At least five trucking companies filed for bankruptcy and 1,187 logistics jobs were cut in the 10 days from June 5 to 15, even as freight rates posted their strongest gains in years. The wave is a warning for shippers treating the rate recovery as proof that their carrier base is stable.
The recovery is real: Linehaul prices are climbing for the first time in years. The Cass Truckload Linehaul Index rose 6.9% YoY in May, its highest jump in about four years and the 17th straight month of positive readings. Dry van spot rates sit near $2.89 per mile, and tender rejections have held above 10% for more than 60 days.
This kind of tightening usually signals that capacity is firming.
Why carriers fail anyway: A rate uptick does not erase two years of losses. Small carriers burned through 18 to 36 months of cash hauling at sub-breakeven rates from 2023 through 2025. A 6.9% increase does not repair a balance sheet carrying $1M to $10M in liabilities. Costs made the pressure worse. Insurance and maintenance kept rising, and diesel averaged $5.21 a gallon on June 8, well above year-earlier levels. With refinancing scarce, some operators turned to merchant cash advances at steep rates to survive.
The casualties: The wave hit small carriers and big logistics names alike.
Triple RRR Carriers, a Laredo cross-border specialist, filed Chapter 7 on June 5.
Illinois-based ZDM Transport filed Chapter 7 on June 11
Alan Ritchey cut 232 jobs in its third closure tied to USPS contract loss, bringing total job cuts this year to 1,137
American Expediting shed 86 jobs after failing to secure new financing
DHL Supply Chain cut 81 jobs and closed a North Carolina site
Expeditors cut 230 tech roles last week, thinning the white-collar side too
The two-speed shakeout: The recovery is sorting carriers, not lifting them evenly.
While undercapitalized fleets liquidate, well-funded operators are buying through the cycle. Old Dominion continues investing in its network during the downturn, and XPO absorbed former Yellow terminals.
As early as last August, Michigan State's Jason Miller warned that "the earliest meaningful recovery could take place in the second quarter of 2026.” That is the quarter now testing thin balance sheets, FreightCaviar reported. The pressure on weaker operators still has further to run.
The shipper exposure: A carrier failure in the middle of a contract creates routing gaps and pushes freight into a spot market where rejections already exceed 10%. Shippers still relying on the same small carriers that hauled at sub-breakeven rates from 2023 to 25 may be carrying balance-sheet risk they never evaluated. Recovery in rates does not mean stable capacity heading into peak season.
