Case 5-1
Squire Transportation
Squire Transportation (Squire) is a large national truckload (TL) carrier in the United States covering routes going both east-west and north-south. Squire’s average length of haul is 1,200 miles with approximately 10 percent empty miles. Squire runs predominantly single driver tractors hauling 53-foot trailers. For years, Squire has relied on relatively inexpensive diesel fuel and nonunion drivers to keep its operating costs low. The location of its major customers requires either bobtailing tractors (repositioning without pulling trailers) or dead-heading equipment (running tractor-trailers empty) to pick up loads for delivery. These practices worked well diesel prices were at the $1-per-gallon level.