Insight from CarrierOK reveals an unprecedented sharp decline in the number of carriers between 2022 and 2023, a phenomenon unmatched in the last quarter-century.
Harnessing two and a half decades of data, encompassing MC# revocations, reinstatements, and grants, the journey to pinpoint the exact toll of trucking company shutdowns has unveiled a startling truth.
The findings spotlight a dire situation, marking an unprecedented net loss of carriers between 2022 and 2023—the likes of which haven’t been witnessed in a quarter-century.
Zooming in on the last five tumultuous years reveals an alarming trend. In 2019 alone, the trucking industry saw nearly 800 companies shutter their doors, a figure that starkly doubles the closure rate of the previous year, amidst the onset of a global pandemic that significantly throttled freight movement.
Not only did more companies fold, but the scale of these businesses was also markedly larger than in the past, with the average shuttered company in 2019 operating 30 trucks—effectively pulling nearly 24,000 trucks off the roads.
The situation further deteriorated at the dawn of 2020, with over 3,000 trucking businesses halting operations. Despite a brief resurgence in freight activity fueled by a boom in e-commerce from 2021 to 2022, the industry hit a severe freight recession, culminating in extensive layoffs, bankruptcies, and a remarkable spike in closures.
Notable casualties included the storied Yellow Corp., signaling a historic downturn with the loss of 30,000 jobs, and echoing across the sector from venerable family enterprises like Certified Freight Logistics and Matheson Trucking to industry newcomers such as Big J Express LLC.
As the industry confronts this upheaval, there’s a silver lining: the groundwork is being laid for a future that’s not only more streamlined but resilient, poised to emerge from the shadows of this significant reset.
