Although the market has been improving, Saia said conditions were still tough in the first quarter, posting a net loss of $3.2 million, or 21 cents a share, compared to a loss of $6.3 million, or 47 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2009.

"While improved relative to 2009 trends, the environment remains difficult with soft tonnage and industry overcapacity which continue to pressure yields," said Rick O'Dell, president and CEO. "We are addressing this challenging environment with measured pricing decisions, targeted sales and marketing programs and engineered efficiency initiatives. While we are beginning to see some rationalization in pricing, we have a long way to go to recover the yield deterioration experienced over the past two years."

The less-than-truckload carrier said revenues were up 3 percent to $212.2 million compared to the 2009 quarter. LTL tonnage per workday gained 2.8 percent, while LTL yield decreased 0.2 percent, due to competitive pricing, partially offset by higher fuel surcharge.

The carrier had some positive outcomes from the first quarter, including improvements in productivity, terminal labor cost per bill, and cargo claims experience. There was also a lower accident severity and 30 percent improvement in lost time injuries.

"Saia remains committed to managing through these difficult times with a relentless focus on our strategy of building density in our network, customer satisfaction and engineered process improvements to achieve long-term benefits for our customers and shareholders," O'Dell said.