
The good news is, it’s been easy to cover loads. And that’s about it in terms of good news that a panel of large carrier representatives could offer at the Truckload Carriers Association’s annual Bridging Border Barriers conference in Mississauga, Ont., Nov. 20.
“Right now, if you’re a trucking company that is getting regular work and regular freight, you’re not getting a lot of resistance from the driver community to execute on that freight,” said David Tumber, president of Kriska Transportation Group. “There’s more capacity than there is freight. If you’ve got it, it’s not that difficult to cover. The challenge is covering it at a price that allows you to make money.”

Craig Germain, chief operating officer of XTL Transportation, said industry has been caught off-guard by how slow capacity has been to exit the market given the tough operating conditions seen over the past couple years. “We should see capacity exit faster than we are,” he said.
Canadian carriers are also dealing with an imbalance of freight. Volumes to the U.S. are decent, but the backhaul has been tough to fill. Tumber said it will still take a reduction of capacity to restore the market’s health.
“The way out of this isn’t so much the demand side,” he said. “We are not going to get back to the environment we had in 2020-2022 where we could name our price and inventories were building everywhere across the continent. The answer is more on the supply side.”
Steve Brookshaw, senior executive vice-president at TFI International, suggests banks are reticent to foreclose on struggling carriers due to depressed equipment prices and lack of demand for used trucks. But he sees a bright spot, too.
“We’re an acquirer, so it’s not a bad place for us,” Brookshaw said, adding bolt-on acquisitions are the most appealing.
However, even Canada’s largest trucker has been looking for ways to reduce its costs. One answer is to make greater use out of its own shop network.

“Between Windsor and Montreal, we probably have a shop every 75 miles now,” Brookshaw said. “Every piece of equipment we have in the company is in there [for maintenance]. We were spending a lot of money outside when we had a place that was right there. We had to change how we look at it and have people use our internal resources and know they’re there.”
TFI has also reduced its equipment count in the hard-hit van segment. XTL, meanwhile, has put more emphasis on growing its warehousing and distribution business.
Distribution diversification
“Our diversity and our expansion on the distribution side brought us a lot of opportunity from a transportation perspective,” Germain said. “The companies that we deal with buy differently when they are buying space in your building than when they’re buying one load at a time. The commoditization we see on the transportation side is not the same in distribution.”
The slow market has also helped carriers better control driver retention, though Tumber admitted keeping drivers engaged and motivated can be a challenge.
“We are extremely transparent in our budgeting process and with our monthly results,” he said. He also said drivers are in tune with market conditions, particularly when they see truck stop lots filled with parked trucks waiting for loads.
Kriska has looked internally for ways to improve its own business. Tumber said it has been able to “drive out costs and unlock some value” by merging some business units.
Paying for sustainability
Meanwhile, as carriers look for ways to reduce costs, shippers continue to look to them for answers to their corporate sustainability initiatives. The question is, who will pay for those investments?
“It comes down to a willingness to pay for it,” Tumber said of transitioning to zero-emission transport. “The want is there, the perceived need is there, but the money’s not there.”
He feels there’s often a disconnect between corporate decision makers and those responsible for managing the transportation budget.
“On the EV side, let’s face it, infrastructure is the biggest concern and the cost is significant and nobody seems to be prepared to pay for it,” agreed Germain.
TFI International has even struggled to deploy electric box trucks in California, where the state is mandating the phase in of zero-emission vehicles.
“We did test it,” Brookshaw said, adding not one route lent itself well to electrification, especially when frequent liftgate use was required.
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