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January 10, 2001 1:54 PM, EST

Fueled by soaring diesel prices, the rate of bankruptcies in trucking hit a record high of 1,320 in the third quarter of 2000 and is likely to remain high through June, according to an updated study from a major investment brokerage.

The number of trucking businesses that shut their doors from July through September of 2000 nearly equaled the 1,365 that folded during the first six months of the year, A.G. Edwards & Sons reported.

“I expected to see about 1,000 failures for the [third] quarter, give or take a some,” said Donald Broughton, the lead transportation analyst for A.G. Edwards, an investment firm headquartered in St. Louis. “But there were 1,320. I didn’t believe it.” Broughton gathered his information from internal company sources and Dun & Bradstreet.

He said he carefully rechecked his numbers, line by line, to make sure he did not double-count bankrupt companies, yet he came out with the same findings. The figures are conservative and count only companies with six trucks or more, he said.

For the full story, see the Jan. 8 print edition of Transport Topics. .