Avondale reports only 240 fleets failed in 2011Q2
July 29, 2011
The pace of fleet failures continued to drop during the second quarter,with only 240 fleets closing their doors.
Donald Broughton, senior research analyst with Avondale Partners, tracks how many fleets went out of business and the number of trucks that those businesses accounted for. In the second quarter of 2011, only 240 fleets failed. This is a drop of 55 fleets compared to the previous quarter and is down 155 versus Q2 in 2010. The average fleet size has remained relatively unchanged for the last 3 quarters, at 16.5 trucks per fleet, but is well down from the highs recorded during the 2008-2009 time frame. Only 3,955 trucks were removed in the quarter. This is the lowest number since 2006. The number of trucks removed has fallen for 4 straight quarters.
The fuel drag that occurred during parts of Q1 and Q2 did not have a material effect on fleet failures. The fuel spike of 2008 and the following Great Recession did a pretty good job of weeding out the bad fruit. As capacity continues to tighten in 2011 and into 2012, we expect the number of trucks removed to remain near its historical floor of around 300 fleets per quarter and 5,000 units per quarter.
NOTE: Historical data is sourced from Avondale Partners.
Use our chart creator to generate charts using the data that was used in this analysis.
TruckGauge Chart CreatorThis functionality is only available to Premium Members. Please upgrade your account to gain access to the data used in this analysis.
Upgrade to a Premium Member

