Economy’s Growth Benefits Most TT 100 Top For-Hire Carriers
A tentative business recovery that gathered steam in 2003 and now appears to be pushing the limits of freight-hauling capacity boosted revenue and profits for most, but not all, of the carriers on the 2004 edition of the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
Less-than-truckload and truckload carriers both seemed to get a boost from the economy, while tank and motor-vehicle haulers struggled to stay in the black, based on a review of the 2003 financial results of the largest carriers that appears in a pullout section of this issue.
Parcel giants UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. continued their marketplace rivalry on the TT 100 list. They remained Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.
In Canada, TransForce Income Fund put together a large, diversified portfolio of LTL, parcel, truckload and logistics companies by buying what its chairman, Alain Bedard, called “good, well-managed companies” and operating them as stand-alone, competitive businesses.
“We don’t buy and merge,” Bedard said in an interview. “We keep units mainly separate,” he said of his Montreal-based company, which now ranks No. 35 on the list.
Yellow Roadway Chairman William Zollars said he is taking a similar approach in maintaining distinct LTL operations at Yellow Transportation, Roadway Express, New Penn Motor Express and Reimer Express Lines.
While the financial health of trucking generally improved, only a handful of carriers posted operating ratios — expenses as a percentage of revenue — of 90 or less.
In interviews with industry analysts and executives at four truckload carriers, TT staff reporter Mindy Long reports how strict cost controls and pricing discipline allowed these companies to achieve operating ratios far below the average of 93.8 for truckoad carriers and 92.6 for refrigerated haulers.
This story appeared in the July 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
