CRST Posting Gains in Tough Market, CEO Says
Iowa-based Carrier Expects 5% Flatbed Expansion in 2026
Key Takeaways:
- CRST denied online reports that it was shutting its over-the-road operations and said it will redeploy 100 trucks and cut about 200 trucks after an internal Dec. 3 announcement.
- The company said its dedicated truckload division is having its best year in three years even as the broader dry van market remains weak and 300 staff face changes.
- CRST said it will seek to place affected employees in other divisions as it pursues flatbed fleet growth of more than 5% and sees continued strength in ý Solutions and Final Mile.
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is pushing back against false reports that swept through the freight market this week, with the company’s top executive affirming that its over-the-road operations remain healthy.
CEO Mike Gannon told Transport Topics exclusively that while the protracted freight market slump has yet to turn around, his company’s dedicated truckload business is having its best year in three years.
“They’re weathering the storm pretty well and have had a positive trajectory for the past 18 months,” he said Dec. 4. “Good growth, good profit improvement. Not where we want to be, but in line and probably even a little bit ahead of the rest of our publicly traded peers,” said Gannon, who has been with CRST for 43 years.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based CRST operates around 4,300 tractors and about 8,500 trailers. It has 4,055 employees. Nearly half of the rigs are part of CRST’s dedicated truckload business — the company’s largest division.
On Dec. 3, CRST internally announced plans to redeploy 100 trucks from its Capacity Solutions OTR fleet to other divisions. In addition, the company plans to reduce its fleet by around 200 trucks.
CRST, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. operates around 4,300 tractors and about 8,500 trailers. (CRST)
From that kernel, a false report emerged on a freight news website that CRST was shuttering its over-the-road operations. Senior executives swiftly and demanded a correction.
The media outlet concerned later retracted the article and an apology was issued by its parent company’s CEO.
CRST ranks No. 28 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 10 on the truckload/dedicated carrier list.
Around 300 staff will be affected by the planned changes, although CRST will look to find the employees roles elsewhere in the company, a statement said.
Gannon said some of those positions could be in CRST’s growing contractor group based in Birmingham, Ala., which operates flatbed and dry van trailers.
Opportunities also are expected to open up for drivers in CRST’s specialized irregular route less-than-truckload operations or as owner/operators, he said.
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He listed medical, manufacturing, finished metal, paper packaging and “a lot of retail” among business segments in which the CRST dedicated division operates.
The overall dry van truckload market — as is common knowledge — has seen a much weaker 2025 than expected, and Gannon is not expecting 2026 to be much better.
“The [dry] van space has been unequivocally the roughest. The last three years have been the roughest in my 43 years at CRST,” said the Iowa native, who has spent most of his career based in his and CRST’s home state. “[And] there’s not much that we’re seeing that says next year is going to be materially better.”
He noted regulatory efforts to cull certain non-domiciled commercial drivers from U.S. road are also shaking up industry capacity.
“The non-domiciled driver impact certainly could have market impacts, but we’re not setting up plans that it will,” Gannon said. “If it does, and it gives us a little momentum — great. But we’re not setting up plans that things are going to be materially different than this year.”
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But he does see positive indicators for CRST’s flatbed OTR division, which ranks No. 11 on the for-hire TT100 segment list.
“Our growth plan for our flatbed division itself is for fleet growth a little bit north of 5%,” he said. “You can form your own opinions, but I would say that’s fairly optimistic compared to the dry van space, and certainly where we’ve been in the past few years.”
Gannon added, “We think there’s opportunity. It might be taking market share, but we think there’s opportunity to grow and win there. So, we’re pretty optimistic about our plan there next year.”
But of the carrier’s five divisions, Gannon said ý Solutions and Final Mile are the best-performing.
“They’ve really weathered this whole downturn fantastic, continue to set record financial performance and they’re really the star of our show the last three years,” he said.
Gannon is less optimistic about a recovery for industrial demand, with data indicating this broad sector won’t rebound in 2026.
“I don’t know that it’s a demand curve thing versus a supply demand mix,” Gannon said. “And I just think there’s still too much capacity for too little demand.”
