88,000 US firms gone as international haulage crisis deepens

One thing that came through loud and clear in our recent International Summit is that haulage sectors across the globe are grappling with similar challenges.

We’ve been talking a lot here about huge numbers of insolvencies amid crippling operating costs and a struggling economy.

Ten haulage companies a day are collapsing in France, according to Union TLF – their transport and logistics federation.

In Belgium, 724 haulier bankruptcies were recorded in 2024 with the trend continuing in 2025.

Industry analysts have described Poland’s haulage sector as being in its deepest crisis in 25 years. They’re up against a shortage of 150,000 drivers and huge competition from Ukrainian hauliers whose annual truck journeys are reported to have surged to more than 1 million since the Russo-Ukrainian War began.

It's estimated that a third of operators in Hungary are running at a loss, with others only achieving single digit margins.

The UK is not immune to this turbulence as we know, with several long-standing names ceasing trading or appointing liquidators.

Restructuring company Begbies Traynor Group’s latest report indicates that many smaller companies are simply ceasing to trade without formal proceedings, suggesting that the scale of sector distress could be worse than official statistics.

They reveal that 49,000 UK companies are in “critical financial distress”, a 21% year on year increase, with “thousands of businesses only one shock away from collapse,” according to its Executive Chairman.

In the US the picture is similarly bleak with 88,000 trucking companies closing in 2024, and 10,000 more in the first half of 2025 – a trend that’s set to continue. Unregulated cabotage by external foreign companies takes a share of the blame.

US freight rates are often calculated on a per-mile basis with slight variations for different types of trailer, box, flat or reefer, currently averaging around $2.5 per mile (around £1.86).

However, industry analysts estimate the breakeven rate should be around $2.72 per mile. Numbers are academic when there’s little or no profit.

Most hauliers can keep running on very low margins until something goes wrong as very few can cover their real standing costs of running the business, depot, insurance, business rates – all staples of running a legitimate business.

When the domestic market per-mile rate is undermined by operators based elsewhere it’s only a matter of time before the playing field becomes very uneven. The American Truckers Association who spoke at our London summit declared the practice as theft of American jobs and has called on their government to protect its industry.