Latest news with #NathanMeisgeier
Business Wire
a day ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Texas Supreme Court Reverses $90 Million Judgment Against Werner Enterprises
OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Werner Enterprises, Inc. ('Werner') (Nasdaq: WERN), a premier transportation and logistics provider, today announced the Texas Supreme Court has ruled in Werner's favor in reversing and dismissing the landmark $90 million truck accident verdict from 2018. The case centered on a tragic 2014 accident in Texas, where a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction on a divided interstate highway lost control, crossed a median and struck a Werner tractor-trailer. Plaintiffs alleged Werner and its driver were at fault, despite the fact that Werner's driver was traveling well below the posted speed limit, remained in his lane of traffic for the entirety of the incident and was braking before impact, but without sufficient time to avoid collision. The company has asserted from the beginning that the accident was non-preventable and that its driver acted appropriately. Werner appealed the original 2018 verdict and, after more than seven years of appeals, the Texas Supreme Court has now reversed the decision and fully dismissed the lawsuit. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Werner and its driver were " a mere happenstance of place and time," and that " the sole proximate cause of this accident and these injuries (the sole substantial factor to which the law permits assignment of liability) was the sudden, unexpected hurtling of the victims' vehicle into oncoming highway traffic, for which Werner and its driver bore no responsibility." 'This is a long-awaited win for Werner,' said Werner's President and Chief Legal Officer, Nathan Meisgeier. 'After seven years navigating the appellate process, we are thankful the Texas Supreme Court reached the same conclusion as law enforcement – that the Werner drivers and our company did nothing wrong. A different outcome would have had far-reaching implications beyond the transportation industry.' Meisgeier emphasized, 'We have not and will not lose sight of the tragic loss the Blake family suffered because of this accident. Our continued thoughts and prayers are with the Blake family.' About Werner Enterprises Werner Enterprises, Inc. delivers superior truckload transportation and logistics services to customers across the United States, Mexico and Canada. With 2024 revenues of $3.0 billion, an industry-leading modern truck and trailer fleet, nearly 13,000 talented associates and our innovative Werner EDGE ® technology, we are an essential solutions provider for customers who value the integrity of their supply chain and require safe and exceptional on-time service. Werner ® provides Dedicated and One-Way Truckload services as well as Logistics services that include truckload brokerage, freight management, intermodal and final mile. Werner embraces inclusion as a core value and manages key risks and opportunities through a balanced sustainability strategy.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trucking execs see green shoots as industry awaits upturn
Signs that a freight recovery may be taking shape continue to surface, said trucking executives on the investor conference circuit this week. The overall sentiment is that the truckload industry is no longer in a recession and that normal seasonal trends have returned, but no one is ready to commit to when a meaningful positive inflection will occur. 'We know we're coming off the bottom of the market,' Drew Wilkerson, CEO at truck broker RXO (NYSE: RXO), told investors at Citi's 2025 Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference in Miami on Wednesday. 'You are starting to see the signs of a market that's shifting. The thing that's not known is, what's the pace of the recovery?' He cited a recent run in TL spot rates and noted that contract rates have turned positive. He also talked about the increase in carrier tender rejections and said internal data shows load-to-truck ratios have nearly doubled year over year. RXO is calling for contract rates to increase y/y by low- to mid-single digits this year. The company's TL revenue per load is up y/y by a low-single-digit percentage to start the year after being flat in the fourth from TL carrier Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN) offered some positive anecdotes as well. The company said dialogue with customers – mostly nondiscretionary retail and food and beverage companies – has been more positive than it was a year ago. The carrier is coming off a peak season in which project freight volumes doubled y/y even though rates were higher. Werner also pointed to an improvement in spot rates and said its one-way TL unit has seen two straight quarters of y/y rate improvement. It is calling for a 'gradually improving market throughout the rest of the year.' The outlook calls for rate per total mile in the one-way fleet to increase by 1% to 4% y/y during the first half of 2025, with revenue per truck per week in its dedicated unit to be flat to 3% higher for the full year. Management said it was still early in bid season but results from contractual negotiations are consistent with expectations heading into the year. It expects truck capacity to continue to exit even as the market improves, pointing to the end of payment forbearance programs as lenders to the industry are taking sizable write-offs.'If you're a small or medium-size carrier that's just been barely scraping by and maybe doing an interest-only payment, or maybe not making a payment at all, and the [market] turn comes later, it's probably too late,' Nathan Meisgeier, Werner president and chief legal officer, said at Barclays 42nd Annual Industrial Select Conference in Miami on Wednesday. 'Even with an improvement in spot rate, even with the turn, we expect to see capacity attrition. We're still seeing it right now.' Werner is calling for truck growth of 1% to 5% y/y, with most of the additions coming at its dedicated fleet where the pipeline remains strong. J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) said the fact that it doesn't have anything negative to announce is probably a positive. It said the market has reached an inflection as normal seasonal patterns have returned after a 30-month-plus freight recession. Its customers are bracing for TL rates to increase 3% to 8% y/y in 2025 but it also cautioned that the same customers were expecting rate increases a year ago. The company said it's still too early to forecast what will happen with intermodal rates this year but that it plans to focus on freight selection in hopes of running a balanced network with improved asset utilization and minimal repositioning costs. It also expects to get back to adding trucks in its dedicated service, without any notable offset from customer attrition, by the back half of the year. The company placed more than 1,700 trucks into a new service last year, but the additions were wiped out as some customers cut back on their capacity needs and others went out of business. J.B. Hunt reiterated a long-term goal of adding 800 to 1,000 net trucks in dedicated in more analysis of the current freight market? Watch the February edition of The State of Freight webinar here. More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: LTL panel tells shippers to start using new freight classification codes now ABF Freight latest LTL carrier to nab Yellow terminals J.B. Hunt working on intermodal mix, awaiting rate inflection The post Trucking execs see green shoots as industry awaits upturn appeared first on FreightWaves. Sign in to access your portfolio
