The Roundtable
February 9, 2010
The Roundtable
The Roundtable is where editors and experts meet to discuss key issues facing the global transportation and logistics community, from the highways to the high seas. It's an open forum, and you can comment on posts. If you'd like to be a Roundtable blogger, contact Chris Brooks at cbrooks@joc.com
When trucking analysts talk about the need to reduce capacity in the industry to bolster rates, revenue and stock value, it's important to remember that "capacity" has a name. In Duluth, Minn., it's Monson Trucking.
Monson is shutting down Aug. 31 after 94 years as a family-owned business employing 200 people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Its been hauling freight since the horse wagon days, through four generations of Monson family ownership.
Read an article about the shutdown from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune here.
Monson is a union company, and its employees recently agreed to a pay cut and reduced health care benefits. About 50 drivers had been laid off in recent months, according to a report in the Duluth News Tribune.
Don't expect other carriers to immediately benefit from this reduction in "capacity." Monson is shutting down mainly because two of its major customers — Canadian paper mills — declared bankruptcy. Its exit probably won't free up a lot of freight for other carriers, because that freight is gone.
