News / Private competition not the problem – US truckers need to change, structurally

Pier 400 Los Angeles

In his recent diagnosis of the state of the US trucking industry, American Trucking Associations (ATA) chief economist Bob Costello brought up a factor rarely mentioned in the discussion over the plight of truckload operators: loss of traffic to private truck fleets.

“One of the reasons why freight hasn’t recovered as much is because private fleets have taken some of the share, which by the way, has not happened in a very long time,” he told the ...