The trucking industry plays a crucial part in delivering America’s goods to each and every doorstep, and the 11 Most Profitable Trucking Companies In America are some of the primary institutions through which the products you need are brought to you.
For many years, the publication Transport Topics has kept track of how each trucking company has fared with regards to revenue and income. This newspaper of the trucking and freight transportation industries covers common and contract freight carriers operating in the United States and Canada. Based on this in-depth coverage of Transport Topics on the trucking segment, the publication has ranked each company based on how well they performed financially each year, as well as providing information on how many employees, tractors, and trailers each company possessed.
As for the general trucking industry, Transport Topics interviewed executives from companies regarding their prospects for the coming years. The executives expressed concerns for how added safety and environmental regulations will affect their businesses. According to executives, the recent federal mandates for the use of electronic logs to keep track of driver hours and regulatory initiatives on sleep apnea and driver training could reduce the availability of truck drivers, whose numbers are already dwindling as it is. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, about 70,000 commercial truck and bus drivers have been disqualified since 2014 due to medical problems, while 212,000 out of 8.5 million commercial driving license holders hold temporary licenses. Other causes for concern for these executives include new trucking technology and changes in shipping patterns.
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This ranking of the most profitable trucking companies in the U.S is based on the Transport Topics list on the most recent “Top 100 For Hire Carriers.” The rankings on that list are based on the amount of revenue that each company earned in 2015. But for this list of the most profitable trucking companies in America, we have ordered these top performers in accordance to their net income in 2016.
The difference between revenue and income for trucking companies can be wildly different. There are companies that earned huge revenue but also incurred net losses or ended up with tepid income. For instance, XPO Logistics Inc (NYSE:XPO) has the third-highest revenuesamong the top 100 for-hire truckers (at $14.6 billion), but it registered paltry net income of $69.0 million. Meanwhile, YRC Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:YRCW) took home $4.7 billion in revenue, good for sixth place among top grossers, but only had $21.5 million of net income to show for it.
Given that, here is the ranking of the 11 most profitable trucking companies in America, based on 2016 revenue and net income, beginning on the second page. For further travel and freight-related reading, don’t miss the 11 Most Profitable Airlines In The World: Will It Last?
11. Hub Group Inc (NASDAQ:HUBG)
Hub Group was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. The trucker earned $74.8 million in net income in 2016, out of its $3.6 billion in revenue.
10. Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)
This trucking company has been around since 1956, and has operations across six continents, with its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Werner earned $79.1 million in net income in 2016, out of its $2.0 billion in revenue.
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9. Knight Transportation (NYSE:KNX)
The Phoenix-based trucker had net income of $93.9 million in 2016 and revenue of $1.2 billion.
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8. Landstar System Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR)
This company, which is based in Jacksonville, Florida, reported net income of $137.4 million and revenue of $3.2 billion for 2016. Landstar also ranked number 8 on the top 100 list of Transport Topics for two years in a row. Talk about consistency.
7. TFI International Inc
The company was known as TransForce until December 2016. TFI International had net income of $145.3 million and $3.0 billion in revenue in 2016.
6. Swift Transportation Co (NYSE:SWFT)
Swift is the seventh-biggest trucking company in terms of revenue, with a $4.03 billion total on that front in 2016. The company also posted net income of $149.3 million.
The next five companies on this list of the 11 most profitable trucking companies in America each earned more than $200 million in net income, with the top two earning billions of dollars.
5. Ryder Supply Chain Solutions, owned by Ryder System Inc. (NYSE:R)
The Miami-based company, which operates 4,098 tractors and 6,042 trailers, managed to rake in $262.5 million in net income in 2016. Ryder, established in 1934, earned $6.8 billion in revenue.
4. Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ:ODFL)
The company, which has been operating from Thomasville, North Carolina, for more than 80 years, posted net income of $295.8 million from $3.0 billion in revenue in 2016.
3. J B Hunt Transport Services Inc (NASDAQ:JBHT)
The Arkansas-based company hauled in $432.1 million in net income from $6.6 billion in revenue in 2016. Not bad for a company that started buying a few trucks just to support its original rice hull business.
2. FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX)
Another Arkansas-based business, albeit a much bigger one, FedEx operates the largest air-based freight operation in the world, although it also has substantial freight and logistics businesses. The company earned $18.2 billion in net income in fiscal 2016, from its $50.4 billion revenue haul.
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1. United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS)
It’s no surprise that the world’s largest package delivery company (responsible for the delivery of about 15 million packages per day) landed the number 1 spot on this list of the list of the 11 most profitable trucking companies in America, with $34.3 billion in net income and revenue of $60.9 billion in 2016.
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Disclosure: None
