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Perspective: Carriers Must Engineer Their Own Profit
Technology Needs to Be Used to Create New Income, Writes Mark Hill of PCS Software
Key Takeaways:
- Hill argues trucking’s prolonged margin squeeze is existential and carriers must build margin themselves rather than wait for rates to rebound.
- Citing the American Transportation Research Institute, average operating margins fell below 2% in 2024, with truckload turning negative as costs outpaced revenue.
- Hill says fleets should use embedded AI to create new profit points by cutting deadhead, exposing profitable lanes and saving time, especially for midmarket carriers.
Profit margins in trucking are under relentless pressure and have been for some time. After three years of soft rates and rising operating costs, too many carriers are running harder just to stay in the same place. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, average operating margins across nearly every sector fell below 2% in 2024, with the truckload market slipping into negative territory. For many carriers, the cost to operate now outpaces the revenue coming in. Some people say this is a short-term problem. I see it as an existential one.
The market isn’t going to hand back the margin it took. We have to build it ourselves.
When I look at the state of this industry, what I see is a group of operators who have already done everything right. They’ve tightened their belts, renegotiated rates, optimized routes, cut fuel costs and trimmed overhead. They’ve gotten as lean as humanly possible. But you can only cut so much. Eventually, the math still doesn’t work. The fleets that will make it through this cycle are the ones that move past cost-cutting and start using technology to create new income.
I call it creating new profit points, which is a simple way to describe using data and intelligence to uncover the small operational advantages that add up to real margin over time. For midmarket carriers especially, that means having access to tools that historically only the largest fleets could afford: optimization engines, artificial intelligence-driven recommendations and predictive insights that guide smarter decisions across dispatch, planning and finance.
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Hill
AI, when done right, shouldn’t be a bolt-on — it should be an intelligence layer that sits inside the systems a fleet already uses. It should see data in real time, learn about the operation and start making suggestions that actually influence day-to-day choices. It should cut deadhead miles by flagging smarter backhauls, highlight the lanes that truly make money, reduce administrative drag, and give dispatchers and planners the visibility and time to focus on work that grows the business.
This is what I call manufacturing margin. You’re not waiting for the market to turn; you’re taking the operation you already have and teaching it to generate more yield per mile, per route and per hour worked.
That’s how fleets get back on offense.
Midmarket fleets have been underserved by technology for too long. Large carriers have long benefited from advanced analytics and dedicated teams focused on squeezing more productivity from every mile. Meanwhile, most midsize fleets have been left with fragmented systems and people firefighting their way through each week. AI changes that. It levels the field by placing real intelligence in the hands of the operators who move the bulk of North America’s freight. The same data that once overwhelmed can now be used for clear, confident and profitable action.
AI empowers humans. The best technology makes human judgment more powerful — not less relevant. Dispatchers will always understand the nuances of their lanes and driver preferences. Planners will always have the instincts that come from experience. What AI adds is speed, visibility and the ability to see patterns that were previously buried so that decisions happen faster and with more confidence.
Johan Land of Samsara explores how fleets are adopting AI to revolutionize their safety programs. Tune in above or by going to RoadSigns.ttnews.com.
The next step is shifting how we evaluate technology altogether. Every carrier should be asking the same three questions of any new system: Does it save me money, does it make me money, and does it save me time? If the answer isn’t yes to at least one, it’s not worth the investment.
The market may stay volatile, and rates won’t rise just because the industry hopes they will. But the fleets that learn to engineer their own profit through smarter operations, automation and real-time intelligence will be the ones still standing when the cycle turns.
That’s the future of trucking: Building better conditions instead of waiting for them.
Mark A. Hill joined PCS Software as CEO in April 2024 from W Energy Software, where he served as chief revenue officer and later as CEO.
