Trucking: An Industry in Transition

The 2000-2001 Transport Topics 100 is now available!

The year 2000 will be remembered as the year in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Fuel costs soared, the stock market fell, insurance premiums doubled and tripled for some firms, used truck values plummeted and demand for freight services softened. It was trucking’s equivalent of the perfect storm.

Survivors of the tempest, however, appear to be poised to take advantage of the difficult operating environment by snapping up smaller competitors, adding to their portfolio of transportation services and managing their operations more smartly than ever before.

Throughout much of the 1990s, the big trucking companies were on the ropes. Excess capacity and feverish rate cutting drove many freight haulers out of business.

But that’s changed: 2000 was a year in which the big players called the shots.

For the full story, see the July 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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