After several tough years, the largest carriers gain confidence in the hand they are dealt
If you ever want evidence that a single year’s performance can be misleading, look no further than 2010. The for-hire carriers in the CCJ Top 250 reporting revenue posted 10.5 percent growth over 2009. Excluding package giants UPS and FedEx – whose numbers often skew the overall performance – the CCJ Top 250 still brought in 9.7 percent more revenue in 2010. Every industry segment saw higher revenues – even household goods carriers suffering through a prolonged and severe housing slump.
While revenue growth in 2010 may not be surprising, that doesn’t mean 2010 was a great year. Percentage growth is merely a relative measure, and 2009 was a relatively bad or absolutely bad year for most carriers. Revenue fell by more than 18 percent in 2009 compared to 2008, and 2008 was a year of weak revenue growth. Excluding UPS and FedEx, revenue plunged 22 percent in 2009. Freight might have been better in 2010 than it was a number of years earlier, but it was hauled by capacity built to handle peak volume in the mid-2000s.
The good news is that based on freight data and reports of publicly traded carriers, the rebound that began in 2010 is still going strong.
Failure was not an option
Perhaps one of the best signs of recovery in 2010 and 2011 is that there hasn’t been a single failure of a major trucking company since publication of last year’s CCJ Top 250. The last big collapse was flatbed carrier Arrow Trucking in late 2009.
But the CCJ Top 250 still has seen significant change through mergers and acquisitions. The deals involving Top 250 carriers include:
• No. 15 TransForce buying Dynamex (No. 56 last year);
• No. 18 Ryder Supply Chain Solutions buying The Scully Companies (No. 159 last year);
• No. 22 Kenan Advantage Group buying DistTech (No. 217 last year);
• No. 41 Vitran Corp. buying the LTL division of No. 249 Milan Express;
• No. 51 Transport Corporation of America buying Southern Cal Transport (No. 127 last year);
