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A ‘Great Purge’ is pushing small truckers out of business at an unprecedented rate

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but it will hurt

(Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Chris Tucker needed to move some hot tubs. It seemed like a good gig for his network of small truckers.

The Winchester, Kentucky-based owner of Full Coverage Freight, a truck brokerage, recently advertised to truck drivers on a load board that it had a shipment of hot tubs headed from Seattle to a small town in the middle of Wisconsin. The rate came out to under $2 a mile, which Tucker thought was low. He expected drivers to haggle with his company to get paid at least $2.50 a mile, or about $1,000 more for the gig.

Instead, his office was slammed with dozens of phone calls and hundreds of texts clamoring for the hot tub job — exactly at the rate advertised.

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It’s not an ideal situation for America’s 2 million truck drivers. Too many truck drivers for the amount of work available means lower and lower pay. During the last major trucking recession in 2019, hundreds of trucking companies declared bankruptcy, unable to cover the costs of running a trucking company with deflating rates.


The last few months have made Tucker believe trucking is about to enter the “Great Purge,” or another spate of major bankruptcies. He predicted in a June 10 Facebook post on the Rate Per Miles Masters group, which hosts about 33,000 trucking professionals, that the many truck drivers who flooded the industry amid unprecedented truck volumes would have to shut down their operations. Ill-prepared brokers would also face the same doom, he wrote. 

“I don’t think there’s enough freight out there to justify their existence anymore,” Tucker told FreightWaves this week. 

The Great Purge appears to be underway already. In May, net motor carrier revocations hit a record high, according to an analysis of federal data by FTR Transportation Intelligence. January and March of this year were the previous records. 

Chart showing net revocations of trucking authorities
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported in May that a record number of trucking companies saw their authorities revoked. This data lags by several months.

As the above FTR graph shows, revocations of trucking authorities reached a record high in May, hitting nearly 9,300. The yellow bar represents some 4,000 revocations from entities that failed to file a required form and may be considered aberrations in the data. Even counting that out, though, the net revocations peaked. 


Small fleets as tiny as one driver comprise the bulk of these shuttering trucking companies. Avery Vise, who is the vice president of trucking at FTR, said many of these drivers will join larger fleets rather than get flushed out of the market completely.  

The following months will likely break May’s record, representing more fleets fleeing the market. The revocations represented above were likely filed before this spring’s diesel surge and spot rate decline, Vise said. 

It’s an about-face from just a few months ago, when small truckers were still bringing in major cash. Here’s what happened: 

2020-2022: All the cool kids are becoming owner-operators

In March 2020, retailers and manufacturers expected a long-term economic meltdown to result from the coronavirus. Instead, consumers bought more and more

Retailers were caught flat-footed with empty warehouses and had to quickly scale up to meet consumer demand for exercise equipment, computer monitors and, yes, toilet paper. 

New trucking fleets poured into the market to profit from these sky-high rates. From July 2020 to now, almost 195,000 new carriers have entered the market, according to Vise of FTR. About 70% of these new carriers were just one truck. The previous record 23-month period saw just 86,000 new carriers. 

The flood of new carriers was felt around the industry. 

Tucker of Full Coverage Freight, which is an independent agency with GlobalTranz, confirmed that through his own experiences. His office was flooded with calls from small truckers who had set up their authority only a few days prior.


“We saw this developing 18 months ago,” Tucker said. “We could support this artificial introduction of all these carriers just because of all this activity going on.”

The unusual marker of the last two years isn’t just that rates and volumes skyrocketed but where they skyrocketed: the spot market.  

The spot market usually accounts for 10-20% of the overall trucking market. Vise said that share may have climbed to as high as 50% in the height of COVID-buying craziness. 

Graph showing price to move dry van on the spot market
The rate to move a dry van on the spot market climbed through 2021. 

The rate to move a load on the spot market soared. Each month of 2021 seemed to break a new record in the rate to move a dry van, with the peak hitting in January 2022. It was a fantastic time to be a small trucker, who can pick up spot jobs easily.

