It mustn’t come as a surprise that 2023 was certainly one of the busiest years for news within the freight industry. Trucking corporations large and small shuttered, including the most important carrier bankruptcy in history. Layoffs continued to pile up amid the continuing trucking bloodbath. And labor disputes simmered across every mode.
Because the yr involves a detailed, we take a take a look at a few of FreightWaves’ most-read news stories of 2023. It’s only a sample of the 1000’s of stories FreightWaves’ writers put out this yr.
10. Family-owned California trucking company ceasing operations after 95 years
A 3rd-generation family-owned trucking company and brokerage — Certified Freight Logistics, headquartered in Santa Maria, California — ceased operations in October after 95 years. Read more.
9. Texas-based trucking company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Peace Equipment LLC, an organization headquartered in Edcouch, Texas, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, citing rising operating costs and “reduced income within the trucking industry.” Read more.
8. Teamsters demand Yellow’s previous $11-per-hour offer
A July letter from Teamsters leadership to local unions representing all of Yellow Corp.’s network said emergency negotiations hadn’t yielded an agreement. Read more.
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7. Illinois trucking company’s sudden shutdown leaves team drivers stranded, unpaid
Team drivers for Cromex Inc. of Villa Park, Illinois, say things were looking bleak after they were stranded in a Chicago-area hotel for 3 days greater than 1,000 miles from home with no paycheck or a truck until a truckers outreach organization offered to pay their rental automobile expenses to get them home to Jacksonville, Florida. Read more.
6. Yellow exec tells sales staff company will file bankruptcy Monday
Yellow’s senior vice chairman of sales informed her staff in July that the less-than-truckload carrier would file bankruptcy. Read more.
5. North Carolina trucking company to shut down after top customer pulls out
A North Carolina trucking company notified over 200 drivers, employees and mechanics it was ceasing operations after 11 years after a few of its major customers demanded “massive rate and volume concessions.” Read more.
4. For some owner-operators, it looks like the top of the road
The present market is hard enough for owner-operators that a big chunk of them are considering leaving it altogether. A minimum of that’s in keeping with a recent FreightWaves Research survey. Asked to pick statements that applied to them, 35.2% of self-identified owner-operators checked, “If the market doesn’t rebound materially by the top of 2023, I’ll leave the industry.” Read more.
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3. Trucking bloodbath snares fleets large and small
The variety of authorized interstate trucking fleets within the U.S. declined by nearly 9,000 in the primary quarter of 2023, in keeping with federal data analyzed by Motive, a fleet management technology company. Several midsize fleets shuttered this yr, including Florida’s Flagship Transport and North Carolina’s FreightWorks Transport. And major freight brokerages laid off 1000’s of employees in 2023 alone. Read more.
2. Freight recession unlike some other in history
While it is feasible that freight rates will rise in anticipation of a capability reset, FreightWaves and lots of other analysts don’t imagine that freight rates will increase until at the least the second quarter of 2024, and few predict large increases in rates even then. Due to this fact, it is probably going that the attrition process will proceed because the market slowly grinds out the weakest players. Read more.
1. Will truckers answer the decision to boycott Florida on Saturday?
In June, a whole lot of social media posts called for truck drivers to boycott picking up and delivering freight in Florida over the state’s latest law targeting undocumented immigrants. Read more.
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Other top stories from 2023:
Convoy cancels all shipments, load board is empty, announcement upcoming
Yellow is ceasing ‘regular operations’ on Friday
FMCSA will consider rollbacks to truck driver rest-break rules
FMCSA shuts door on brokers in rate transparency dispute
40-year-old Montana trucking company, freight brokerage shutters operations
How ELD mandate made trucking more dangerous
Yellow ceases operations
19 MEX centers, with Pilot branding, temporarily shut by operator bankruptcy
Teamsters not ‘bailing out’ Yellow again, unmoved by carrier’s funds
The post Probably the most-read FreightWaves stories of 2023 appeared first on FreightWaves.