From left to right: Joe Beckom, Landstar; Steve Brocchu, Tfi International; Dave Williams, Knight Swift; Mark Simore, Kriska Transfer
Phoenix – If there is a shipping market in the annual meeting of the truck truck holders, then this person was very calm.
The conversations were from the theater, at receptions and in meals a fixed topic: Do you believe that we are still talking about this stagnation of shipping? In 2025? Did we not say in this meeting last year that things will be better by the end of 2024?
In the large carrier committee, Dave Williams, the first vice president of government equipment and relations in Nasdaq: KNX, summarized the feelings that have often heard at the conference.
“We expected to see a recovery,” Williams said. “We expected things to turn now. In fact, some of our actions have witnessed the signs of meaningful recovery in December and January, and then things turned.”
Then Williams said what could have been the TCA logo: “I think we are all bored of the time it continued.”
Whether in the Big Transport Companies Committee on Tuesday or the Small Transport Companies Committee the previous day, the issue of the current market conditions has been summarized by Steve Broccho, the first executive vice president of TFI International (NASDAQ: TFII). He said that his company learns to do “less with less.”
With any person who expresses optimism about the high tide in the beaches of the shipping market anytime, the conversation turned into this: by doing more with less.
Mark Simore, President and CEO of the Kriska Transport Group and supervisor of the large transport companies session, asked his three members of his team about the cost reduction strategies during the continuous decline period.
Williams said that Knight Swift is looking at the costs “in order to maintain ourselves standing on his feet, with the realization that the rate of the rate does not help at all.”
“With cost monitoring, TFI is looking more with different productivity and efficiency standards,” said Tfi’s BROKSHAW, who runs the company’s trucks’ car loads.
One pays in TFI, according to Brukcho: “How can we improve the speed of our trucks?” Another scale on which the company focuses is revenue for each active driver.
This involves a batch of sales that Bruckchu said was never a high priority in TFI, which was growing through large and small acquisitions, including T -Force Concraving, LTL carrier that was UPS.
Brukcho said TFI “was not great on the sales side.” “But we are trying to go out and be more in front of our customers and see what is going on.”
Tfi Alain Bedard’s CEO was not shy of profit calls with analysts who talk about what he sees problems in the company. Brockchu was not.
“We really look at the mirror and say,” what can we do to make it better for us? “Because there is nothing that he will attend. We need to lead this improvement, our revenues and how to do things. “
Simmour praised Brocchu’s comments. He said: “It seems that there is this uncompromising conversation about cost, cost and cost, and I am happy that you have achieved revenues, because you can not only find your way to profitability by reducing costs.”
As an executive official at Landstar, who does not have drivers for the company but instead he transmits shipping with thousands of independent operators called by the company with commercial capabilities (BCOS), Joe Picom obtained a question about the health of this community after years of stagnation.
Beacom, Vice President and Head of Safety and Operations at Landstar (Nasdaq: LSTR), said about 90 % of BCOS are monochromatic operators. He said that its costs for almost three years increased more than 30 %. (In the cost of last year from the American Transport Research Institute, which was published in June, ATRI said that the marginal costs of truck transport in 2023 amounted to $ 2.27 per mile).
“It has been a difficult time, and we have seen a loss for some Baco,” Beckom said. “We think they are sitting on the sidelines. Their work costs may not allow them to earn a decent life.”
Bokum, who lacks some cost reduction tools for asset transport companies, said Landstar needs to consider other options, such as technology improvements.
Bokum also said that Landstar, being almost exclusive in the immediate market, is unable to take advantage of any rush in the contract market, making it stuck in the instant market that was weak for three years. Without providing details, Beacom said that Landstar “is looking into ways to try to benefit from the contract market slightly differently.” But he added that Landstar “did not choose a lock on it.”
While the ability to reduce costs in Landstar has restrictions due to its model, Beacom said this is not the case with BCOS who moved the shipping. He said that the average Landstar driver is 51 years old, usually uses equipment, and “they do a lot of maintenance themselves.”
He said: “Those who managed to do a good job in this environment are the ones who found ways to reduce the cost of their operations.”
Williams said that although large and small transport companies may look completely different, the reality is: “If you cannot earn money with one truck, you cannot make it with 20,000 trucks.”
He added that it was interesting to have a discussion on the small transport companies’ board about “How do you compete for the cost for each mile with large transport companies. I am thinking, how do I compete with small transport companies for each mile?”
Members of the Small Transport Companies Committee focused on many of their discussion on how to maintain costs under examination.
Missouri, headquartered by Missouri, paved a list of steps taken by the transport company, which includes 70 trucks under power: maintaining equipment for a longer period, and intensifying maintenance to make this work even while cutting hours in its store, and adding some of the capabilities of the programs.
K&H Trucking took some of the same steps, according to President and owner.
“We were in a four -year rotation, we moved to a five -year turn [for buying new equipment]”This has caused a big difference for us,” Koch said. The company also reviewed things like tire programs and software operations.
One of them found K&H in this process, “We did not find much savings.” This discovery was described as a good thing, because he suggested that the K&H was working on a strong level of efficiency. “But we were able to understand what our costs were a little better,” Koch said.
At Brown Dog Carriers, a small airline -based airline, President Greej Mourin said that the time for lethargy has become a focus to reduce costs. Mourin said that Brown Dog rents all his equipment through the Ryder (NYSE: R).
Mourin said that Brown Dog has only 25 trucks, but seven years ago, she had only two. Given this, the time of lethargy “did not really think about it much.”
But as the company grows, “we really started to pay attention to it, and that was part of the savings.”
Mourin said that Brown Doug changed insurance companies, which led to savings.
And when these costs are in their place, “we hope for the best”, expressing a view that may summarize the general feelings at the conference.
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