Contract rates didn’t climb at the same pace. That’s best measured by the Outbound Tender Reject Index, which shows how much contract freight is getting rejected. 

Unlike, well, every other industry, you don’t need to honor your trucking contracts. If you’re a fleet that can make more money moving spot loads, you’re free to go do that. (Of course, keep in mind that your customer might not be so happy to give you a fair rate when spot rates inevitably crash again — and you’re struggling to make ends meet.)

Trucking companies rejected unusually high amounts of freight in 2021. 

Around 27% of all contract freight was getting rejected last spring. Even in late December 2021 and early January 2022, the rejection rate was more than 20%. 

The spike in spot rates meant more capacity on the small trucker side. Trucking companies with more than 100 trucks didn’t grow at nearly the same pace as the part of the market with one-man bands. Vise estimated around 6-7% of capacity shifted from those fleets of 100-plus drivers to those under 100 in the past two years. 

Spring 2022: A collapse in spot rates meets a surge in diesel

As you can safely expect in trucking, the good times ran out. In March, spot rates began a freefall at a stunning rate. 

Mazen Danaf, who is the senior economist at Uber Freight, compared the month-over-month drop in spot rates excluding fuel. In March and April, rates dropped by 30 cents compared to the months prior. Rates dropped another 20 cents in May. 

Those declines outpace the previous record decline: 15 cents.

graph showing truckstop 7 day van rate
Dry van spot rates have crumbled from record highs in 2021 and early 2022.

Meanwhile, the contract side of the market is regaining territory. The rejection rate for contract rate, which loomed at more than 20% earlier this year, is now sitting at 7.7%.

Danaf said freight contracts that were negotiated in early 2022 took into account high spot rates. That allowed big trucking companies, which aren’t as active in the spot market as smaller ones, to secure higher rates from their customers. The new, small truckers that flooded the market in the last few years were less likely to have those sort of long-term relationships with big retailers and manufacturers. They lost out on any bump in contract rates earlier this year. 

Now, Vise said spot accounts for about 30% of the market. Danaf estimated that number was 18%. Both indicate a trucking economy that’s shifting back from the volatile spot world to steadier contracts — even though it means that some smaller trucking companies will get shuttered in the process.

“What we’re seeing is a shift of the market back to a traditional split,” Vise said. “It could take a long time however.” 

Even more challenging to small trucking companies is the soaring cost of doing business. According to a report from loadboard Truckstop.com, it’s now 51% more expensive to run a trucking company in 2022 than last year. Smaller carriers are more likely to shoulder than burden

The staggering cost of diesel is the most marked cost increase, with the smallest fleets struggling to keep up. Some truck drivers have shut down simply because they couldn’t afford diesel anymore. 

David Guzman of San Antonio is one of them. “The way the rates are, you have to run twice as hard to make ends meet,” he told FreightWaves in April. “I can’t help but feel for my fellow truck drivers.”

Equipment has also become more expensive. Truck drivers who bought their trucks in 2021 are paying off loans on trucks that might be two or three times higher than normal. The cost of repairs is also pricier — up nearly 9% in late 2021 from late 2020. Such expenses aren’t getting subsidized by ultra-high spot rates anymore. 

Others believe that this winnowing out of small truckers resembles something spookier than a mere shift from spot to contract. This week, FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller wrote that the issues plaguing trucking may resemble a larger economic recession. Ocean volumes are beginning to collapse, reflecting record inflation and big-box retailers that are already full-up on inventory. What consumer spending is still growing is on the travel and entertainment side, which doesn’t move as much freight.

“What’s going to happen is going to be tough,” Tucker, the freight broker, said. “It’s going to be painful for a lot of people. Very few people will be left standing.”

There’s one way out for small truckers, but that opportunity is closing

Vise said many of the small truckers who gave up their authority rejoined a big fleet as company drivers. Others leased their truck back to one of those mega-carriers, where they can benefit from fuel surcharges to underwrite big diesel payments 

Those drivers might be the lucky ones. Those who already sold their trucks were still able to take advantage of high used truck prices, which are now quickly declining

What’s more, there may not be many more jobs available at big carriers. Nonsupervisory trucking employment hit a record high in April, the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vise said he’s closely monitoring these numbers to see if trucking fleets decide themselves they have too many drivers.

