Top 40 Truckload and LTL Carriers
Special Report
Only 14 of the top 40 US and Canadian LTL carriers increased their revenues in 2023 . Andriy Blokhin / Shutterstock . com
In comparison , only one of the top 40 saw revenue drop in 2022 , a year when the LTL top 40 increased total revenue 16.6 %, according to SJ Consulting Group data .
Declines in revenue ran from the top to the bottom of the rankings , with seven companies reporting double-digit drops from 2022 . FedEx Freight , the largest US trucking company , saw revenue fall 10.6 % to $ 9.1 billion in calendar year 2023 .
Top 40 LTL revenue drops back to 2021 level
Annual revenues among the Top 40 US and Canadian Less-Than-Truckload ( LTL ) Carriers , including fuel surcharges , in millions of US dollars
Car $ 68,659
$ 60,000
$ 50,000
$ 40,000 $ 10,000 $ 30,000
$ 20,000
$ 10,000
“ There ’ s greater need to invest in technology . Not all small carriers can afford to make that investment .”
0.8 % -2 %
19.7 %
16.6 %
-14.3 %
$ 0
L 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Notes : 2023 figure excludes Yellow , which closed in August 2023
Source : Company reports and SJ Consulting Group estimates © 2024 S & P Global
L
Lower revenue isn ’ t necessarily a bad thing in the LTL sector , however . More LTL carriers than ever focused on shipment profitability rather than sheer volume , said Satish Jindel , president of SJ Consulting Group . They are turning down freight that doesn ’ t meet their goals for profitability .
The data in the SJ Consulting Group rankings dispels some of the sunny glow that has surrounded LTL trucking since Yellow closed its doors . Although some carriers gained business from Yellow and increased their daily shipment counts , there was less LTL freight to go around .
“ The average daily shipment count for the whole LTL industry was down from about 720,000 in 2022 to 675,000 last year ,” said Jindel . That ’ s a 6.3 % year-over-year decline in total daily LTL shipments .
Lower fuel prices also meant lower fuel surcharges , which translated to lower revenues for carriers , he said .
Racing for the top
The top 40 LTL companies , excluding Yellow , saw combined revenue decline 4.9 % to $ 49.6 billion last year , eliminating the gains made in 2022 when , with Yellow included , they amassed $ 57.3 billion in revenue .
With Yellow included , total revenue for the Top 40 group dropped 9.3 % — the biggest drop in LTL revenue since 2009 . The limited number of LTL providers beyond the top 40 collectively had $ 4.6 billion in revenue last year , 4.1 % less than in 2022 .
The rankings show the 14 of the top 40 LTL companies that did increase revenue in 2023 did so by 4.8 % on average , with smaller companies outpacing larger carriers . Among the 10 largest LTL carriers , the company that grew the most was R + L Carriers , a nationwide , privately owned LTL carrier . A 7.2 % increase in revenue to $ 3.1 billion last year pushed R + L up from the eighth- to the fifth-largest LTL provider in the top 40 rankings .
34 Journal of Commerce | April 22 , 2024 www . joc . com