Less-Than-Truckload

World-class service prevails amid sharp falloff in demand.

Faced with more moving parts than at any other time, the current state of the less-than-truckload market has carriers riding high, with shippers looking to lock in strong pricing and balance their network operations and priorities.

As LTL carriers adapt and respond to changing market dynamics, many have had to make relatively significant rate increases—in the range of 5% to 6% in recent months. The good news is that there are ways for shippers to mitigate the impact of rate increases.

Yellow is making progress toward profitability. It still suffered an $18.7 million loss in the 2020 fourth quarter, but cut its annual losses nearly in half to $53.5 million, compared with a $104 million loss in 2019. That latter figure included $11.2 million loss on extinguishment of debt associated with a refinancing of the Company’s term loan agreement.

YRC Worldwide, a holding company that collectively controls about 10% of the $46 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) marketplace, is trimming its quarterly losses and going back to its branding roots. It is resurrecting the venerable “Yellow” brand.

While we all know 2020 is truly a year unlike any other, there are many themes that are indicating that will also be the case for this year’s Peak Season. That was made clear on the “Code Red” webcast hosted last week by NASSTRAC, CSCMP, and TranzAct Technologies.

Asset-light freight and logistics services provider Forward Air Corporation announced it is rolling out less-than-truckload (LTL) service in two new markets: Columbia, Missouri and Roanoke, Virginia. This is part of the company’s ongoing growth strategy focused on both inorganic investments, which include acquisitions, and organic infrastructure investments like its LTL expansion efforts.

The U.S. government entered the $46 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) industry by effectively purchasing 30% of financially troubled LTL giant YRC Worldwide in exchange for a badly needed $700 million cash infusion.

The objective of the program is to evaluate and recognize—in the form of a list published on a monthly basis—less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload carriers in the project44 network that, project44 said “have demonstrated excellence in performance, consistency, delivery of high-fidelity data and shipment visibility across multiple loads.”

The first economic shock waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have started to wash across the first quarter earnings reports of the leading publicly held less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, with more bad news coming later in the year.

YRCW officials said that as detailed in its most recent Form 10-K, as it progresses through its previously discussed enterprise transformation, “the company will be reporting its five brands, which were formerly reported as two segments, now as one company on a consolidated basis.”

YRC Freight Regional Next-Day Texas service will now include Fort Worth and Garland, with company officials noting that this service expansion marks the most recent step in the YRCW enterprise network optimization strategy.

Tampa, Fla.-based non asset-based 3PL BlueGrace Logistics announced this week it has acquired freight broker Anthym Logistics. This represents the company’s first external transaction since partnering with Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, in 2016, which was done to leverage investment capital to help drive growth for BlueGrace.

ODFL reported that revenue per day dropped 1% from February 2019 to February 2020, which the company attributed to a 5.2% decrease in daily tonnage that was partially offset by an increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight.

January shipments—at 1.022—fell 9.4%, marking its largest annual decline going back to 2009, while also dropping 2.9% compared to December, and January expenditures—at 2.568—fell 8% annually and were down 5.7% compared to January 2019.