Four months after the collapse of AmeriTruck Distribution Corp., Ronald Damico – who sold his own business to AmeriTruck in 1996 – is still picking up the pieces.

With investors flocking to brokerage and logistics firms, Wall Street is sending a signal to non-asset-based transportation companies: Give us more.

Schneider National Inc. is putting Christopher B. Lofgren, its chief technology and logistics officer, in charge of its North American trucking operations.

Freight brokers — the people who arrange for air, rail, ocean and truck transportation — have always walked a tightrope in their efforts to serve the needs of shippers and carriers.

Wall Street is sending a signal to non-asset-based transportation companies: Give us more.

Four months after the collapse of AmeriTruck Distribution Corp., Ronald Damico is still picking up the pieces.

Silver Eagle Co., a unionized less-than-truckload carrier, closed its doors March 16, ending 70 years of service in the Pacific Northwest.

Freight brokers have always walked a tightrope in their efforts to serve the needs of shippers and carriers, but the old attitudes of distrust toward them are giving way to acceptance.

From high fuel costs to a tight labor pool, there’s no shortage of reasons to be pessimistic about the state of the truckload industry. But these tough times may help the more-established carriers.

In a move heralded by industry analysts as a possible turning point for the beleaguered truckload segment, six of the nation’s largest truckload carriers last week agreed to combine their logistics operations into a new Internet-based transportation logistics company called Transplace.com.