Trucking Companies
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 147,000 trucking companies in the US provide transportation services for a wide variety of goods. The majority of truck loads are full Truck Loads (TL), meaning a single customer fills the entire trailer. About 27.5% of loads are Less Than Full Truck Loads (LTL), where freight from multiple customers is consolidated into one trailer.
High Failure Rate
Small trucking start-ups have a high failure rate, with an estimated 85% failing before their second year of operation, according to the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.
Limited Driver Hours
The federal Hours of Service (HOS) rules dictate how long a driver can be on duty and behind the wheel.
Industry size & Structure
A typical trucking company operates out of a single location, employs fewer than 10 workers and generates about $3-4 million annually.
- The trucking industry consists of 147,000 companies, employs 1.1 million workers and generates over $459 billion in annual revenue.
- 88% of trucking companies operate out of a single location.
- One in 4 drivers is an independent owner-operator who owns their truck and contracts out services to trucking companies.
- About 80% of trucking establishments employ fewer than 10 workers.
- Large companies include UPS, FedEx, DHL, YRC Worldwide, Ryder, XPO Logistics (Con-way), Penske Truck Leasing, and JB Hunt Transport Services.
Industry Forecast
Trucking Companies Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Dec 17, 2024 - “Nuclear Verdicts” Increase
- Trucking companies were hit with $165 million in nuclear verdicts — jury awards exceeding $10 million — in 2023, according to Marathon Strategies. Vehicle manufacturers and trucking companies combined for more than $1.3 billion in nuclear verdicts in 2023. Much of this total was driven by a $976.5 million verdict against Mitsubishi Motors ordered by a Philadelphia jury. Juries ordered companies in 47 industries to pay a nuclear verdict last year. There were 89 cases with verdicts of more than $10 million in the US, the highest in 15 years and a 27% increase since 2022. Of those, 27 cases topped $100 million, eight topped over $500 million, and two were in excess of $1 billion. These are referred to as “thermonuclear verdicts.”
- Truck freight shipments and spending continued to contract in the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace than earlier this year, according to the US Bank Freight Payment Index. shipments decreased 1.9% compared to the previous quarter while spending decreased 1.4%. It was the ninth consecutive quarterly decrease in volume but the smallest drop in more than a year.
- The marginal cost of operating a truck increased 0.8% year over year in 2023 to $2.27 per mile, according to the American Transportation Research Institute. Expenses rose moderately across most categories, with average costs across line-items increasing at less than half the rates experienced during 2021 and 2022. Truck and trailer payments increased 8.8% to $0.360 per mile, driver wages increased 7.6% to $0.779 per mile, and repair and maintenance costs increased 3.1% to $0.202 per mile. The exception was truck insurance premiums, which increased 12.5% to $0.099 per mile after two years of negligible change.
- Trucking industry employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first 10 months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Trucking companies slightly increased their prices during the first seven months of 2024 but decreased them below January levels by September, according to the BLS. Heavy duty truck sales have rebounded from a 2020 pandemic-driven trough to pre-pandemic levels, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
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