Large Firms Dominate Arkansas? Trucking Market

Of the 1,400 for-hire trucking firms in Arkansas, 300 of them have more than 50 trucks and they handle 90 percent of the business.

Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said Arkansas’ trucking industry is reflective of the industry nationwide — most trucking firms are small businesses, but the larger firms handle most of the business.

In 2000, 79,158 people in Arkansas — or one in 14 of all jobs — were employed in trucking-related occupations at private and for-hire motor carriers, according to the ATA. The average annual wage paid to trucking industry workers was $31,778, and the total annual payroll for the trucking industry in Arkansas was $2.5 billion.

“We also know that nationally in the year 2001 there were more trucking company failures than in any year since 1981, when the industry was deregulated,” Kidd said.

High insurance costs and volatile fuel prices lead to the demise of many smaller trucking firms, he added. Liability policies jumped 100-120 percent for trucking companies since Sept. 11, 2001.

Even mid-size trucking firms are having a hard time staying solvent. Kidd explained that mid-size firms with 100-300 trucks have to compete with the large trucking companies. J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., he said, was able to use the railroad for hauling some of its commitments when fuel prices escalated..

“It’s like having the Arkansas Twisters take on the Green Bay Packers,” Kidd said. “They can play football. They can look like a football team. But in the end they’re going to lose.”

But trucking jobs continue to grow at about 2,200 per year in Arkansas and the larger firms continue to show strength, Kidd said.

P.A.M. and J.B. Hunt both had slightly stronger earnings than predicted for the first quarter of this year.

“Trucking is the first in and the first out,” Kidd said. “It’s the first industry to slow down and the first industry to see a rebound.”

Arkansas truckers aren’t seeing an increase in shipments yet that will indicate an economic upswing. Kidd said that if the industry is an indicator, the economy seems to be “sort of sidestepping” for now.