3 Your Official Small Carrier Playbook Trimble Transportation A Busy, Dynamic Marketplace— Growing Competition and Shifting Capacity There’s ample evidence of growth in the ranks of smaller motor carriers. Citing freight management firm Tucker Company Worldwide, the Journal of Commerce (JOC) reported that the number of active for-hire US trucking companies leaped by more than 58,000 in the first six months of 2021, and that most of the new companies in the count are small carriers with less than 100 trucks. Overall, JOC noted as well that the number of active for-hire trucking operations rose from about 260,000 to 318,000 companies in the same period. The Tucker data, it related, is based on information that carriers file monthly with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The JOC also reported on government data indicating that the expansion in the number of motor carriers is partly the result of thousands of truck drivers striking out on their own to pursue opportunities on the spot market. That means they are not necessarily creating new trucking capacity. More likely, the new entrants point to an underlying shift of capacity to smaller motor carriers. It is those companies, the JOC concluded, who are poised to challenge the traditional approach shippers rely on to procure freight hauling services, especially those using a limited number of larger trucking operations. No matter how you add it up, it all points to increasing competition across the trucking landscape. Simultaneously, in a market often dominated by much larger carriers, small trucking companies face challenges in unique ways. Here are the top five areas of concern that can be the difference between success and failure for smaller trucking and transportation operations, along with some ideas on how to address them effectively: The Top 5 Challenges for Small Carriers Today