For-hire trucking of exempt commodities by nonregulated carriers

No significant differences in the quality of trucking equipment were found in this comparative study of nonregulated, private, and regulated carriers competing for the same agricultural traffic. There were no significant vehicle-age differences among the three types of carriers. Each group used truck brokerage services to about the same extent and was able to obtain roughly the same share of the preferred, single-commodity loads. The average size of the nonregulated carrier firm, as measured by size of truck-tractor fleet, was relatively small, but has increased in the past five years. Driver-owner firms accounted for about 11% of the nonregulated carriers. There was no indication of significant instability in the nonregulated sector of the sample studied. However, the ability and apparent willingness of truckers to shift from one market to another to find business could be a stabilizing factor on the supply side of the transportation market.