Angélica Serrano Román

Trucking and freight businesses that once thrived on the pandemic e-commerce boom and high spot prices are increasingly seeking bankruptcy protection, with more stress looming as the Trump administration’s tariffs derail business plans.

The post-pandemic demand surge prompted an influx of new companies into the industry. Now, many are struggling with low freight rates, excess capacity, thin margins, and reliance on short-term, sales-tied financing.

Of more than 370 companies in the transportation and logistics industry that filed for bankruptcy over the past five years, about 41% did so in the past two years. Many were trucking and freight businesses with up to $10 million in liabilities, according to filings provided by BankruptcyData.

While smaller companies are filing for bankruptcy at a faster pace, large ones are going under, too. Yellow Corp., which defaulted two years ago, is liquidating after firing 30,000 employees—one of the largest mass layoffs in recent history.

Freight service providers were caught in the “boom-and-bust cycle,” said Michael H. Belzer, professor of transportation economics and labor relations at Wayne State University. The industry had been experiencing a “hangover” from the boom when “man-made swings” from President Donald Trump’s tariffs added further volatility, he said.

“The canary in this coal mine is trucking, which runs on the narrowest margins and is notoriously structured to cannibalize itself to survive, until it fails,” Belzer said.

This article was originally published by Bloomberg Law.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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