Overnite CEO Predicts No Recovery Until 2003

Look for more closures and mergers in the trucking industry, and don’t look for a recovery to begin until 2003. That’s the prediction of Overnite Transportation Chairman, President and CEO Leo Suggs.

Suggs’ remarks at the recent North American Transportation Employee Relations Assn. annual meeting were reported by Traffic World this week.
“If you gauge the economy by the trucking industry, which is a pretty good gauge, as of now it has not bottomed out.” He said there would be more bankruptcies and mergers in the truckload sector, and even some in the less-than-truckload market, as well, which so far for the most part has not been in as bad a shape as their truckload counterparts as the economy continues to drag.
The good news, however, is that the trucking industry will emerge on the other end in better shape, because trucking companies are learning how to adapt and diversify. Other silver linings are that the economic downturn has eased the driver shortage, and caused diesel prices to drop, he said.