Truckload carrier Heartland Express recorded another quarterly net loss for the third quarter of 2025, underscoring how a stubbornly weak freight market and excess capacity continue to outweigh cost actions and network pruning. The company’s latest results, published Friday, October 31, 2025, extend a losing streak that has persisted through much of the current downcycle. ([]())
Why it matters: Heartland’s Q3 outcome is a barometer for the for-hire van market. The carrier has been holding the line on rates and shuffling its book toward better freight, but in a market this loose, those moves take time to show up in the P&L. For fleets and brokers, the message is the same: pricing discipline helps, yet it can’t fully counter underutilized assets and lukewarm volumes in the near term. ([]())
What’s pressuring results beyond Heartland’s walls: fresh DAT insights this week point to a structural shift that keeps squeezing the for-hire side. Shippers are relying more on private fleets for control and predictability, a trend DAT says has tilted the balance toward roughly 55% private and 45% for-hire. That reallocation of freight drags on load availability and extends the recovery timeline for carriers that depend on the common market.
Seasonal demand hasn’t turned the corner either. DAT’s October 28 market updates describe an uneven finish to the month: reefer volumes perked up and van activity showed pockets of strength, but neither trend looks strong enough yet to reset pricing power for asset-based truckload carriers. In other words, the “green shoots” are visible but not decisive.
The takeaway for operators: expect a longer grind. In this environment, the carriers that outperform are doing three things simultaneously—triaging freight mix (walking away from low-yield lanes), sweating network efficiency (deadhead and dwell), and preserving balance-sheet flexibility so they can lean into a tighter cycle when it finally arrives. Heartland’s latest quarter shows those levers are being pulled; the drag is that industry-wide supply still overwhelms demand. ([]())
For shippers, the implication is two-sided. Near term, soft conditions keep contract rates stable and service levels high as carriers compete for wallet share. But the private-fleet shift cuts into for-hire capacity utilization; when demand inflects, the for-hire market can tighten quickly—especially if prolonged losses hasten further fleet rationalization through year-end. Keeping optionality across private and for-hire channels remains a smart hedge.
Bottom line: Heartland’s Q3 loss is another data point in a late-cycle slog where pricing resolve and cost work are necessary but not yet sufficient. Watch load counts and tender rejections into November; if they firm while private-fleet pull remains elevated, the carriers best positioned for a turn will be those that protected yield without starving their networks.
Sources: FreightWaves, DAT Freight & Analytics
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