Topics: Freight Rates, Economic Shifts, Carrier Newsletter, Freight Carriers
May is shaping up to be a month full of surprises. The favorite didn’t win the Kentucky Derby. A White Sox fan from Chicago was elected pope. And the United States and China reached a trade war truce.
Surprises are happening in the freight world too. The number of jobs in transportation and warehousing increased, and Forward Air, which was beat up by its embattled Omni Logistics acquisition, CEO ouster, and shareholder unrest, posted positive first-quarter results.
“While we are in uncertain times, what is certain is the tremendous opportunity we have ahead of us,” Forward Air CEO Shawn Stewart said during an earnings call. “It is an exciting time to lead our company as we continue to transform Forward Air into a global logistics leader.”
In uncertain times, Cass Information Systems is always there to help carriers weather the storm and capitalize on opportunities.
Trucking Employment Gets Boost from Inventory Front-Loading
The front-loading of inventories ahead of tariff hits contributed to the addition of 9,800 transportation and warehousing jobs in April, a 21% year-over-year gain.
David Spencer, Arrive Logistics’ vice president of market intelligence, told the Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) that “proactive safety stocking” resulted in a short-term bump in trucking demand.
A 2023 report showed that the containerized cargo handled at just two U.S. ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, supported 165,462 direct, induced, and indirect jobs and contributed $21.8 billion of direct business revenue to local service providers. It added that a drop of just 1% in cargo equated to the reduction of more than 6,800 jobs and $15.6 billion in economic impact to California.
The ports have already reported an increase in blanked sailings in Q2, and Jan Groen, an economist and founder of Macro Market Notes, told the CCJ that import volumes are expected to decline because U.S. businesses have already replenished their inventories.
“This means large parts of the logistics system that funnels imported goods to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers will sit idle,” Groen said. “This likely will hurt trucking employment over at least the coming three months, as a lot of these imports are not easily replaced through domestic production.”
Forward Air Reports Revenue Growth, Reduced Net Loss
LTL carrier Forward Air reported a year-over-year revenue increase and a smaller overall net loss in the first quarter of 2025.
Total Q1 operating revenue increased 13.2% year over year from $541.8 million to $613.3 million. Net loss of $61.2 million was a marked improvement from the $88.8 million loss in the first quarter of 2024.
“We began taking corrective pricing actions during the fourth quarter of 2024 and finished implementing the improvement strategy in February of this year,” CEO Stewart told analysts. “We’re pleased to share that in the back half of the quarter, we began to see the improvement that we’re anticipating.”
Forward Air finally completed its litigation-filled acquisition of Omni in January 2024 at a reported cost of $2.1 billion, down from the initial price of $3.2 billion. CEO Tom Schmitt’s departure was announced less than a month later — and about a week after an out-of-court settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed by Forward Air to attempt to invalidate the deal.
Class 8 Truck Orders Drop 54%
FTR Transportation Intelligence reported that Class 8 truck orders in April dropped 54% monthly and year over year to 7,400, “the lowest monthly total since May 2020, when pandemic-related shutdowns halted demand,” the CCJ said.
FTR said the decline was driven by tariff, economic, and freight market concerns.
“Between the end of the industry’s annual ‘order season’ and the uncertainty surrounding the impact of U.S. economic policy that peaked at the start of the month on ‘Liberation Day,’ April delivered the weakest cumulative medium- and heavy-duty order activity since the beginning of the pandemic when markets were comparably unsettled,” Ken Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT Research, said.
Dan Moyer, FTR’s senior analyst for commercial vehicles, added a further complication comes with expected revisions to the EPA’s 2027 NOx regulations.
“Although orders may be approaching their seasonal/cyclical low point, it is unclear how long these depressed demand levels will persist,” Moyer said.
Old Dominion Sees Signs of ‘Reacceleration’ in Demand
Old Dominion Freight Line posted first-quarter total revenue of $1.37 billion, down 6% from the same period last year, and President and CEO Marty Freeman said that “a full recovery in our business trends might take additional time.”
The carrier reported a 6.3% decline in LTL tons per day during the quarter and attributed the majority of that decrease to fewer shipments.
Still, Old Dominion did see signs of a “reacceleration” in freight demand in February and March. While that could be attributed to inventory front-loading ahead of tariffs, April demand had “come back pretty consistently with what we would expect,” CFO Adam Satterfield said.
