FleetOwner 500: For-Hire ups and downs

Dozens of merger and acquisition deals over the past 14 months shook up this annual list of the largest for-hire motor carriers operating here in the U.S. The volatile economy that featured several interest rate hikes throughout the past two years might have curtailed even more moves by fleets, large and small. 

"Inflation, interest rate hikes, and the declining freight market were center stage in 2023," according to the Tenney Group's annual M&A report on the trucking industry issued in January. "Many [transport and logistics] business owners who expected to exit last year never began the process. Either they closed their doors suddenly to cut their losses, declared bankruptcy, or called an audible to wait until market conditions normalized. Consequently, buyers had fewer acquisition opportunities to consider for value creation." 

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The most significant closure of 2023—and probably this century—was Yellow Corp.'s bankruptcy last July. It is still reverberating through the industry. Yellow, founded 100 years ago, was one of 20 fleets delisted from the 2024 FleetOwner 500. 

Yellow, which ranked No. 6 in 2023, is one of five former FO500 fleets that ceased operations last year, joining Flagship Transport (No. 258), Meadow Lark Transport (No. 276), A-Logistics (No. 379), and Colonial Freight Systems (No. 478); a sixth, Matheson Trucking (No. 364), closed shop in late January.

Other companies acquired the remaining 2023 FO500 fleets missing from this year's rankings, merged with other carriers, or split into new companies. XPO Logistics (No. 12 in 2023) turned itself into three new FO500 companies: XPO, GXO, and RXO, which now rank, respectively, Nos. 13, 223, and 480. 

Other fleets exiting the FO 500 this year are now part of even bigger operations: U.S. Xpress Enterprises was acquired by Knight-Swift Transportation, which remains No. 3 this year, securing itself as the largest general freight carrier in the nation. (LTL giants FedEx and UPS still run the largest for-hire fleets.)  

Top 200 mergers and acquisitions also include JHT (No. 102 in 2023), which is now part of TFI, which moved up from No. 9 to No. 7. Dickinson Fleet Services (No. 132 in 2023) and Outwest Express (former No. 220) were acquired by Cox Enterprises. 

Ranked No. 166, Cox Enterprises is one of 55 fleets debuting on the 2024 FO500, which ranks carriers by the number of commercial power units registered to each company. FleetOwner's data analysis partner, ProsperFleet, compiles the rankings through information reported to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System.

It is our second year partnering with ProsperFleet on the FO500, which we rebuilt from scratch in 2023 to ensure that FleetOwner provides you with the most detailed information about these companies that America relies on. 

Confident that we've developed a better, consistent approach to tallying power units and trailers, we highlight the ups and downs in this year's FleetOwner 500: For-Hire by noting how each fleet's ranking compares to the previous year with a +/- and the number of places that company moved this year.  

Readers should get a better feel for the ups and downs that come with moving freight in the 2020s. You'll see that Xpress Global, which acquired 7 Hills Transport, jumped 204 spots from No. 476 to No. 272 this year. That was the most significant move of the year. Others include No. 316 Florida Beauty Express (up 179 places), which Mogul Energy International acquired but still operating as FBE, and No. 101 Transervice Logistics, which acquired Lily Transportation (last year's No. 169), and boosted its ranking 171 spots. 

Our ranking work isn’t over yet. We’ve already begun work on the FleetOwner 500: Private list, which will be published in April.