Carrier Exits Outweigh Market Entrants

Although the number of trucking businesses leaving the market slowed in May and June, carrier exits “consistently outweighed new and reinstated operating authorities during Q2,” according to Trucking Dive.

Avery Vise, vice president of trucking for FTR Transportation Intelligence, told Trucking Dive he doesn’t expect favorable market conditions to take hold until next year. “It’s going to be a ways before that happens,” he said.

Vise noted that there are still over 93,000 more for-hire carriers with operating authority now than in February 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns.  

The freight recession’s impact on large trucking companies is also apparent in this year’s Top 100 For-Hire Carriers List.

“While enduring a prolonged freight recession, the largest trucking companies in North America have been surviving on lower rates and tightly managing their operating expenses as they await a market rebound,” Transport Topics said.

↘️Rate of Trucking Company Departures Slows in Q2

The rate of trucking businesses leaving the market declined in May and June after about 9,000 exited in April, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data compiled by Trucking Dive.  

“We are seeing the net decline in the carrier population starting to slow,” Vise told Trucking Dive, noting that the number of exits is “still highly negative in historical terms.”

🔩Cleveland-Cliffs Acquiring Stelco Holdings

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the largest U.S. automotive steel supplier, has inked a deal to acquire Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc. for $2.8 billion.

Transport Topics said the deal is the latest in a series led by Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves, “who built the company from an iron ore miner just a few years ago into one of the top four U.S. steel producers.”

Stelco operates two facilities in Ontario and annually ships about 2.6 million net tons of flat-rolled steel, Transport Topics said.

🌀Hurricane’s Impact on Supply Chain Lingers

Hurricane Beryl forced the temporary closure of Texas ports in Houston, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and Galveston, but the impact on the supply chain lasted far longer than the storm because of lingering power outages, flooding, and backlogs at Gulf Coast terminals.

The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) provides supply chain assistance to humanitarian organizations when natural disasters hit. It also provides real-time visibility to disaster aid via its Supply Chain Intelligence Center, hosts disaster simulations, and facilitates disaster relief partnership events.

ALAN and stakeholders throughout the supply chain learn from each disaster response. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shared many of those lessons in a book, “Strengthening Post-Hurricane Supply Chain Resilience: Observations from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.”  

📉Freight Recession Strains Top For-Hire Carriers

Transport Topics said the financial strain caused by the continuing freight downturn is “plainly evident” in the latest edition of its Top 100 For-Hire Carriers List.

“The preponderance of companies that appear on the updated list reported declining revenue and weaker profits in 2023 as a persistent oversupply of freight hauling capacity held down freight rates and gave shippers greater negotiating power,” Transport Topics said.

It said top-ranked UPS Inc. saw its annual revenue fall below $91 billion in 2023 after climbing past $100 billion for the first time in 2022.

🎉FLOW Chief Promoted to Multimodal Freight Post

Andrew Petrisin, who created the U.S. Department of Transportation’s supply chain data-sharing program, has been promoted to deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy.

Petrisin told Trucking Dive he is proud of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) platform “not only because of the novel data exchange, but because of the community we have been able to build between the public and private sectors to improve the global supply chain.”

🚨Beacon Helps Keep Freight Flowing

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