Local General Freight Trucking
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 40,000 local general freight trucking companies in the US provide truckload (TL) and less than truckload (LTL) transportation services within cities and over short distances with drivers returning home each night. Trucking firms transport a wide variety of goods, but the majority is boxed or palletized. Local routes are typically less than 150 miles.
Failure to Meet Safety Requirements
Failure to meet safety regulations can result in investigations, fines, loss of license, and idled vehicles.
Emergence of Online Freight Coordinators
The local freight trucking industry is benefiting from online sites, like Uber Freight and TruckLoads, that match shippers and distribution centers with local freight carriers.
Industry size & Structure
A typical local general freight trucking company operates out of a single location, employs 7-8 workers, and generates about $1.4 million annually.
- The local general freight trucking industry consists of about 40,000 companies, which employ about 299,000 workers and generate about $59 billion annually.
- The industry is fragmented with the 50 largest firms representing just 10% of revenue.
- Firms range from the small operations that serves a single local area using few owned trucks, to large firms that operate a network of locations across the nation using leased vehicles and servicing many local markets.
- About two dozen large firms have networks of 10 or more establishments, which are regionally or nationally dispersed to serve specific cities.
- Large companies include Jack Hood Transportation, Holland, Reddaway, New Penn, Cowan and EPES.
Industry Forecast
Local General Freight Trucking Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Feb 10, 2025 - How Costly Is The US Trucker Shortage?
- Trucking industry employment remained flat throughout 2024, while average wages for nonsupervisory employees in the local trucking specialty segment increased more than 2% year-over-year in November 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A significant driver shortage brought on by attrition through retirements and younger-employee burnout in a stressful and isolating job has been hampering the industry. Truck drivers are in high demand and paid well as a result. An analysis of industry job postings by freight factoring company altLINE estimates that there is an ongoing deficit of 24,000 drivers. When combined with the average $3,900 per week a truck makes in revenue (using trucking giant Schneider National’s reported earnings), the staff shortage costs the freight industry $95 million a week.
- The trucking industry’s transformation from diesel-powered fleets to environmentally cleaner electric versions came to an abrupt halt when the second Trump administration ended the federal government’s EV mandates in January 2025. The changes were widely expected, so much so that California - the country’s most aggressive testing ground for EV mandates - preemptively killed its new rules that would have drastically reduced emissions and boosted funding for building related charging station infrastructure. With a new government in power that is hostile towards the industry’s EV transformation, the uncertainty surrounding mandates and the expectation that the EPA will no longer support the moves throws trucking’s electric vehicle transformation effort into doubt.
- The truckload market enters 2025 showing signs of stabilization after nearly three years of freight recession, according to FreightWaves. Earnings remain depressed across the sector, but FreightWaves notes that Susquehanna analyst Bascome Majors sees reasons for optimism that the industry is poised for recovery over the next two years. Majors said in an early January 2025 client note that “tangible signs of progress are still incremental – a holiday peak with seasonal lifts in tender rejection rates and slightly super-seasonal dry van spot rates reveal more optimism toward one-way truckload contract price recovery this bid season.”
- Carriers are relying on cost-cutting measures, operational efficiency, and strategic revenue opportunities to stay ahead in a difficult freight market, according to Transport Topics. Some industry leaders are cautiously optimistic conditions will improve in 2025. Supply chain solutions firm NFI CFO Steven Grabell said that he expects the current low-price environment to lead to a reduction in trucking capacity, as some smaller or marginal players may not be able to sustain operations. The reduction will help balance supply and demand. Grabell noted uncertainty related to the election of Donald Trump as US President, however. “While it remains difficult to anticipate the magnitude of the impact of tariffs and other economic policies on our industry, we feel confident that we’re nearing the bottom of the freight downturn,” Grabell said.
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