Weather is expected to negatively affect the trucking industry

Over the past week, trucking safety in the midst of winter storms has been a point of focus across the transportation industry. However, now that the skies - and the roads - have cleared, many fleet management officials are beginning to look at their bottom lines.

The Times Record reports that several trucking executives are expecting to see a dip in revenues as a result of recent weather.

Clifton Beckham, CEO of USA Truck, told the news source that he is expecting income numbers to be between one-third and one-fourth lower than usual. He added that drivers for USA Truck were given the option to decide whether or not they wanted to keep traveling at a slow pace or pull over.

However, many operators were not given a choice, as the storms resulted in lane closures in states such as Oklahoma, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the media outlet.

Regardless of these setbacks, many analysts believe that the trucking industry is still in a good position to recover this year. According to the Bedford Report, shipment weights and load counts are increasing across the sector.

By Mark Priest 

Weather is expected to negatively affect the trucking industry

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011