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‘ Shipper of choice’ taking on new meaning as truck capacity tightens

By Dan Ronan

Rather than protection from higher rates, shippers of choice are getting priority status for capacity. Hbx Media / Shutterstock. com freight and efficient operations. That relationship becomes more consequential as capacity tightens because neither side necessarily guarantees the other freight or capacity.

Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, complicates the assumption that carriers reward shippers for how they behaved during previous freight cycles.

Angi Acocella, PhD., research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, told Inland26 that research tracking shipper-carrier relationships found carriers behaved more like“ goldfish” than“ elephants.”

Carriers responded primarily to current conditions, including whether contract rates were competitive, volumes were consistent, freight fit their networks, and if detention reduced truck productivity.

Shippers showed longer memories. Research examining the transition from the tight 2020-21 market into the subsequent downturn found shippers remembered carrier performance and rewarded better-performing carriers with higher and more consistent volumes.

That raises a fundamental question: Why should a shipper knowingly leave money on the table during a soft market if a carrier may not reward that behavior when conditions reverse?

Shannon Breen, CEO and founder of FreightVana, challenged the notion that carriers have such short memories, saying his experience shows customer history matters when carriers allocate scarce capacity.

Breen recalled working in an operation that rejected an average of more than 15,000 loads a week during the tight 2018 market, forcing the carrier to decide which customers would get trucks.

As tightening truck capacity shifts leverage toward carriers, the long-standing concept of the“ shipper of choice” is facing a new test: What does preferred status actually buy a shipper when trucks become scarce?

J. B. Hunt Transport Services CEO Shelley Simpson, speaking at Journal of Commerce’ s Inland26 Conference, offered one measure. Of 34 customer attributes the carrier studied, she said only one closely correlated with shipperof-choice status: a contract lasting three years or longer.

“ There was one and only one attribute that closely correlated to being a shipper of choice, and it was the length of the contract,” Simpson said.“ The length of the contract had to be longer than two years. So, a threeyear or longer contract actually moved a customer into a shipper of choice.”

Simpson said the finding still holds today. J. B. Hunt’ s dedicated contracts average about five years, she said, allowing a customer’ s network to become part of the carrier’ s network.

The broader question confronting shippers after a prolonged freight downturn in which contract rates fell, even as carrier operating costs increased, is what those relationships are worth when the market turns.

The answer emerging is not necessarily protection from higher rates. Rather, it is priority status— for capacity, operational attention and equipment— earned through long-term commitment, competitive pricing, consistent

Research tracking shippercarrier relationships found carriers behaved more like“ goldfish” than“ elephants.”

“ These are the customers that we prioritize,” he said, adding that those decisions are built on prior history, including“ who supported who in the different cycles.”

A new customer trying to displace an incumbent“ better have an extraordinary rate on that load,” Breen added.

The practical benefit for a shipper of choice, Breen said, is priority on tenders, brokerage resources and investments such as drop trailers. But preferred status does not override market economics.

Kathy Faulk, a global supply chain executive and consultant, said carriers remain responsible for understanding their economics when submitting bids.

Carriers sometimes price aggressively to win freight only to discover they cannot provide capacity at the promised rate. Protecting a carrier from an unsustainable price it voluntarily submitted, Faulk said, ultimately is not the shipper’ s responsibility.

40 Journal of Commerce | November 2, 2026 www. joc. com