TUCSON, Ariz.--()--Transportation Intermediaries Association 32nd Annual Meeting -- The annual TransCore Broker Benchmark Survey, with detailed responses from more than 225 brokers, broker-carriers, and third party logistics or 3PLs about their 2009 operations and financial performance, shows that after a tumultuous 2009, freight broker metrics are showing signs of stabilization. Survey respondents moved an average of 990 loads per month, which was not a significant change from last year’s survey, even though truck freight declined by 9 percent compared to 2008, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, and TransCore’s Freight Index reported that spot market load volume for the year slid by 43 percent.
Despite the upheaval in 2009, brokers without assets reported a slight uptick in gross margins per truckload, from 15.3 percent in 2008 to 15.9 percent in 2009. Because of the high fixed costs associated with carrier operations, however, gross margin per truckload for asset-based brokers dropped to 14.1 percent compared to 15.2 percent in 2008.
Survey respondents who identified their companies as 3PLs or freight forwarders earned the highest margins per truckload among survey respondents, with 16.5 percent in 2009 compared to 16.2 percent in 2008. The overall average was 15.6 percent, which was not significantly different from last year’s 15.3 percent average response.
The respondent group reported average revenues of $34.8 million, with average productivity exceeding $850,000 per employee. The highest productivity, of more than $1 million per employee, was reported by firms with 21 to 100 employees.
To download a copy of the survey, click TransCore’s 2009 Broker Benchmark Survey.
About TransCore’s Commercial Technology Group
TransCore’s Commercial Technology Group is a leading provider of transportation solutions in the United States and Canada serving brokers, carriers, owner-operators and shippers with best-in-class products. Load boards include Loadlink in Canada and 3sixty Freight Match powered by the DAT Network in the United States, which has set the industry standard for the spot freight marketplace since 1978. TransCore’s asset tracking and in-cab communications solutions feature the industry’s fastest response times and state-of-the-art satellite networking. TransCore provides fleet compliance, distribution and intermodal services, automated carrier safety and insurance monitoring, truckload rate indices for contract markets, and the most popular broker logistics software. TransCore is also the largest global manufacturer of transportation-based radio frequency identification (RFID) applications with 37 million RFID tags and 58,000 readers distributed in more than 40 countries throughout the world. TransCore RFID products support the toll, traffic management, rail, access control, homeland security, and parking markets.
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