Some of the largest US less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers are adding capacity despite lower freight volumes, existing excess capacity and economic uncertainty. They are opening new facilities or adding new doors to existing terminals, increasing density and capacity in LTL lanes critical to their customers.
Estes Express Lines, the fifth-largest US LTL carrier, opened a new 76-door terminal this month in New Orleans with 32,515 square feet of dock space. XPO, the fourth-largest LTL carrier, added 46 doors to its Norcross, Ga., terminal this month, expanding its coverage in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Averitt, a southern regional LTL carrier based in Tennessee, added 35,000 square feet of warehousing space to its existing terminal in Charleston, SC. All three companies are expanding in port areas or areas directly served by ports, which are moving more containerized freight inland via LTL networks.
“As ports grow, we've built a new terminal in Savannah, we just opened a new Southern California terminal, and we're getting bigger in Jacksonville,” Webb Estes, president and COO of Richmond, Virginia-based Estes Express, said in an interview at the SMC3 Connections Conference in Orlando last month.
“We’ve looked at our port cities and we think there’s going to continue to be an influx of freight there for years to come,” Estes said. “We’re trying to guess where that freight is going to show up.”
That guesswork requires looking beyond short-term trends and adopting a longer-term outlook.
Other large carriers are expanding as well. R+L Carriers, the eighth-largest LTL carrier by revenue according to transportation research firm SJ Consulting Group, opened a 180-door terminal in Ocala, Fla., and a 150-door in Edinburgh, Ind., in June. R+L said the new facilities are designed to be “major shipping hubs” in its network.
“LTL carriers want to have the capacity to handle the business,” said Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group. “In truckload, all you need to expand is a truck and a driver. In LTL, you need terminals. If you’re positioned to add business, you’re better able to handle it.”
As Written by William B. Cassidy of JOC.com