NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. economy may still be in the dumps, but it hasn’t translated to more trucking carriers going under.

The number of U.S. trucking companies that filed for bankruptcy fell to 370 during the second quarter, a 61.9 percent drop from the second quarter of 2008 when it was 970, according to Avondale Partners’ Trucking Failure Report.

The Nashville-based equity investment firm says this is the lowest number of failures it has reported since the first quarter of 2007.

In fact, the rate of companies going into bankruptcy is less than 40 percent of what it was in the second quarter of last year.

That’s a good sign for struggling carriers trying to survive this recession, but not for those who insist a lot more capacity needs to tighten before trucking can truly recover. 

Because of that, managing Avondale director Donald Broughton does not anticipate an improvement in rates. "Bottom line, this is not a rate sufficient to offset the dramatic drop in demand that started in the fall of 2008, nor is it enough to offer any hope that the weakness in pricing will soon be over," he said.

According to the data, bankruptcies were mostly being filed by smaller companies — many truckload carriers — with longer lengths of haul.

Avondale attributes the decline in failures largely to creditors, who have helped companies stay float because of bottom-barrel used truck values, as well as reasonably low fuel prices since last winter.