US truckers had good year, but new safety rules will ban drivers

THE 2011 outlook for the US trucking market remains positive, but new safety rules will make three to five per cent of its drivers "unemployable."


"We anticipate that the driver market will become more challenging during 2011," said Werner Enterprise. "We believe changing industry safety regulations are tightening driver supply."


Over all, the industry reported that rising demand, capacity cuts and an "improved pricing environment" enabled most leading US truckload (TL) carriers to post profits in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the UK's Transport Intelligence.


The report highlighted that Werner Enterprise saw its net revenue grow by 34 per cent year on year to US$24 million, while the company's total revenue for the fourth quarter amounted to $463 million, an increase of five per cent.


Celadon saw even higher growth after its net revenue tripled during the period under review. Company CEO and chairman Steve Russell, was quoted as saying: "Our strategy is to focus on profitable freight and eliminate less desirable freight."


Swift Transportation's net revenue (excluding fuel surcharge) is said to have amounted to $661.6 million, up 13.8 per cent. "Our pricing is improving as customers align with our strong capacity and quality service, allowing us to improve our mix and recapture some of the rate lost during the recession," said CEO Jerry Moyes.


Knight Transportation said its fourth total revenue increased by 12 per cent compared to the same quarter a year earlier to $188 million.


"As demand continues to pick up, instead of adding capacity, many carriers are replacing existing tractors with newer models," said the report. Werner is keeping the number of trucks in its fleet at around 7,300 as it is replacing older vehicles with newer more fuel efficient ones.


Swift Transportation said earlier that it was adding extra capacity to its fleet, according to the report. The same with Knight Transportation, which was cited as saying it planned to raise capacity as well as length of haul. Knight added 130 trucks to its fleet in 2010, including 117 owner-operated trucks, and "had about 150 more tractors in its fleet than Q4 2009," the report said.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)