The financial mobility of motor carriers: Pre- and post-deregulation

This study uses a pooled matched-sample for the years 1977 and 1987 to examine the strategic adaptability of motor carriers, in the post-deregulation environment in the context of financial mobility. This concept, first delineated by Donaldson, refers to the strategic inventorying of financial resources and sources to meet anticipated and unanticipated cash needs. A refined and sophisticated balance sheet framework is used to define, for each motor carrier in the sample, changes in the degree of financial mobility. These changes are then linked to firm performance. Using several measures of performance, the empirical results demonstrate that motor carriers who developed a ‘system’ approach to managing the strategic nature of their balance sheet were the most profitable.