Logistics has quietly become one of the highest credit-risk sectors in the U.S. economy, and the calls coming into our desk this year tell the story better than any dataset.
Every week, we hear a version of the same conversation. A CFO or controller calls because a long-time logistics customer just stopped paying, or stretched a 30-day invoice to 90, or filed Chapter 11 the same week they processed an order. The underlying question is always the same: what could we have done differently, and what should we do now?
This piece is a short field report on what we are seeing across freight brokers, 3PLs, fuel and equipment suppliers, warehousing operators, and other logistics-adjacent businesses. The pattern is consistent enough that it is worth flagging, especially for finance leaders whose customer concentration is heavier in this sector than the balance sheet might suggest.
What we are seeing in the market right now
Three patterns dominate the calls coming in
The first is the slow stretch followed by sudden silence. Customers who paid reliably through 2024 begin extending invoices to 60, then 75, then 90 days. By the time the CFO calls us, the customer’s CFO has stopped responding, and a Chapter 7 filing is days away.
The second is cascading exposure. A single broker collapse takes down dozens of carriers and downstream vendors. Multiple supplier clients have learned only after the fact that their own counterparty’s largest customer just filed.
The third is the rise of dispute-and-delay tactics. OS&D claims, line-item disagreements, and unilateral term changes are showing up far more frequently than in prior cycles, and they are concentrated in the same logistics segments showing the most stress.
The headline failures back this up. In January 2026, the R&R Family of Companies, parent of R&R Express, RFX LLC, and Taylor Express, shut down and left an estimated $65 million in unpaid freight bills behind. In November 2025, digital broker Zuum Transportation filed Chapter 11 with up to $50 million in liabilities and 49 unsecured creditors lined up. FreightWaves reported November 2025 brought the highest carrier-bankruptcy rate on record, and 21 freight companies filed Chapter 11 in Q3 2025 alone. Industry analysts estimate 5,000 to 8,000 trucking companies effectively exited the market in 2025, and the trend has carried into 2026 without pause.
Allianz Trade’s most recent insolvency outlook has global business failures up 6% in 2025 and another 3% in 2026, with transportation and storage already posting double-digit increases across multiple developed economies. The macro picture matches what we are hearing on the desk.
Why more CFOs are exploring Trade Credit Insurance
Two years ago, Trade Credit Insurance was treated by many U.S. finance teams as a nice-to-have. That has changed quickly. The conversations we have now with CFOs and controllers are much more practical: they are not asking whether they should consider it, they are asking how it works, what it costs, and how fast it can be put in place.
Three reasons keep coming up
It pays out. Trade Credit Insurance protects accounts receivable against customer non-payment from insolvency, protracted default, and political risk. Most multi-buyer policies indemnify between 75% and 95% of insured losses. When a covered customer files Chapter 7, the receivable becomes a claim rather than a write-off.
The credit intelligence is its own product. Specialist freight and 3PL underwriters identify deteriorating credit months before public events. Policyholders see coverage adjustments and limit changes in real time, and this visibility often prevents loss from occurring in the first place.
The cost is more reasonable than most expect. Most multi-buyer Trade Credit Insurance policies run less than 1% of insured sales, often in the 0.15% to 0.30% range. A company with $20 million in insurable receivables can typically cover the full book for under $50,000 a year. One avoided write-off on a single mid-six-figure logistics customer pays for the policy several times over.
The factor and ABL benefit change the math
For businesses that finance receivables through a factor or asset-based lender, the policy’s value compounds. Insured receivables are higher-quality collateral, and lenders respond accordingly. Factors regularly raise advance rates, reduce discount fees, expand the eligible borrowing base to include buyers previously concentration-capped, and ease reserve requirements once a credible policy is in place.
ATRAFIN clients routinely pick up five to fifteen points of advance rate the day their policy binds. On a $20 million receivables book, ten points of additional advance rate translates to roughly $2 million of newly available working capital, which often more than offsets the policy premium in the first year.
How to explore it without committing
The fastest way to find out whether Trade Credit Insurance fits your situation is to conduct a brief risk review of your existing receivables portfolio. ATRAFIN does this regularly with no obligation to bind. The diagnostic surfaces concentration risks, deteriorating buyers, and financing optimization opportunities that finance teams often want to know about, regardless of whether they ultimately purchase coverage.
If your top twenty logistics customers represent a meaningful share of your A/R, the conversation is worth thirty minutes. The current cycle is moving faster than prior cycles, and businesses that engage early tend to have far more options than those that wait until a major loss has already occurred.
A practical first step
Pull your current aging report. Identify your top twenty logistics-sector buyers. Quantify the receivable concentration and stress-test it against a Chapter 7 outcome on the largest three. If the answer is uncomfortable, a Trade Credit Insurance conversation is worth starting now rather than later.
ATRAFIN works exclusively in this space. We help finance leaders structure coverage that fits how their businesses operate, monitor exposure as the market shifts, and align the program with broader treasury and lending objectives. We are happy to share what we are seeing and help your team think through the options.