According to Estes, the nationwide LTL carrier, a stronger US economy is leading to stronger earnings and a busier season for LTL carriers. Estes is the largest privately-held LTL trucking company in the United States and the sixth largest LTL carrier overall. Their management is so confident that the strong numbers will continue, that the company purchased 980 tractors this summer.
This news comes at the same time as the announcment htat Old Dominion is hiring 868 new emplyees "to keep pace with its rapidly expanding business". The Department of Commerce recently revised upward the second-quarter growth rate for U.S. gross domestic product, from 4.2 to 4.6 percent, and today issued an advance third-quarter GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent — the first of three estimates for the quarter.
For shippers, this can mean that capacity is tightening, and in some cases, that LTL rates will increase. Carriers have expressed that LTL rates are a "sellers market" for the first time in nearly 5 years.
