The trucking industry is always highly leveraged to the state of the economy. Every economic downturn sees a sharp rise in the number of truckers going out of business.

In this period, the economic slowdown has been exacerbated for truckers by the incredible rise in diesel prices. Fuel surcharges have not really been able to keep many truckers "whole," and smaller truckers often have less leverage to extract fuel surcharge revenues commensurate with their costs.

As a result, a large number of trucking companies with at least five vehicles in their fleets are going under.

The chart below was presented by Mike Card, State Vice President for the ATA and also President of Combined Transport, a small trucking company in Oregon, during testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Highways and Transit about the impact of rising fuel on truckers and shippers and what can be done about it. (See What’s the American Trucking Associations’ Answer to the “Fuel Crisis?”)

Source: American Trucking Associations

As can be seen from the chart, trucking failures are rapidly escalating, with more than 800 firms calling it quits in the first quarter alone, the highest number since the recession in 2001.

While given the glut of capacity now in the market, this probably won't impact shippers much today, it certainly sets the stage for extremely tight capacity again when the economy revives.

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