More Tough Times For Truckload Sector

The roster of players in the truckload sector of the industry will continue changing drastically this year, according to a survey of stock analysts who follow trucking.

Bankruptcies will drive out more weak carriers and the survivors will merge with one another in an attempt to become larger and stronger. Charles Darwin’s observations on natural selection will be applied to the industrial organization of trucking.

“No way around it, 2000 was an ugly year for trucking,” said Donald Broughton of A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. Those ugly economic times have forced numerous carriers from the industry and will continue to do so, perhaps through the first half of this year, he said.

There was a solid consensus among the analysts that this year, especially the second half, would be much better for the surviving companies than 2000 was. Thom Albrecht of BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Va., sees the truckload sector as having fewer but more profitable companies than before.

For the full story, see the Jan. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.