For most of the past 20 years, for-hire trucking companies have steadily picked up more of the freight that manufacturers and other corporations used to distribute in their own trucks.After trucking was deregulated and freight rates became a matter of market competition, for most manufacturers — really, shippers — the decision to outsource transportation was a simple matter of economics. Nimble for-hire carriers said they could do the job more efficiently and at a lower cost than the shipper's own trucking department.But now, the threat of terrorism coupled with a sharp rise in trucking bankruptcies is raising questions in the minds of some about the ability of for-hire carriers to provide adequate freight capacity and meet tough new security requirements.For the full story, see the April 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
For most of the past 20 years, for-hire trucking companies have steadily picked up more of the freight that manufacturers and other corporations used to distribute in their own trucks.After trucking was deregulated and freight rates became a matter of market competition, for most manufacturers — really, shippers — the decision to outsource transportation was a simple matter of economics. Nimble for-hire carriers said they could do the job more efficiently and at a lower cost than the shipper's own trucking department.But now, the threat of terrorism coupled with a sharp rise in trucking bankruptcies is raising questions in the minds of some about the ability of for-hire carriers to provide adequate freight capacity and meet tough new security requirements.For the full story, see the April 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.