LTL survey: Daylight Transport No. 1 overall, Old Dominion top national carrier

Daylight Transport was named the top overall less-than-truckload carrier in Mastio & Co.’s annual value and loyalty survey. Old Dominion Freight Line again received top honors among national carriers, a Tuesday report revealed.

The top 5 carriers in the overall group also included Averitt Express (No. 2), Old Dominion (No. 3), Peninsula (No. 4) and Dayton Freight Lines (No. 5). Averitt Express won the category last year and Peninsula was the winner in 2022.

Estes was ranked the No. 2 national carrier again. ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) subsidiary ABF Freight moved up two spots to No. 3. XPO (NYSE: XPO) held its ground at No. 4 while Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA) fell two spots to No. 5.

This year’s survey rated 164 carriers, with only 23 garnering enough ratings to make the list. Mastio recorded approximately 5,000 observations from 1,608 LTL shippers through a series of phone interviews with “key decision-makers” conducted from June through the end of September.

Open-ended questions asked LTL customers to evaluate carrier service offerings, competitive standing and a carrier’s ability to attract and retain customers, among other questions. The rankings were based on several metrics, including on-time pickup and delivery, shortages, damages, weighing accuracy, transit times, pricing and technology, as well as back-end functions like billing accuracy, claims processing, problem resolution and carrier responsiveness.

Daylight Transport was also ranked as the top inter-regional carrier, followed by Averitt Express and R&L Carriers.

Ward Trucking received top honors for the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region. Dayton Freight Lines was No. 1 among Great Lakes/Midwest carriers. Southeastern Freight Lines was the top Southern carrier while Peninsula was named the top Western carrier.

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