TRENDS IN REFRIGERATED TRUCKING

Trucking is the dominant mode for transporting foodstuffs in the U.S. Nowhere is this more true than with commodities requiring refrigeration. For example, over 95 percent of all interstate produce movements are by truck. The industry, however, faces significant challenges and opportunities. Technological changes, particularly those related to communications, may alter the comparative advantages of trucking and other modes. Such shifts would likely take several years or decades. Of more immediate concern, these communications technologies may transform the structure of the industry. In particular, owner-operators may become more or less competitive relative to larger firms and the role of intermediaries, i.e., brokers may change. Throughout the 1990s there was a general tightening in job markets and aging of the labor force, trends which are expected to continue. In addition, trucking is still adjusting to the economic reforms and deregulation in the 1980s and 1990s. Some contend that deregulation has had near catastrophic impacts on driver working conditions and compensation levels and that this is generating an ever worsening erosion in the supply and quality of drivers. The results of a study of long-distance, refrigerated trucking are presented in this paper. The primary objective of the study was to identify changes since the 1980s that could indicate if and the extent to which technological and other factors are transforming this segment of the trucking industry. Primary focus was on: (1) the importance owner-operator and the degrees to which they are associated with larger carriers; (2) and arrangement methods (3) equipment replacement and utilization; and (4) labor supply indicators.