Private Fleets

The September shipments reading, at 1.042, was down 5.4% annually, faring better than August’s 9.3% annual decrease, and increased 2.5% over August. The September shipments reading, at 1.042, was down 5.4% annually, faring better than August’s 9.3% annual decrease, and increased 2.5% over August.

As rates fall in the for-hire sector, private fleets remain a bedrock of U.S. trucking. Shippers like Walmart, Amazon, and PepsiCo are expanding private capacity, citing service, safety, and control as key advantages. Backed by tech and reliability, private fleet operations are growing—even in a downturn.

The January shipments reading, at 0.954, fell 8.2% annually and was off 5.3% compared to December. January expenditures, at 2.971, fell 4.2% annually and dropped 4.8% compared to December.

The November shipments reading, at 1.086, fell 0.7% annually and rose 0.5% sequentially. November freight expenditures, at 3.203, fell 3.8% annually, and rose 0.9% sequentially.

Private fleets are changing the trucking landscape by gaining market share and improving freight management discipline. As we head toward this year’s peak ground transportation season, let’s examine how private fleets perform compared to their common carrier rivals—and what shippers can learn from some best practices of the best-run fleets.

We take a deeper dive behind the numbers to examine why private fleets have had eight consecutive years of consistent growth in four key metrics—shipments, volume, value, and miles-run.

While not cheap, top-flight customer service is driving more companies toward private fleets in a tight trucking capacity market, while shrewd operators learn to adapt and improvise on the fly to create value for their organizations.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Emerge, a provider of its proprietary Private Freight Marketplace (PFM) and TMS focused on accelerating productivity and increasing visibility for supply chain stakeholders, announced this week it closed a $20 million Series A financing, which brings the company’s total amount of investor-based funding to $50 million.

Private fleet operators have decided to pump up investment, expand capacity and battle the tight for-hire market with training, improved technology and better driver pay. Will the preparation pay off in the long run?

Well-run private fleets continue to set the gold standard for service, safety, and accountability. However, operating a highly efficient fleet takes work—and money. Increasingly, private fleet managers are operating a “blended” operation, alternating between their own trucks and for-hire options to help mitigate costs.

The announcement by “big brown” that they’re adding 1,400 more compressed natural gas (CNG) powered trucks to their fleet should be interpreted by others as a signal to start getting in gear on alternative fleet fuel system reviews.

Best-in-class private fleets are utilizing a blend of technologies and services that are tailored to mitigate costs. Here’s how some of the most modern private fleets are being managed in the new era of tightening capacity and tougher regulation.

Private fleet operations are faced with more challenges than ever as the three major external cost drivers—hours of service, equipment modernization, and fuel cost—are clamoring for attention.

Detroit-based Locqus is a free service that helps businesses manage sales, jobs, billing, and employees in the field. The start-up company is pitching itself to private fleets and others to enable those companies to automatically share real-time updates to scheduled appointments while in transit to a job.

Despite the related costs and increasing complexity, private fleets enable operators to control their own destiny at a time when the trucking market is bracing for yet another capacity crunch.