Vise is still positive on the current market, saying that trucking is shifting from spot freight dominated by small truckers back to contract loads dominated by big carriers. Pointing to pent-up manufacturing demand and signs of resiliency on the consumer side, he said he’s “fairly optimistic we will muddle through this year without a recession.”

Not all are feeling so chipper. Thom Albrecht, chief financial officer of transportation insurance agency Reliance Partners, said current rates can’t match the new cost structure of running a trucking company. Fuel, equipment and labor have become too expensive — and these problems are matching a slowdown in job creation and the Federal Reserve’s struggle to tame inflation. 

“The party’s over,” Albrecht said. 

Do you work in the trucking industry? Email the author [email protected] with your experience. And don’t forget to subscribe to MODES for your weekly dose of logistics insights. 

27 Comments

  1. Niko Bella Khouf

    First they tell us that there’s a major driver shortage and it’s causing freight rates to be really high, which increases prices. Just a short while later, they’re trying to convince us that there’s a driver surplus and they are competing for very low freight rates. And prices are still high. Which is it?

  2. Dionne

    It’s amazing that they use terms like, “sky high rates” which would lead the general public to believe that truckers were getting rich! What was truthfully happening is that the one with all the skin in the game was able to make a good living for all of their investments in their trucking company.

    1. MJ

      Exactly! The rates Had been soo low for so many years. People have always talked about shutting down to take a stance and drivers would say they couldn’t. In a minute they might not have a choice

    2. Dave Kalata

      Agree with your comment on “sky high rates”, FreightWaves and its parent, American Shipper, in my view, are pro-shipper and criticizes carriers, all modes, when they are enjoying financial success and earning a return, to justify the significant capital investment!

  3. Mike Broaddus

    Debt will be the difference between owner ops who make it and those who don’t. In 3-6 months those with a hefty monthly nut will go away. We have seen similar trends like this many times before. This particular ride may be worse than most for many of the reasons mentioned in the article. If you have no debt, it is a good time to drown worms and wait out the bloodbath.

  4. David

    Personally, I’m glad. There are so many unprofessional truckers out there, clogging up the highways, driving like they own the highways.. just unprofessional wheel holders.
    Now the pros will endure. They are the ones we actually need. Not the 3 week graduates of “Hill billies truckers course”.
    That “protest” they had some months ago really did a lot. Didn’t it?
    Good riddance.

  5. Tom macie

    Wasn’t it just 6 months ago there weren’t enough truckers to move the freight out of the ports thus the shortage we were seeing on our shelves?

    1. Dave Kalata

      Shortage of port, as well as inland, drayage capacity goes back to June 2020 when the great import tidal wave began, continues today, and, in my opinion, will continue through the remainder of this year despite a picture of doom and gloom painted by this publication.

      As with so many other things, the days of taking a board brush to paint an economic picture are long gone and you have to look at each port and the local and regional economy that it serves.

  6. Dave Kalata

    For those small carriers, we are looking to add owner-operates in Houston, Dallas, Laredo and San Antonio-Austin. Our primary business is FCL Drayage but with our 53′ dry van fleet, also provide FTL and LTL.

    If interested, please contact myself or our recruiting team:

    Janie Polo – Safety Manager, [email protected]
    Martha Guerrero – Safety Coordinator, Recruiter, [email protected]

    Everyone have a safe and enjoyable weekend!

    Regards,

    Dave Kalata
    Managing Director
    Terrier Transportation, Inc.
    Houston, TX
    E: [email protected]

Comments are closed.

Rachel Premack

Rachel Premack is the editorial director at FreightWaves. She writes the newsletter MODES. Her reporting on the logistics industry has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Vox, and additional digital and print media. She's also spoken about her work on PBS Newshour, ABC News, NBC News, NPR, and other major outlets. If you’d like to get in touch with Rachel, please email her at [email protected] or [email protected].