Solid freight gains boost profit, revenue for ODFL
William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Jul 30, 2015 6:14PM EDT
Ignoring warnings of an economic slowdown, Old Dominion Freight Line increased revenue and profit in the second quarter while capturing more less-than-truckload freight. The LTL carrier hardly seemed to downshift from 2014, when the U.S. economy was expanding much faster.
The LTL shipments hauled by ODFL increased 13.4 percent from a year ago, while tons per day rose 9.1 percent, the Thomasville, North Carolina carrier said today. Net profit rose 15.9 percent year-over-year to $85.6 million, while total revenue increased 8.4 percent to $762.2 million.
In the year ago quarter, a break-out quarter for the freight industry and the U.S. economy, ODFL's revenue increased 19.1 percent to $703 million, while net profit rose 26.8 percent to $73.8 million. LTL shipments rose 12 percent and LTL tonnage 14.9 percent, as shippers that came up short in truckload capacity shifted heavier freight to LTL trailers.
ODFL is one of a few public trucking companies, including
Knight Transportation, that have managed to build on all of the gains made in 2014, despite higher driver costs and lower fuel surcharge revenue.
David S. Congdon, vice chairman and CEO, said the 2015 second quarter marked ODFL’s “best-ever” quarterly results for revenue, operating ratio and earnings per share. The carrier’s operating ratio, a measure of profitability, dropped 1 percent to 81.5. Earnings per share increased 16.3 percent.
Fuel surcharge revenue fell, dragging down revenue per hundredweight or LTL yield by 0.8 percent and contributing to a 5.5 percent decline in LTL line-haul revenue per intercity mile. Excluding fuel surcharges, however, LTL yield rose 5.3 percent. That reflects “a stable pricing environment” as well as the decrease in weight per shipment, Congdon said in a statement. LTL carriers have seen heavier shipments shift back to truckload carriers in the first half of 2015.
The gains at ODFL also reflect shifting market share, with ODFL taking some business from its competitors. The full extent of such a shift will be clearer at the close of the earnings season.
ODFL’s sustained profitability -- ODFL and Con-way Freight were the only two billion-dollar LTL companies not to rack up losses in 2009 -- has helped fuel expansion. The company has opened or expanded five terminals this year, and added 12 terminals over the past five years,
expanding coast-to-coast. At many other facilities, walls have been “pushed out” to add more doors.
The company became the
fourth-largest U.S. LTL carrier ranked by revenue last year, according to SJ Consulting Group, passing UPS Freight and trailing YRC Freight in revenue.
This week, ODFL opened a 24-door terminal in Sidney, Montana, to handle growing traffic from the region’s oil and agriculture businesses. In total, the company expects to spend $469.3 million on capital expenditures in 2015, including $164.7 million for real estate and terminal expansion and $277.8 million for tractors, trailers and other equipment. Capex spending totaled $159.1 million in the second quarter and $231.3 million in the first half, the company said.
Contact William B. Cassidy at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter: @wbcassidy_joc