Truckers in the trucking industry are important to retail and industrial supply chains are in fact on a roll as the COVID-19 pandemic-driven boom in online shopping reshapes U.S. distribution maps.

Truckers and its Companies are Expanding

Companies are, in fact, expanding as businesses try to make their supply chains more malleable. In an effort to catch up to quickly shifting consumer demands. Therefore, that is driving more freight into less-than-truckload operations. This is where trucking companies carry shipments from various customers on a single trailer. It can increase revenues and pricing leverage for the carriers. Surely this won’t impact certain companies in a negative light.

New Service Centers

The second-largest operator in the sector after FedEx Corp.’s, Old Dominion this month said it has added nine service centers to its U.S. network. This is since the start of 2020. It plans many additions this year.

Operators in the greatly competitive sector are gaining as businesses trying hard to meet rushing e-commerce demand from shoppers who are ordering literally everything from paper towels to furniture online.

“LTL gives retailers and e-commerce providers a lot more pliability in their supply chain,” said Tony Brooks. He is the president of XPO Logistics Inc.’s less-than-truckload business. “They’re holding more just-in-time inventory that needs the shorter notice and lead times. Therefore, they’re more and more turning to LTL companies to ship products faster.”

The acceleration of online shopping is the biggest COVID-19 pandemic-driven change to the business at the trucker, where retail accounts for between 25% and 30% of revenue. This information is according to Adam Satterfield, a chief financial officer at Old Dominion. Therefore, as companies add smaller facilities closer to consumers, he said, what could have been a huge truckload of goods now needs to be a few pallets of product brought in more regularly.”