Pop quiz: Where are your containers right now? Not philosophically. Like, physically. In which yard?

If your carrier went out of business tomorrow, could you answer that question? Because a surprising number of people can’t. And then their carrier goes out of business. And suddenly it’s a very urgent question.

The Surprise Bankruptcy Problem

Here’s what happens when a drayage provider folds: Your containers are somewhere. Your accessorials are uncollectible. Your customer is calling. And nobody cares that your carrier had “unforeseen cash flow challenges.”

They just care that their freight didn’t show up.

The financial fragility in drayage right now is real. We’re seeing carriers that looked fine—decent volumes, been around for years—close their doors because they were playing financial Jenga with unsustainable rates.

How to Spot a Carrier That Might Not Be Here Next Month

Here’s what to look for:

Ownership structure. Are they independently owned? Or are they owned by a private equity firm that needs to hit specific growth targets by Q3 or else? These are different levels of “we need this to work.”

Pricing. If they’re consistently the cheapest option in the market, someone’s subsidizing that rate. Usually them. With money they don’t have. That they’re hoping to make up later. Somehow.

Customer concentration. If one customer is 30% of their revenue and that customer leaves, what happens? (Hint: nothing good.)

At Mark-it, no single customer represents more than 10-12% of our revenue. We’re independently owned. We price like people who plan to be here next year. Because we do.

The “Cheaper Until It’s Not” Problem

Even if your carrier doesn’t disappear entirely, financial stress shows up in creative ways:

Maintenance gets “deferred.” Which is a fancy word for “we’re hoping this truck makes it through the month.”

Drivers don’t get paid on time. So they leave. And suddenly your dedicated lane doesn’t have a dedicated driver anymore.

Surprise accessorials appear. Because they need to make margin somewhere, and apparently it’s going to be on your invoice.

You thought you were saving money with that cheap rate. You were actually just spreading the cost out over the next six months in detention charges and awkward customer conversations.

Why Mark-it Is Still Here

We’ve operated through multiple market cycles because we don’t chase rates we can’t sustain. We maintain our equipment. We pay our people. We invest in infrastructure.

This is not heroic. This is just how you run a business that you’d like to still be running in five years.

Next week: What “we’re very responsive” actually means. (Spoiler: it should mean more than “we have phones.”)