How BIG is a Small Trucking Company?

Small enough to not have recruiters.

 

The article (or at least the survey) is full of BS IMO. In my book a "small carrier" is any carrier smaller then about the largest 20 carriers. I suspect that fleet power unit size and gross revenue is proportional for the most part.

If you think about it ... they say they can't afford to raise driver pay. That must be an indication of narrow margins (true with some companies, with some shippers [but not all]). That must be an indication of heavy competition (very true in most segments) (heavy competition is another way of saying way too many trucks for way too little freight) . Even if truckload shipments were to rise 20% in the next 12 months (never going to happen), there is plenty of current power and driver capacity to handle this.

Larger shippers are going to negotiate and secure dirt cheap rates, regardless of economy, season, fuel costs, or other cost issues faced by carriers. When you have 8 major carriers bidding for the same freight, they will literally cut their own throat ... there's plenty of desperate new driver recruits in line to work for lessening wages to offset the revenue cut.

The reason drivers aren't getting raises is because carriers are having to pay $10,000 premiums for the next generation of "clean burning, fuel IN-efficient" engines mandated by CA and the US EPA.