Knight Transportation Third Quarter Profit Slips

UPDATED--Truckload carrier Knight Transportation has reported slightly higher third quarter revenue while income is lower from the same time a year earlier.

Total revenue increased 0.6% from the third quarter of 2012 to $239 million, while profit fell 9.2% to $15 million.

''Despite a difficult operating environment and running 3.6% fewer tractors than last year, we grew our revenue on a year over year basis,” said Kevin Knight, chairman and CEO. “Our revenue per tractor improved by 1.0%, as a result of a 1.5% improvement in revenue per total mile and a 0.5% decrease in miles per tractor. Inflationary cost pressures exceeded the improvement in our revenue per total mile, yet we remain confident in our ability to operate with an industry-leading cost per mile.''

Knight said its average tractor count for the third quarter of 2013 increased 44 tractors from the second quarter of 2013 and decreased 151 tractors, when compared to the same quarter last year, to 4,007 tractors. Its tractor fleet has an average age of 2 years.

For the first nine months of the year Knight reported total revenue increased 3.7% to more than $719 million, compared to the first nine months of last year, while income increased 6% to a little more than $49 million.

The Arizona-based Knight Transportation has been pursing a takeover lately of rival USA Truck, based in Arkansas. USA has rejected the offers, while Knight has increased its ownership in the company to more than 12%, earlier saying it was disappointed over USA Truck's rejection.

USA has since filed a lawsuit  and last week reported it nearly turned a profit in the third quarter, as part of its turnaround strategy, after earlier losses that were much larger.

More details about Knight's third quarter earning are on its website.

Update adds link to Knight webiste with more information.