Trucking Shares Rode Roller Coaster Along With a Volatile Stock Market

Trucking equities joined the rest of the stock market in going through sharp volatility this year — improving, crashing and then clawing their way back — so that as 2011 drew to a close, six key indexes had moved less than 8% up or down over the course of 12 months.

The Standard & Poor’s trucking index increased in value by 4% for the 52 weeks that ended Dec. 7, but the comparable Dow Jones index declined by the same 4%. The Dow’s larger transportation average dipped by 1.1% over the same time.

The modest growth in U.S. gross domestic product — 1.25% a year for the first nine months — did not appear to motivate investors as much as global events — the earthquake and tsunami in Japan; political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East, including oil-producing Libya; worries over government debt throughout Europe; and even the downgrading of U.S. government debt.

Among the broad market indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial average improved by 7.2% over the 52-week test period, the S&P 500 added 2.7% and the Nasdaq Composite index inched up 1.5%.

Among the members of Transport Topic’s transportation stocks table, Old Dominion Freight Line did the best among trucking companies for the 52 weeks ended on Dec. 7. The less-than-truckload carrier’s share price rose 28.3% to $39.45 a share.

Among non-asset-based logistics companies, Echo Global Logistics posted a 42.9% im-provement to $16.63 a share.

Same-day parcel courier Dynamex Inc. left the realm of publicly traded companies in February, when it was acquired by diversified Canadian carrier TransForce Inc.

Logistics company US 1 Industries went private through a management buyout.

Express-1 Expedited Solutions got a new name in XPO Logistics and a new chairman and CEO in investor Bradley Jacobs.

There were no major initial public offerings in U.S. trucking or freight transportation in 2011. The last one was the return of Swift Transportation Co. in December 2010, but this was Swift’s first full year back as a public company.

Investor Carl Icahn took a position in the truck manufacturing industry in 2011. First, he bought nearly 10% of military and specialty vehicle maker Oshkosh Corp. in June. Then he acquired a similar stake in Navistar International Corp.

Among truckload carriers, Celadon Group purchased about 6.3% of the shares in USA Truck. Both companies are ranked on the Transport Topics 100 list of for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada, ranked 42nd and 50th, respectively. USA management declined to meet with Celadon executives shortly thereafter.

The only stock splits were of the reverse variety. Less-than-truckload carrier YRC Worldwide consolidated at a ratio of one new share for 300 old ones on Dec. 2. The company also had a 1:25 consolidation in October 2010. XPO consolidated its shares at a ratio of 1:4 in September.

Trimac Transportation became the last Canadian company on the TT stock table to abandon the income fund method of organization and switched to a limited liability firm. Contrans Group, Mullen Group and TransForce had made the switch earlier.

Intermodal carrier Trailer Bridge Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and said its stock would probably move from Nasdaq trading to the pink sheets over-the-counter market.