William B. Cassidy | Sep 28, 2010 10:42AM EDT
A majority of shippers approve of FedEx's plans to merge its two trucking units and do not foresee diverting freight to competitors, a Wolfe Trahan survey finds.
Sixty percent of the shippers interviewed by the investment research firm saw the merger of FedEx Freight and FedEx National LTL as a "positive" step.
FedEx earlier this month said it plans to combine the next-day and regional network of FedEx Freight and the long-haul operations of FedEx National LTL by Jan. 31.
The merger will cull 100 terminals, about 20 percent of FedEx Freight's footprint, and eliminate about 1,700 jobs at a cost of $150 million to $200 million.
Wolfe Trahan polled more than 70 shippers and found that only 13 percent of them planned to divert freight from FedEx to other less-than-truckload carriers.
Most of that diverted freight would likely go to ABF Freight System and Old Dominion Freight Line, Wolfe Trahan said in a Sept. 28 note to investors.
Nine percent of the shippers told the research firm they would increase freight volume with FedEx after the merger of the two networks is completed.
-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.