The largest domestic truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers reported double-digit percentage revenue gains in 2018 thanks to strong US economic growth and the tightest trucking market on record.
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Top 25 LTL Trucking Companies
Top 25 LTL Trucking Companies
In 2017, the 25 largest less-than-truckload carriers in the US increased their combined revenue 7.8 percent, as higher industrial production and disciplined pricing raised their topline. That sizable gain followed a flat year for LTL revenue in 2016 and a revenue drop of 0.5 percent in 2015, as freight demand tumbled in the latest slowdown in the long-running economic recovery.
The US economy grew at a faster rate in 2017, and strong industrial production helped create more pallets of goods to fill LTL terminals and trailers. The combined revenue of the 25 largest LTL carriers in the US reached a new record of $34.5 billion. Just two LTL carriers reported less revenue year over year in 2017, compared with 10 in 2016 and 12 in 2015.
Some of the fastest-growing LTL carriers, however, weren’t on the list. The smaller LTL and cartage companies that didn’t make the Top 25 grew faster as a group than their larger competitors, increasing combined revenue 8.5 percent to $3.2 billion. That revenue would make those small companies the fourth largest LTL carrier if they were one trucking company.
Key stories in LTL:
Top 25 LTL 2017: LTL carriers pave way to growth in challenging market
Top 25 LTL 2016: Lower fuel surcharges, soft demand squeeze revenue
Top 25 LTL 2015: Revenue up 9.1 percent for largest US LTL carriers
Top 25 LTL 2014: Revenue Growth at LTL Truckers Drops
Top 25 LTL 2013: Economic Slowdown Detours LTL Growth
Top 25 LTL 2012: LTL's Second Wind
Top 25 LTL 2011: LTL's Incomplete Recovery
J. Harwood Cochrane: Present at the Birth of Trucking
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Multiregional LTL carrier Saia adds three new terminals in the Northeast and expands in Philadelphia amid a market giving off mixed signals.
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