Just CA$2 million. That’s the size of the write-offs that BMO (TSX: BMO.TO) took in its transportation sector in the first quarter of 2022, which ended Jan. 31.
The number is so low that it almost defies description. BMO is a major lender to the trucking industry; the size of its book for the quarter was CA$13.26 billion (US$10.4 billion) and the number of clients it serves is believed to be measured in the tens of thousands. Its detailed earnings report each quarter is a strong indicator of the financial health of the trucking industry because the contributors to the data are so numerous.
To put the size of the write-offs in perspective, in Canadian dollars, quarterly write-offs sequentially in 2020 were $25 million, $35 million, $30 million and $23 million. There was continued improvement in 2021, with sequential write-offs of $11 million and $10 million and two consecutive quarters of $6 million.
Even with the pandemic stripped out of the equation, the $2 million in transportation write-offs is stunning. In 2018, a year considered to be one of the strongest trucking markets in recent history, BMO recorded quarterly write-offs, sequentially, of $17 million, $17 million, $15 million and $14 million.
www.freightwaves.com
The number is so low that it almost defies description. BMO is a major lender to the trucking industry; the size of its book for the quarter was CA$13.26 billion (US$10.4 billion) and the number of clients it serves is believed to be measured in the tens of thousands. Its detailed earnings report each quarter is a strong indicator of the financial health of the trucking industry because the contributors to the data are so numerous.
To put the size of the write-offs in perspective, in Canadian dollars, quarterly write-offs sequentially in 2020 were $25 million, $35 million, $30 million and $23 million. There was continued improvement in 2021, with sequential write-offs of $11 million and $10 million and two consecutive quarters of $6 million.
Even with the pandemic stripped out of the equation, the $2 million in transportation write-offs is stunning. In 2018, a year considered to be one of the strongest trucking markets in recent history, BMO recorded quarterly write-offs, sequentially, of $17 million, $17 million, $15 million and $14 million.
Write-offs in BMO’s growing trucking book of business plunge
BMO’s detailed release of its transportation group statistics provide a good look at how the trucking industry is doing.
www.freightwaves.com
