The parent of trucking companies Covenant Transport and others said it expects big improvement when its fourth quarter earnings are released and plans a public stock offering.

Tennessee-based Covenant Transportation Group said it saw improvements in its October operating results and expects the trend to continue. This follows the company reporting in October its third quarter profit fell slightly.

“Demand is trending solidly above demand in the fourth quarter of 2013,” CTG said in a statement. “For the month of October 2014, total revenue increased 10.9%, average freight revenue per total mile increased 10.6%, average miles per tractor per week increased 9%, and average freight revenue per tractor per week increased 20.5%, in each case compared with October 2013.”

For the first twelve days of November, CTG reported average freight revenue per tractor per week increased approximately 16% on a preliminary basis and before month-end adjustments. Average seated truck count increased sequentially by approximately 35 trucks for October compared with its average seated truck count for third quarter of 2014. The average number of tractors in the fleet was 2,607 in October versus 2,748 a year earlier.

“We expect earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2014 to be materially greater than earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2013,” said CTG.

The news follows the company announcing a few days earlier it has plans for an offering of 2.2 million shares of its common stock, potentially raising more than $48 million. The proceeds will be used to pay off debt including collision avoidance technology for its new trucks.