The trucking industry is losing a critical source of credit insight as BMO sells its transportation finance unit. FreightWaves’ John Kingston, who pioneered tracking BMO’s unique data, reveals how trucking credit quality is finally strengthening just as this transparent data source disappears. He also dives into rising diesel prices, heating oil’s election impact, and the overlooked risk of refinery maintenance season.
BMO’s transportation lending unit — widely considered one of the largest truck lenders in the U.S., possibly the biggest — is set to be sold to Stonepeak and is expected to close in the fourth quarter. That transaction will almost certainly end the quarterly disclosure of truck credit metrics that FreightWaves has tracked for six to seven years, eliminating what has been a rare, transparent look at loan quality across the trucking cycle.
