Private Carriers Aim to Meet Corporate Goals With New Trucks, Collaboration, Outsourcing
By Daniel P. Bearth, Senior Features Writer
This story appears in the Aug. 26 print edition of Transport Topics.
Shipper-owned fleet operators are buying more fuel-efficient trucks, collaborating with other shippers to better utilize equipment and, in some cases, outsourcing freight hauling to for-hire carriers and third-party logistics companies in response to demands from corporate executives for cost savings, faster service and fewer carbon emissions.
Interest in natural gas-powered trucks is also growing as a way to meet corporate sustainability goals, according to fleet managers and industry executives interviewed for the 2013 edition of the Transport Topics Top 100 Private Carriers list.
Private fleets account for about two-thirds of all Class 8 tractors in operation in the United States and are used for a wide range of purposes, including delivering food and beverages, hauling petroleum and chemicals and bringing merchandise to stores.
Companies that supply materials for oil and gas drilling, in particular, added substantially to the number of tractors they operate as domestic energy production continued to grow in both the United States and Canada.
A group of 24 companies on the TT100 Private Carriers list added almost 5,800 tractors over the past year, according to data compiled by Transport Topics.
At the same time, companies in manufacturing, retail and food distribution generally kept their fleet sizes in check and have pursued other means of boosting their freight-hauling capacity.
“We have a need for additional capacity,” said Richard Evans, director of transportation for Valley Proteins Inc., a company in Winchester, Va., that converts animal byproducts into fuel and other commodities. “In the past year, we have been using dedicated resources to handle some of our long-range loads that normally aren’t a good fit for our company fleet.”
PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. maintained their positions as the largest corporate-owned fleets on the TT100 private carriers list, but both companies operated fewer tractors in 2013 compared with 2012.
Mergers and divestitures also are reshaping some private fleets.
Grocery retailer and wholesale distributor Supervalu Inc. shed a sizeable portion of its fleet with the sale of more than 1,000 stores to an investment firm that will operate under the Albertsons name.
Hostess Brands, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread, auctioned off its assets to five different companies and is liquidating its fleet of more than 900 tractors in the process.
Other significant transactions during the past year include the purchase of Safety-Kleen Systems by environmental cleanup specialist Clean Harbors Inc., the acquisition of MBM Foodservice by grocery distributor McLane Co. and the sale of Harris Teeter Supermarkets to The Kroger Co.
Editor’s Note: The full 2013 TT100 listing of private carriers, which is included in the August 26 print edition of Transport Topics, will be posted online as a PDF in the near future.
