Truckload giant Swift Transportation increased its second quarter profit by more than 20% from a year ago despite an overall downturn in revenue.
Evan Lockridge・Former Business Contributing Editor
July 27, 2015
2 min to read
Truckload giant Swift Transportation Co. (SWFT) increased its second quarter profit by more than 20% from a year ago despite an overall downturn in revenue, according to figures it released Monday.
Net profit climbed to $51 million from $40.2 million a year earlier, or to 35 cents per diluted share from 28 cents per diluted share, for the Phoenix, Ariz.-based carrier.
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This happened as overall revenue fell to $1.059 billion from $1.075 billion; however, revenue excluding fuel charges increased to $935.9 million from $876.3 million.
In Swift's truckload business, revenue minus fuel surcharges for the second quarter increased 5.7% over the same quarter in 2014 to $485.4 million.
It said this revenue growth was the result of a 4.9% year-over-year increase in revenue excluding fuel surcharge per loaded mile and a 0.8% increase in total loaded miles driven within the period. Also weekly revenue minus fuel surcharge revenue per tractor increased 3.4% year over year to $3,571. That was partially offset by a 1.5% decrease in loaded miles per tractor per week.
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The company’s dedicated trucking business saw revenue minus fuel surcharge grow 15.1% to $211 million in the second quarter of 2015 from a year earlier.
“This growth was driven by the various new contracts awarded over the last 12 months, which also drove the 9.8% increase in our average operational truck count year-over-year,” said Swift in its letter to shareholders. “Weekly revenue minus fuel surcharge per tractor increased 4.8% to $3,343 due to improved operational fundamentals, including pricing, utilization and deadhead.”
In the company’s Central Refrigerated Service business, revenue excluding fuel surcharge dropped 3.1% to $83.3 million, primarily driven by a 3.7% reduction in revenue minus fuel surcharge per loaded mile. That was partially offset by a 0.6% increase in total loaded miles driven within the period, according to Swift.
Finally, Swift’s intermodal segment saw revenue less fuel surcharge grow by 5% to $84.8 million, driven by a 7.2% increase in load counts. Container on flat car loads (COFC) increased 14.6%, while trailer on flat car (TOFC) loads decreased 65.4%, primarily due to the elimination of the refrigerated this business. Revenue minus fuel surcharge per load decreased 2% in the second quarter of 2015 from the same period of 2014, primarily due to the mix shift to COFC from TOFC, according to Swift.
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