Dive Brief:

• Thousands more carriers exited the trucking market than grants and reinstatements in operating authority in Q4, federal data shows.
• Grants and reinstatements particularly slipped in December, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data, as carriers took a year-end stock of operations. That indicated firms’ willingness to participate in the market on their own.
• The December net decrease was the largest since April, FTR VP of Trucking Avery Vise said in an email last week. But processing of the data could have skewed the revocations in December because the month had more Mondays, he added.

Dive Insight:

Market exits for individual trucking businesses dominated 2024.

Cumulative data suggested the trend held throughout the year. That’s a far cry from the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses inundated the industry to chase soaring freight rates.

The revocations, which may only be temporary stoppages, signal hardships on individual businesses. Trucking executives, however, have stressed the need for a market rebalancing amid demand woes. 

The market lacks the tightness needed for meaningful rate changes, but the industry is getting closer to recovery, Vise said in an interview. On a quarterly basis, the overall total of departures in Q4 2024 was smaller compared to any other in the prolonged post-COVID downturn, Vise noted.

Meanwhile, grants and reinstatements tapered throughout Q4, lowering capacity. This stands in contrast to a year ago, when reinstatements were particularly more resilient.

The market may have become less attractive for businesses operating on their own authority, but truckers may have also shifted toward employee driving positions, Vise wrote.

“Based on preliminary Bureau of Labor data, though, it does appear that at least during the first half of 2024, truckload payroll employment sank rather significantly, so larger carriers might be looking to at least firm up their driver forces heading into an expected recovery this year,” he wrote.