CHATTANOOGA, TN — If volumes don’t increase in the next six months, 15 percent of fleets will consider getting out of the trucking game.

That’s according to Transport Capital Partners’ (TCP) Third Quarter 2011 Business Expectation Survey.

Twenty percent of fleets with under $25 million in revenues would consider leaving, while 11.8 percent of fleets over $25 million in revenues would also think about leaving.

TCP partner Richard Mikes said that it was ironic that smaller fleets are generally more optimistic about volumes over the next 12 months, yet they are still very serious about leaving the industry.

"A dichotomy still remains in our industry," said TCP partner Lana Batts, "even with carriers seeing more freight volumes." She added that carriers are still under pressure from most areas — fuel, regulations, equipment, drivers. "In essence, it just isn’t fun anymore."

The number of carriers thinking about selling in the next 18 months also rose, said TCP, from 25 percent to 28 percent. This marks the highest percentage since TCP started the survey in February of 2009. Nearly 40 percent of smaller carriers are considering leaving the industry in the next 18 months, compared with 23 percent of larger carriers.

“Taken in its entirety," Mikes said, "this third quarter survey shows a ‘trend of caution’ in the overall no-growth economy, and the impact of a surge of regulations on trucking is best summed up by the halving of the number of carriers expecting growth in the year ahead.”

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