Averitt Express and Old Dominion Freight Line took top honors in Mastio & Co.’s annual survey of less-than-truckload carriers in the U.S.
Averitt, which has most of its terminals located in the Southeast, was awarded the No. 1 overall spot while Old Dominion (NASDAQ: ODFL) was selected the top national carrier for a 14th consecutive year.
Old Dominion came in third in the overall ranking.
Daylight Transport (No. 2), last year’s winner Peninsula (No. 4) and Southeastern Freight Lines (No. 5) were also in the top five.
The top five national carriers also included Estes, Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA), XPO (NYSE: XPO) and ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB). Estes was the No. 2 national carrier again. Saia improved a spot to No. 3, XPO jumped two spots to No. 4 and ArcBest fell two rungs to No. 5.
Old Dominion, Estes and Saia were the only three national carriers to exceed the industry benchmark for the group.
The survey ranks carriers on numerous metrics, including on-time pickup and delivery, shortages, damages, weighing accuracy, transit times, pricing and technology, as well as back-end functions like billing accuracy, claims processing, problem resolution and carrier responsiveness.
Consulting and research company Mastio conducted 1,635 phone interviews from June into October with respondents classified as “key decision makers from major shippers throughout the U.S.” The firm said of the 163 LTL carriers rated, only 22 garnered enough ratings to be included in the report.
Carrier Manitoulin Transport was the overall winner in Canada.
Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) analyst Amit Mehrotra said the survey was particularly favorable for Saia, which he believes has room to raise its rates relative to the service the carrier is providing.
“We note, [Saia] moved below the ‘fair value’ band in the 2023 survey, which implies SAIA’s perceived cost is too low relative to its perceived service,” Mehrotra said. “Said another way, the data shows there’s room for much higher prices. This has been a key consideration of our bullish stance on SAIA’s shares, and data in the 2023 survey highly supports our thesis.”
He pointed to “price vulnerability” at FedEx Freight (NYSE: FDX) and ArcBest as he views the companies as “well above the fair value band.” He also said Old Dominion “has moved to the very top” of the fair value band.
Mehrotra said the same metrics showed TFI International (NYSE: TFII) and XPO “towards the middle” of the band.
“We continue to view the data as having the most positive implications for SAIA vis-à-vis prospective pricing power and resiliency; and while the service gap between XPO and ODFL/SAIA remains wide, it has narrowed in the most recent service data,” Mehrotra said.
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