After a couple blockbuster years in trucking immediately on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, revenues of the industry’s largest for-hire carriers came crashing back down to earth in 2023.
Revenues of the carriers in the 2024 CCJ Top 250 ranking that self-reported, filed or otherwise published information in each of the last two years was down $20 billion, from $301.8 billion in 2022 to $281.8 billion last year, a 6.6% decline.
(Editor’s note: More than 60% of the fleets in the 2024 CCJ Top 250 disclosed 2023 revenue figures that are used for computing this year’s ranking, including most of the companies within the first 100 spots on the list. In instances where no revenue is listed in the accompanying tables, revenues were not published at the request of the submitting company, or a company chose not to disclose information and an assumed revenue was calculated – but not published – for the purposes of the ranking. See the “Ranking methodology” and “About the CCJ Top 250” sections below for more information.)
Click here to see the full updated 2024 Top 250 list
Of the nine industry operating segments that make up the CCJ Top 250, only the motor vehicles segment grew revenue year-over-year (3.9%). With only five carriers in that segment comprising a small sample size, that increase might be reflective of business acumen of the largest vehicle haulers and not representative of the broader motor vehicle haulers’ market.
By comparison, the general freight operating segment – which is comprised of 112 carriers in the 2024 CCJ Top 250 ranking – turned in a 9.5% revenue decrease compared to the previous year. Likewise, the 27-carrier refrigerated segment disclosed an 8.6% revenue drop.
The tank/bulk commodities segment, the second largest group on the list at 42 carriers, had a more modest revenue decline of 4.9%, followed by the flatbed/specialized/heavy haul segment with a 4.7% decrease. The nine-carrier intermodal segment disclosed a whopping 18.9% revenue decrease year-over-year. The dedicated contract carriage and packages/small shipments segments turned in modest drops in revenue of 3.5% and 3.7%, respectively.
Despite the dismal revenue performance, the combined 719,471 power units of the 241 carriers that appeared in both this year’s and last year’s CCJ Top 250 ranking is up slightly (0.5%) compared to last year. Among that same group, driver counts are also up: 818,807 in 2024 vs. 813,476 in 2023. The 2024 total driver count for all CCJ Top 250 companies is 821,508, slightly lower than last year’s reported 826, 970, and well below the 866,983 reported in the 2021 CCJ Top 250 during the height of the post-pandemic recovery.
On the move
Quebec-based trucking behemoth TFI (CCJ Top 250, No. 5) led the way with two of the largest acquisitions since last year’s ranking, expanding further into the flatbed market with the $1.1billion purchase of Daseke (formerly No. 23), the largest conglomerate in the segment with familiar subsidiaries such as Boyd Bros., Smokey Point Distributing and Lone Star Transportation. TFI also acquired JHT Holdings (formerly No. 77), a transportation provider for Class 6-8 truck manufacturers. TFI now lists dozens of subsidiaries in its transportation portfolio.
With TFI absorbing Daseke, Birmingham, Ala.-based PS Logistics (No. 23) takes the reins as the largest primary flatbed company in the market. It moved up six spots in this year’s ranking, due in large part to the acquisition of Buddy Moore Trucking (formerly No. 196) that reported 340 tractors and drivers in last year’s ranking. PS Logistics also purchased Action Dedicated, a subsidiary of fellow Alabama-based carrier Action Resources (No. 232).
Ryder System (No. 8) climbed four spots in the new CCJ Top 250 thanks to its blockbuster acquisition of Cardinal Logistics (formerly No. 41) to bolster its leading dedicated operations. Terms were not disclosed, but the deal netted an estimated 3,200 power units to Ryder. Cardinal Logistics disclosed 2022 revenues of more than $1.1 billion in 2022.
Knight-Swift Holdings (No. 4) continued its recent spate of purchases, bolstering its less-than-truckload footprint with the acquisition of Dependable Highway Express (formerly No. 141).
Hub Group (No. 34), a leader in the intermodal segment, purchased the final mile division of Forward Air (No. 31) for $262 million. In the tank/bulk commodities segment, United Petroleum Exports (No. 102) rocketed up this year’s list with the acquisition of Florida Rock & Tank Lines (No. 221) parent company Patriot Transportation. The move grew UPT’s operation to more than 1,000 drivers and 30 terminals.
About the CCJ Top 250
Commercial Carrier Journal has ranked the top for-hire trucking companies since the late 1960s. The CCJ Top 250 is the most comprehensive ranking of active carriers. Our ranking considers not only the revenues posted by a trucking company but also its fleet size and employment base.
Rankings based strictly on revenues often capture activities that have only an indirect relationship to transportation. Blending revenue, equipment and drivers also allows for a reasonable way to capture carriers that decline to disclose revenue.
The CCJ Top 250 ranking treats all carriers under one umbrella as a single entity. Carriers with significant ownership by an individual, family or company but not organized under a single management team are treated separately. Also, carriers that went out of business or were acquired by other companies in 2023 and 2024 aren’t listed. Instead, only active carriers are displayed. For a detailed explanation of the CCJ Top 250 ranking methodology, see “Ranking Methodology” below.
The CCJ Top 250 begins with data provided by CCJ parent company Randall Reilly’s RigDig Business Intelligence based on data supplied by carriers to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on their required Form MCS-150 filings. Because this data can be – although rarely is – as much as a couple of years old, and because the MCS-150 does not include information on revenues, all carriers included in the ranking were given an opportunity to review FMCSA data for freshness and to supply information not included on the form. In some cases, CCJ supplements its data with other official sources, such as reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
If a carrier declines to verify or update the data that we provide it for review, we presume the publicly available data is valid and use it for ranking purposes. Carriers are not allowed to opt out of the ranking.
Ranking methodology
CCJ’s ranking of companies is a blended scale based on a combination of revenue, total power units and number of drivers rather than a ranking simply by revenue. Companies considered for inclusion in the CCJ Top 250 were ranked from high to low by revenue, power units (weighted based on the type of power unit as discussed below) and drivers and assigned a rank in each category.
The numerical rank stored in each of the three fields was added together (revenue rank + vehicle rank + driver rank) to provide a rank sum. This sum then was ordered to provide the overall ranking assigned to each carrier, with the lowest sum receiving the highest rank.
A number of carriers failed to report actual 2023 revenue. In order to be included in the blended ranking, they were assigned – for blended ranking purposes only – a calculated revenue figure determined by multiplying the carrier’s total number of power units by the average of the bottom 50 percent of revenue per power unit performers for the companies in that carrier’s primary segment.
Calculated revenue is discounted by using the average of the bottom 50 percent of performers so that carriers failing to report revenue are not given an undue advantage in the ranking. Calculated revenue almost always will differ from actual revenue, of course, but the effect on the blended ranking likely is slight.
The power unit ranking, which represents an investment as much as a physical-count measure of trucking assets, takes into account the difference between tractors and trucks. The assumption is that a for-hire carrier with 1,000 tractors has a greater investment in equipment than one with 1,000 straight trucks. For the purpose of the blended rank only, a truck was weighted at half the value of a tractor.