Schneider National said price renewals are currently at the highest levels since 2021 and that it expects to capture mid- to high-single-digit increases on one-way contracts this year.
Knight-Swift Transportation said the truckload market has fundamentally shifted with little help from demand.
Fuel price hikes and poor weather overhung the first quarter, but supply-side tailwinds along with improving demand could spell the end of earnings degradation for truckload carriers.
Knight-Swift Transportation lowered its second-quarter outlook and didn’t provide third-quarter guidance due to a “fluid trade policy,” which is weighing on customer decision making.
Executives at some of the nation’s largest truckload transportation providers are seeing incrementally positive signs that the market is turning.
Shippers are seeing relief in freight costs for the first time in more than two years, according to the December Cass Freight Index.
The trucking business is often cyclical, and understanding the changes in profitability is a great barometer for the general macroeconomic outlook.
Schneider beat estimates and raised full-year expectations Thursday. Management has been “encouraged” by contractual rate renewals so far this year.
Knight-Swift Transportation lays out a thesis showing how large carriers will navigate a potential downturn considerably better than small fleets.
Concerns on declining demand and falling freight rates prompted Bank of America to issue ratings downgrades for multiple transportation stocks.
