BMO Numbers Suggest Trucking Enjoying Exceptional Financial Health

[Mike]

The numbers coming out of the transportation segment at Canada's BMO bank show an industry whose financial position is as strong as it has been in years.

BMO (NYSE: BMO), the former Bank of Montreal, purchased the transportation operations of GE Capital's transportation finance business in 2015. And while there are plenty of large, publicly-traded trucking companies whose quarterly reports provide a look at the financial performance of individual firms, most of them fairly large, BMO's transportation segment lends to companies big and small, so its numbers give a broader overview of the financial strength of the sector. Though there are non trucking companies in the figure, BMO has said trucking customers make up the vast majority of the transportation sector's clients.

Consider this one number: In the first nine months of the 2020 fiscal year, ended July 31, 2020, BMO took transportation division write-offs of CA$90 million (approximately $71.2 million at current exchange rates). This year, in the first nine months of fiscal 2021, transportation reported write-offs of just CA$27 million.

BMO Numbers Suggest Trucking Enjoying Exceptional Financial Health

The numbers coming out of the transportation segment at Canada's BMO bank show an industry whose financial position is as strong as it has been in years. BMO (NYSE: BMO), the former Bank of Montreal, purchased the transportation operations of GE Capital's transportation finance business in 2015...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Electric Chicken]

2020 was a disaster though. Some of us got lucky and hauled the corona freight while other specialized folks didn't have much to go on.

 

[Mike]

2020 was a disaster though. Some of us got lucky and hauled the corona freight while other specialized folks didn't have much to go on.

2020 had a very small window of bad times for trucking. For the most part, that just meant taking a couple weeks off and not venturing out into notorious bad lanes.

My engine blew up before the rates cratered, and then the rates had officially cratered by the time the truck was out of the shop. Actually ended up with a load of water that was well below $1/mile, worked my way close to home and hustler the short haul stuff for a couple weeks until I could consistently be back up above $2/mile on decent sized loads.

Didn’t take long, then the market opened wide up, and I ended up $35k in revenue above 2019 by the end of the year.

It was a great feeling til I finally made my final tax payment a couple weeks ago. I was seriously expecting a down year and held on to the tax money all year instead of paying quarterly. Ended up with twice as much tax as the previous year. Cried a little when I paid that.

This year is far better than last year or any year I have had ever. Luckily I have a new truck to depreciate, definitely going to need it.

 

[Sinister]

2020 had a very small window of bad times for trucking. For the most part, that just meant taking a couple weeks off and not venturing out into notorious bad lanes.

My engine blew up before the rates cratered, and then the rates had officially cratered by the time the truck was out of the shop. Actually ended up with a load of water that was well below $1/mile, worked my way close to home and hustler the short haul stuff for a couple weeks until I could consistently be back up above $2/mile on decent sized loads.

Didn’t take long, then the market opened wide up, and I ended up $35k in revenue above 2019 by the end of the year.

It was a great feeling til I finally made my final tax payment a couple weeks ago. I was seriously expecting a down year and held on to the tax money all year instead of paying quarterly. Ended up with twice as much tax as the previous year. Cried a little when I paid that.

This year is far better than last year or any year I have had ever. Luckily I have a new truck to depreciate, definitely going to need it.

Tell them Mexico was a business trip too as you're looking to be an import carrier for avocados and six tacos.

 

[Mike]

I w

Tell them Mexico was a business trip too as you're looking to be an import carrier for avocados and six tacos.

as tempted to try and write the trip off. If we had access to the paperwork on the avocado orchards I would try.