More companies are pointing to rising freight costs as a drag on earnings and growth, as trucking companies raise rates at a historic pace and one says finding trucks is getting ‘ugly’
By Jennifer Smith, The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2018
Empty trucks are so hard to come by right now that Dean Foods Co. DF -0.35% , one of North America’s largest milk suppliers, cut its full-year earnings outlook in part because it simply can’t move its goods for anything close to what it expected to pay this year.
“Industry capacity for truck drivers remains extremely tight. This is driving third-party hauling rates to record levels, up 26% versus prior year,” Chief Executive Ralph Scozzafava said in a Tuesday call with investors.
The warning from the Dallas-based dairy processor puts Dean in a growing line of U.S. businesses struggling with the tightest freight market in recent memory. Distribution channels that carry goods to retailers, factories and consumers are struggling to keep up the fast-growing U.S. economy as more companies caution that the strains in the transport sector are holding back their ability to grow. [Full Story]
