Top 25 Truckload Companies

Freight growth may slow in 2019, but shippers should be vigilant in seeking new routes owing to constrained capacity.

As truck driver turnover rates rise, and more veteran drivers retire, more motor carriers are taking training into their own hands through in-house schools and apprenticeship programs.

Capacity is balancing out and it’s not as hard to find a truck as in January or February, according to shippers in the survey. However, one economist argued one should not form a premature conclusion regarding the status of the bullish trucker market.

US volumes are still growing, but at a lower rate than a year ago, and shippers are benefiting; smaller trucking companies have lowered rates.

The changes across the US transportation landscape, from a trade war with mainland China to seemingly unstoppable e-commerce growth, require from logistics managers a drill-like precision and agility and closer collaboration with carriers.

The addition of Express Havre St-Pierre helps 'build out' Manitoulin Transport's truckload and LTL service map in Quebec, especially in the province's rural areas, and complements its westward expansion.

The number of for-hire US trucking employees skyrocketed in the first 10 months of 2018, fueled by freight demand, but large trucking operators are short truck drivers in a tight labor market.

If shippers reorganized efficiently and put an end to procurement teams focused solely on price and transactions instead of supply chain efficiency, we would have more drivers available and motivated to take time to train and become more valuable as well as get paid more.

Being driver-friendly is just the start, not the end goal, of being a shipper of choice, a business development specialist said at the JOC Inland Distribution Conference earlier this week. “It’s table stakes.”

Harsh weather and the electronic logging device mandate — requiring truck drivers to record their of hours of service digitally and cease use of paper logs to track drivers' time behind the wheel — have put pressure on Chicago and other US markets.

Sequential volume gains may have slowed, but year-over-year shipment increases are still substantial for two of the largest US trucking companies.

Transport America's solo salary offers remuneration for a solo driver that is above the $75,000 a year that trucking executives have admitted would need to be breached to end the driver shortage.

The trucking effects from the extreme weather the Southeast US experienced are expected to be temporary, with strong pre-holiday demand in November and possibly December likely to restore “balance” in the storm’s wake.

After a year of double-digit increases, spot rate gains are slowing, and truck rates and revenue increases are expected to ‘moderate’ to the mid-single-digit range in 2019.

US trucking has entered a new era, in which a ‘new normal’ has been established. Even so, for shippers, there are some encouraging sector developments concerning driver recruitment and overall truck capacity.

There is no debate: US truck capacity is tight. Still, this supply and demand imbalance offers an opportunity for shippers to assess their shipping practices. They will find their inefficiencies are responsible for more cost in absolute dollars than the increase in expenditure that results from higher rates.

Shippers can and should stop using paper bills of lading (B/Ls). If truck drivers can live without paper logbooks, shippers can scrap paper B/Ls. Savings for carriers and shippers will result.

During the past several years, the less-than-truckload industry and the analyst community have made a big deal of the need to convert to dimensional pricing instead of the classification system of the regulated era that ended in 1980.

Innovation and outside-the-box thinking are needed to help shippers and trucking companies kick old, bad habits and bring pricing into the 21st century. This is Part 1 in a 5-part series.

By setting its internal minimum wage at $15 an hour, Amazon increases competitive pressure for blue-collar workers, especially younger workers, across industries, including trucking.

Freight demand remains strong, even in summer, carriers say, and that’s allowing them to pick and choose the most profitable freight, with peak season just ahead.

Many truckload carriers are on their second round of pay hikes this year as freight demand grows faster than driver supply. Can they keep pace with the peak?

Acquisitions boost revenue, profit for Iowa-based Heartland Express as US freight demand pushes the limits of ‘transportation infrastructure.’

Shorter (and sometimes longer) contracts, volume commitments, and even higher rates are among the many types of bait shippers are using to capture elusive truckload capacity.

Once cyclical, problems such as the driver shortage are becoming systemic. That threatens to ‘bake’ higher costs into transportation rates.

As freight demand and the need for capital rises, the fifth-largest US truckload operator plans a route back to Wall Street to fund growth.

Full enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate began April 1, but inspectors issued a slew of violations in early 2018, federal data show.

Freight brokers with less than $16 million in annual revenue saw shipments jump 20.5 percent in the fourth quarter, but higher truck rates put pressure on margins.

After two years in an economic rut, US trucking accelerated in 2017, led by less-than-truckload carriers before truckload carriers merged into the same fast lane later in the year.

US shippers and other e-commerce parties take note: freight demand, still strong in January, will raise contract rates in the coming quarters, truckload carrier Werner Enterprises has warned.

The need for better visibility to make smarter decisions, along with better coordinating of train switching and traffic flows on local roads, comes as North American port volume rises.

Businesses will be watching spot rates closely in the next few weeks to see if demand and capacity move back toward an equilibrium.

The hurricanes that struck the United States last year provided a teachable moment for shippers regarding supply chain structure and management.

The extremely frigid weather will affect everything in the United States from shipping schedules to the availability of truck drivers — and that will have an impact on costs.

The axiom, "Where you stand depends on where you sit," applies regarding the views on how transportation will fare in 2018.

With its heavy-duty Semi, Tesla is one of several companies hoping to electrify trucking, and it is attracting orders from shippers as well as carriers.

This is certain regarding the trucking industry in 2018: it will be the year of time management, as the electronic logging mandate makes supply chains less and less flexible while freight demand rises.

Spot rates for truckload, intermodal services keep rising, putting pressure on contract rates that may last well into 2018.

James Welch, the executive credited with saving one of the largest less-than-truckload companies, will retire next July, as economic growth buoys the LTL business.

False logs are an "epidemic," and shippers are vulnerable, speakers tell the JOC Inland Distribution Conference. The latest federal data back them up.