As 2022 comes to an end, TruckNews.com reached out to several trucking industry executives to ask about the biggest challenge their fleets will face in the coming year, and how they plan to address these issues.

In this installment, Big Freight Systems chief operating officer Rod Miron offers his thoughts.

Q1: What is the single greatest challenge that your business will face in 2023?

Here at Big Freight Systems, like most carriers, we are coming off a couple of banner years in 2021 and 2022. Over the last three to six months we have seen a definite softening of the market, which is continuing to create downward pressure on rates — mostly spot rates. The increased cost of parts, maintenance and equipment are all challenges we see, and unfortunately rates are not keeping up.

I would say we have three major concerns going into 2023:

1. Downward pressure on rates — With the softening market and accompanying lower demand for capacity, we expect spot rates to continue to fall into at least the second quarter of 2023. We expect small gains in contract rates this year, as opposed to nearly double digits the last two years. Big Freight Systems will focus on growth through volume, leveraging our longer-term relationships and increased network density, to help mitigate the need to access spot markets.

2. Increased costs maintenance/parts availability — Parts costs are up anywhere from 10-20% depending on the item. Big Freight Systems is working hard to leverage our parent company’s buying power as are all operating companies within the Daseke group. We are looking at aftermarket solutions for various parts when practical, as well as purchasing stock when available.

3. Equipment pricing and availability — We have seen major increases in equipment costs over the last two years as well as major challenges acquiring equipment in a timely fashion. Big Freight Systems, as part of the Daseke Group, has been fortunate to be able to take advantage of the higher volume purchasing power and the resulting fleet allocations based on our total corporate spend with various OEMs.