Satterfield said the company hopes in the second quarter to “see the reacceleration in the macro environment that we were really hoping for and starting to see early signs of in the February and March trend.”
Trucking Industry Continues Push for More Parking
Industry associations continue to push for more truck parking spots across the country.
“It’s not just a convenience for truck drivers. It’s not just staging for the e-commerce packages we buy daily,” Dan Murray, senior vice president at the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), told FleetOwner. “It’s assisting the driver to be compliant with federal laws and assisting the driver to minimize fatigue while driving.”
According to 2020 data, 87% of 313,000 truck parking spaces were at private truck stops, while the remaining 40,000 were at public rest stops. The ATRI said the biggest challenge in expanding truck parking is funding, with the median cost for a state to construct one public parking space pegged at $93,500.
In March, both the American Trucking Associations and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association told Congress that parking was the most critical industry issue today.
“What everyone’s excited about is, sitting in Congress still alive and breathing, a truck parking funding legislation that would provide as much as $755 million dedicated to expansion,” Murray said.
The Truck Parking Safety Act was first introduced in 2021 and reintroduced in 2023 and again earlier this year.
UPS Closing Five Facilities, Cutting Sortation Shift
As part of its Network Reconfiguration initiative, UPS is closing facilities in Boston; Holmen, Wisconsin; and New Kensington, Stroudsburg, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is also eliminating a sortation shift in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.
More cuts are expected as UPS has said it plans to close 73 facilities by the end of June and eliminate about 20,000 jobs this year.
“While this may be the largest network reconfiguration in our history, we’ve got experience that gives us confidence that we will be able to complete our plan with very little customer disruption and at the right cost to serve,” CEO Carol Tomé said on a recent earnings call.
How Trucking Can Attract Gen Z
Lindsey Trent, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Next Generation in Trucking Association, said a major obstacle in attracting Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — to the industry is simply lack of awareness.
“People just don’t know about opportunities, and in order to understand the opportunities out there, there has to be industry engagement,” Trent told FleetOwner. “And when there is industry engagement, the number of people going into that industry increases by a lot. So the number one biggest issue is just the fact that young people don't know about the opportunities.”
Trent said Gen Z wants:
- Work-life balance.
- Defined career paths.
- Their voices heard.
- Companies that care.
- Mental health benefits.
- Technology-focused employers.
FedEx Board Member Tapped for Top Postal Service Job
FedEx Corp. board member David Steiner has been picked to replace Louis DeJoy as the nation’s postmaster general.
Amber McReynolds, chair of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, said in a statement that Steiner, the former CEO of Waste Management, “is a highly regarded leader and executive with tremendous vision, experience, and skill that can be applied to the long-term mission and business needs of the Postal Service.”
President Donald Trump said he is considering taking the Postal Service private or folding it into the Department of Commerce. Transport Topics said DeJoy had “pushed for changes to promote efficiency at the Postal Service, including cutting its labor workforce by tens of thousands and raising postal rates.” He resigned abruptly in March.
Cass Supports Carriers and Logistics Providers
We at Cass like to share information we know carriers and logistics providers will find useful. This month we’re highlighting advice shared in a video posted on LinkedIn by Chris Jolly, aka The Freight Coach.
When onboarding new business, ask lots of lots of questions, Jolly said.
“When you finally pass that goal line with a prospect who is now going to become a customer, take five minutes on the front end … and ask everything you can possibly think of in the moment to try and paint that picture of how their operations might look and how you can be better prepared to move their freight,” Jolly said.
He said it’s not unusual for operational details to fall through the cracks during the flurry of onboarding.
“I know the excitement is there, it is very real, but take a couple of minutes on the front end,” Jolly said. “Talk to them about their operation. Find out as much as you possibly can about them before you start moving their freight.”
Cass Has Answers to Carriers’ Questions
Cass Information Systems is always here to support carriers’ financial goals. Cass Early Payment Solutions provide the steady cash flow needed for smooth day-to-day operations as well as structured financial growth essential for long-term success. Cass Equipment Finance Solutions help fuel carriers’ growth, enhance efficiency, and drive businesses forward. We work closely with carriers to design flexible, customized solutions that align with their business goals.
Contact us today to learn more.
