Truckload Profits Fall, LTLs Rise in 2nd Quarter

Second-quarter earnings reports show that the nation’s truckload carriers limped through the spring, as rising revenue failed to offset expenses that accelerated even more rapidly.

As the same time, most publicly traded less-than-truckload carriers on both the national and regional levels reported marked improvements in revenue and net income for the first six months of 2000 compared with 1999.

In the truckload sector though, large carriers soldiered through, hoping for a better second half of the year. Typically, the publicly traded companies generated more revenue but less net income.

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While modest rate increases and fuel surcharges stuck for carriers with reliable track records, cost increases in several areas — particularly fuel, insurance and driver costs — were anything but modest.



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