Top 25 Truckload Companies

The largest asset-based truckload carriers are churning their way through a muddy market bottom extended by economic uncertainty, searching for signs of rising demand.

The largest truckload carriers increased revenue 40% from 2020 through 2022, but their rocket ran out of fuel last year amid tumbling spot market prices, lower contract rates and falling fuel surcharges.

Many US truckload customers engaged in annual bids and contract talks are still looking for rate cuts, but the potential for a market turnaround is tempering behavior.

Truckload spot rates are creeping higher, but trucking executives see no catalyst for stronger price increases absent higher freight demand, even as capacity slowly tightens. 

Growing shipper preference for longer-term contracts shows they believe the truckload market has hit bottom and are concerned about late-2024 capacity, analysts say. 

An index based on truck counts at large truckload carriers dropped nearly 5% in the first quarter from late 2022 as those carriers adjusted to a softer market and lower contract and spot rates.

Lower rates and ample capacity are drawing more freight to the US truckload sector, particularly the dedicated and contract markets, according to the Cass Freight Index report.

Smaller trucking firms are leaving the market at a faster rate, but plenty of truckload capacity remains, especially at larger fleets that are just short of record truck counts.

Truckload and LTL freight volumes have dropped, but a turn will come sometime in mid-2023, industry executives said at the SMC3 Jumpstart conference in Atlanta.

US dry-van spot rates appear to be stabilizing, but contract rates are dropping by double-digit percentages as new pricing and service agreements take effect.

Truckload capacity is reportedly loosening, but carrier executives say it could tighten again quickly for US shippers in a market that remains in flux.

Seasonal trends in over-the-road trucking are re-emerging — but not pre-COVID pricing — as the market realigns, truckload carrier executives say.

A shift of freight to contract trucking providers and rising fuel prices boosted shipper spending on trucking across the US in the second quarter, even though volumes fluctuated by region.

Marten Transport increased its driver pool by more than 15 percent year over year in the second quarter, as the truckload carrier and its competitors seek to balance capacity, freight demand, and profitability.

A 2.4 percent drop in the long-haul truckload producer price index for June shows contract truckload rates are softening, but prices shippers pay for LTL and specialized trucking continue to rise.

For-hire US trucking companies have added more than 62,000 real jobs since April, a record number for the period fueled by continuing strong contract freight demand.

European logistics company DB Schenker will offer US shippers a more integrated package of domestic and international services by adding truckload carrier USA Truck to its Land Transport division.

P.A.M. Transportation’s purchase of Northeastern carrier Metropolitan Trucking is the latest in a string of regional acquisitions by large national companies aimed at expanding services for shippers.

US producer price indexes show overall transportation costs and total trucking costs moved higher still in May, and S&P Global expects the trend to continue.

Acquisitions are a tool with which profitable large carriers such as Schneider National and Heartland Express are expanding their footprints and their portfolio of services, despite market headwinds.

The cooling of trucking’s transactional spot market signals a “realignment,” not a contraction, as shippers cement contractual agreements and freight demand rises, albeit more slowly.

The acquisition of Smith Transport by Heartland Express points to continued strong freight demand as the shipping market seeks a new balance between contract and spot freight.

Expanded use of trailer pools will help ‘consolidate truckload services’ and speed goods more efficiently, but first trucking companies, brokers, and shippers need more trailers.

US Labor Department data that includes contract rates shows no drop in overall truck pricing in April, despite a truckload spot market rate plunge.

For-hire trucking employment soared past seasonal expectations in April, underscoring strong demand despite declining spot market pricing.

US shippers’ need for truck capacity guarantees in a volatile market is pushing more freight away from the spot market to contract carriers, especially the largest fleets such as Knight-Swift.

Recent gains in manufacturing activity, including consumer goods production, suggest continued expansion of US freight demand while dampening worries about retail spending.

Truckload spot rates have cooled considerably in the last 45 days, but a larger freight recession may not be on the horizon given demand remains strong in other modes of commercial transportation.

Better use of existing trucks and trailers is creating truckload capacity and reducing transportation costs, but it’s not clear how long that fresh capacity will be available, DAT principal analyst Dean Croke says.

The shift of containerized freight from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast and Southeast is absorbing truck capacity in those regions and pushing up spot rates, including rates from Houston to California.

Base US truckload spot rates are falling, but higher fuel costs and market volatility are limiting over-the-road savings for shippers.

After two incredibly tight years, the availability of truckload equipment and drivers is on the rise in the US, but constraints on capacity growth remain in place.

The sudden increase in fuel-related shipping costs caused by the war in Ukraine is already changing how shippers plan to move goods within the US, forcing them to consolidate shipments and even change modes.

The truckload and less-than-truckload markets are closer than ever, as retail demand and inventory replenishment put pressure on capacity, Knight-Swift CEO David Jackson says.

The acquisition of John Christner Trucking will give temperature-controlled carrier Hirschbach more drivers, trucks, trailers, and revenue, but also more routes into food shipper supply chains.

With consumers still spending, Knight-Swift and Landstar see more growth, and higher rates, ahead.

Proactive steps taken by US and Canadian motor carriers and shippers ahead of vaccine mandates for truck drivers are keeping cross-border freight flowing despite earlier fears of disruption and delays.

The fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 likely won’t affect trucking as much as warehousing and aviation, but its indirect impact will put more pressure on already high trucking costs.

The largest US truckload operator acquired its second LTL carrier this year, bringing it closer to a national network and more than $900 million in LTL revenue.

Several factors are diminishing shipper expectations for new truck capacity in 2022, as Class 8 truck production and delivery dates are pushed out more than a year and backlogs build.