations official with decades of hands-on less-than-truckload experience, will join the YRC Worldwide board of directors.

Freight is flowing more quickly through LTL terminals nationwide — a sign, carriers hope, of a steadier economic recovery.

Unable to secure financing needed to keep its trucks rolling, New Century Transportation is preparing to close its doors.

April showered less-than-truckload carriers with freight, as shippers responded to a surge in consumer spending in March and increased industrial demand.

Revenue rose 3.9 percent at the 25 largest U.S. less-than-truckload carriers in 2013, hitting to $29.5 billion in 2013, as the segment continued its long, slow recovery from a disastrous 2009, when the LTL group lost nearly 25 percent of its revenue.

The less-than-truckload industry is finally close to recovering revenue lost in the Great Recession, with the biggest LTL carriers already matching pre-recession sales.

Winter's icy grip on the eastern U.S. continues to cause supply chain disruption, driving the average spot dry-van truckload rate up to $1.98 per mile last week, according to load-matching service DAT.

Matthew Moroun just may have made the trucking deal of the decade, if not the new century. For only $2 million and the assumption of about $30 million in debt, the vice chairman of CenTra and son of trucking magnate Manuel “Matty” Moroun hopes to pick up the U.S. operations of $703 million Toronto-based Vitran.

Vitran will review an offer for its Canadian business from trucking giant TransForce. Will there be a bidding war for the company?

TransForce, the $3.1 billion Canadian trucking operator, is bidding to acquire the Canadian operations of less-than-truckload carrier Vitran, less than a week after Toronto-based Vitran announced the sale of its U.S. business.

J. Harwood Cochrane, 100, founder of Overnite Transportation, and Jack Holmes, president of UPS Freight, discuss less-than-truckload’s origins and the trucking industry's multimodal future.

YRC Worldwide today reported a net loss of $15.1 million in the second quarter of 2013, compared with a net loss of $22.6 million in the second quarter of 2012.

Old Dominion Freight Line today reported net income in the second quarter of 2013 increased 21.8 percent year-over-year to $58.3 million, compared with $47.8 million in the same period last year.

Central Transport joined other less-than-truckload carriers pushing for higher pricing this summer, raising its tariff rates 5.9 percent on average last week.

Central Freight Lines will raise tariff rates 5.9 percent on average July 29, joining several less-than-truckload carriers taking general rate increases this summer.

Less-than-truckload carriers are battling to grab bigger slices of a small pie: total available LTL revenue. At $32 billion, LTL revenue represents about 5 percent of all trucking sales.

James Welch is aiming for an operating profit at YRC Worldwide in 2013, following a $24.1 million operating profit in 2012, as he approaches his third year as CEO of the less-than-truckload operator.

Old Dominion Freight Line has relocated its Des Moines Service Center to a facility more than twice the size of its previous center.

As ABF and the Teamsters union resume talks April under a contract extension and head for an April 10 day in court, one analyst warns shippers to plan for all contingencies.

Smaller shippers are showing more confidence in the U.S. economy, likely spurred by rising consumer spending and income, and that bodes well for LTL carriers such as Saia.

Small businesses see some improvement in the economy, but they are still wary of excess spending or hiring, according to a shipper survey by trucking company Saia.

The Teamsters union will meet with representatives of YRC Freight April 19 to discuss the trucking giant's plans to restructure its terminal network.

Negotiations for a new multiyear contract between ABF Freight System and the Teamsters union will continue under a 30-day contract extension that pushes the talks into late April.

Old Dominion Freight Line has relocated and expanded two of its service centers in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Allentown, Pa.

Old Dominion Freight Line has updated its expectations for growth in total tons for the first quarter to a range of 4.5 percent to 5.0 percent, compared with the first quarter of 2012...

The Journal of Commerce and SJ Consulting Group annually rank the largest less-than-truckload carriers by revenue and track the sector’s economic recovery.

The trucking industry ended 2012 on a stronger note than expected, with healthy gains in volume, muted increases in pricing and troubling increases in operating costs.

Winter storms, new technology and other expected and unexpected costs may carve $14 million from Con-way Freight's first quarter earnings, but the less-than-truckload trucking company said yield, a measure of pricing, is rising, despite lower tonnage levels. Con-way also reported progress on initiatives designed to improve pricing and optimize its LTL network.

Con-way Freight’s revenue per hundredweight in the first quarter of 2013 is expected to increase about 3.5 percent year-over-year, according to an analysis by Con-way, the less-than-truckload unit’s parent company.

The less-than-truckload industry confronted a sizable speed bump last year, as slower economic growth in 2012 hobbled expansion and throttled back steady post-recession gains in annual revenue that the nation’s largest LTL carriers won in 2010 and 2011.

YRC Freight has mailed a proposal for a new set of network improvements to Teamsters union leadership.

The 10 less-than-truckload carriers with more than $1 billion in annual revenue increased combined sales 4.3 percent in 2012 to $23.2 billion.

The nation's 25 largest less-than-truckload motor carriers increased revenue 4.5 percent in 2012, a marked deceleration from 12 percent sales growth in 2011 and a 9.2 percent gain in 2010.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based freight transportation and logistics company Con-way reported net income in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $11.8 million, plummeting 48.7 percent from $23.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

FedEx Freight increased its profit 90 percent from a year ago as less-than-truckload revenue and freight demand climbed in the three months that ended Nov. 30.

The biggest less-than-truckload carriers got bigger in 2011, with the number of LTL companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue climbing to 10.