Cash Positions Diverge

Cash reserves have been building at LTL carriers even as truckload carriers see their available cash dwindling.

Key Observations

• LTL cash hordes are rising. After peaking at over $2 billion in 2021, they dropped in 2022 and 2023, but rose over 12% in 2024 to an average of $1.65 billion per fleet.
• Truckload cash reserves are shrinking. Following their 2021 peak, they have continued to slide through 2024, dropping just under 2% from the year prior to just under $70 million per fleet.
• LTL fleets held a lower percentage of revenue as cash last year. Even as their total cash reserves increased 12% in 2024, that was just 3.6% of revenue vs 6.1% of revenue in 2023. Some of this will be connected to LTL spending on old Yellow terminals and equipment which became available through their bankruptcy.
• Truckload fleets were conserving as much cash as possible last year. With continued pressure of low freight rates and lower revenue, their cash-to-revenue ratio dropped to 1.86%, by far the lowest it has been in the past five years.

For more insights into fleet indebtedness, see our story on fleet debt-to-equity ratios.