Marten Transport, Ltd., Mondovi, Wis., reported third-quarter net income of $6.4 million, an increase of 33.2 percent from $4.8 million for the third quarter of 2004.

Net income per diluted share increased to 44 cents from 33 cents for the 2004 quarter. Operating revenue for this year's third quarter ended September 30, 2005, increased 21.6 percent to $119.1 million from $97.9 million last year.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2005, net income increased 45.6 percent to $18.0 million from $12.3 million in the same period of 2004. Net income per diluted share increased to $1.23 from 85 cents for the 2004 period. Operating revenue increased 22.0% to $334.8 million from $274.3 million in the first nine months of last year.
Operating revenue included fuel surcharges of $15.7 million and $38.1 million for the quarter and nine months of 2005, compared with $6.8 million and $16.4 million for the quarter and nine months of 2004. Operating revenue also included non-freight revenue, principally from our logistics operations. Non-freight revenue was $4.8 million and $11.8 million for the quarter and nine months of 2005, compared with $2.5 million and $4.6 million for the quarter and nine months of 2004.
For the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the company's freight revenue, which excludes fuel surcharge and non-freight revenue, increased 11.3 percent, to $98.6 million from $88.6 million for the 2004 period. For the nine months ended September 30, 2005, freight revenue increased 12.5 percent, to $284.9 million from $253.3 million for the 2004 period.
Chairman and President Randolph L. Marten said, "We had a strong performance this quarter. We continued our recent trend of increasing revenue while controlling our costs in spite of a market constrained by the number of available drivers and challenged by the high cost of fuel. Our average cost of fuel increased by 69 cents per gallon, or 39.2 percent, in the 2005 quarter compared with the 2004 quarter. We remained focused on collecting our fuel surcharge revenue to substantially offset this increasing cost. We also effectively controlled our other costs, which allowed us to improve our operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of operating revenue) to 91.0 percent, compared with 92.0 percent in the 2004 quarter.”