Q: Very curious about your response yesterday on TFI International when you stated "Backhaul is really bad, but this is also a tariff situation (nothing is coming back to Canada)." What would these truckers normally haul back to Canada i.e. industrial or consumer products? Just curious if the Canadian sentiment to avoid buying US goods is having an impact.
5i Research Answer:
Backhaul can be just about anything, but TFII did specifically highly agricultural and farm customers as simply not doing much at all. It also noted that most US companies are essentially 'frozen' and not being as active because they have no idea where tariffs are going to finally end up. There is likely 'some' avoid-US impact here but it is impossible to quantify. But backhaul was specifically highlighted as one of the company's current bigger challenges.