Never Stand Still

After some more web searching I came up with a list of Mr Moffits Circle Expresses holdings from the 1989-90 edition of the National Motor Carrier Directory


ECK Miller Transportation Corp.

Mid-Western Transport, Inc. of Columbus OH.

Roadrunner Trucking, Inc. of Albuquerque NM

Advanced Distribution System, Inc. Dublin Oh

Rainbow Express of Council Bluffs, Iowa.


Circle Express seems to fade into obscurity. Information on the web is sparse; at some point these companies listed above were part of a holding company called Intrenet Inc. The archived news article I found was from the mid 1990's. Despite the Internet being an amazing research tool I really couldn't make the connection between Circle Express and Intrenet,Inc. My best guess is that Intrenet, Inc either purchased Circle C Express or Circle Express changed their name? If you are interested in reviewing the articles I sourced from yourself go to thefteelibrary(dot)com and search "Indiana trucking: Indiana's major trucking companies." and "ROADRUNNER TRUCKING OPENS NEW HEADQUARTERS".


I personally remember Roadrunner and their red Macks very well, they were a big player in the flatbed business back in the 90's.


Sorry for the long digression,for some odd reason I find corporate trucking business history interesting, back to CF.

 

Mike2633,

Your observation about the current makeup of the the truckload industry actually ties into our discussion about CF, which of course was a LTL carrier who slowly fell apart post deregulation.


Most of the big name truckload carriers today have roots in hauling unregulated freight pre-deregulation, after deregulation these carriers were able to take what was regulated truckload freight from the old ICC regulated carriers and that fueled their growth. A lot of people don't realize that ICC common carriers prederegulation actually handled a lot of what we today consider truckload freight, back then any freight that was under icc jurisdiction had to be handled by an ICC carrier weather it was one crate or 10 truckloads. ICC common carriers generally functioned like modern day LTL carriers do today, with a network of terminals ,line haul and P&D schedules, all of which was unnecessary overhead for truckload type freight. After deregulation the Swifts, Schneiders, Werners and others around the country saw an opportunity to take (undercut) this truckload freight from the high overhead ex ICC carriers. Now keep in mind These truckload carriers were already use to competing in the highly competitive unregulated freight market prederegulation, so they were well equipped to handle the new hyper aggressive ex ICC freight market that was created by deregulation.

As a result of this Most of the old legacy ICC carriers were quickly crushed by loss of market share due to rate reductions fueled by massive competition. I read a quote from a previous ABF CEO saying that pre deregulation something like 40% of their business would have been considered truckload freight and as of the time of the article which was around 2000 less than 5% of their freight could be classified as truckload.


Add the above dynamic with all the post deregulation startup LTL trucking companies and those legacy ICC carriers just didn't stand a chance. In the end They didn't know how to complete, and or couldn't adjust fast enough to operate in this new law of the jungle business environment.


Getting back to CF, I can't help but wonder if they had not had the Freightliner money how long they would have survived?

 

Mike I'm no fan of Werner but that company did start in 1957 in Omaha ne.
My current company ... Wn Morehouse started in Omaha ne in 1932 .
Both are survivors of deregulation.

 

One of the challenges the Truckload industry has been faced with is what folks in economics call "barriers to entry". All one has to do to get into that business is buy a few trucks trailers and hire some drivers and your able to complete which drives down rates. As you have stated these truckload startups walk down a perilous road. With their high levels of debt any economic contraction (business cycle) and they get slaughtered. The Federal Reserves 10+ year loose monetary policy has really fueled a lot of these questionable startups.


On the other hand LTL is much more capital intensive (expensive), it requires expensive things like a network of terminals, office staff, forklifts, Dollys and a higher trailer to tractor ratio etc. that's why you see fewer LTL startups relative to the truckload guys.


Most of the Big truckload carriers have long been publicly traded which gave them access to capital without debt. The one obvious exception to this is Schneider National which has always been privately up until this year when they did their first Initial Public Offering. I think this was a response to the Knight Swift merger. The trend with the big truckload carriers seems to be mergers and acquisitions to gain better economies of scale and eliminate competition.

 

Yep I think you are right .

 

If it wasn't for deregulation I doubt anyone would know who Werner is outside the Nebraska and surrounding area.