Flatbed and dry van carrier Universal Truckload Services said its net income fell 68.6 percent to $1.7 million, or 11 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $5.4 million, or 34 cents a share for the year-ago quarter
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The Michigan-based company announced that its truckload revenue dropped 32.9 percent to $81.8 million from $122.1 million the third quarter of 2008.

During the three-month period, its brokerage revenue was down 53.6 percent to $27.9 million, versus $60.2 million in the 2008 period.

In addition, the company's intermodal revenue was $18.7 million, a 39.3 percent drop from the year-ago's $30.8 million.

"We were very fortunate in 2008 to have experienced such high levels of flatbed and specialized hauling, both in terms of volume and in rate," said Don Cochran, Universal's president and CEO. "When making year over year comparisons, we must remind ourselves that while experiencing extraordinary market weakness in 2009, we were at historical peaks in both pricing and volume last year. We have a long road ahead of us, and we will continue to focus on controlling cost while aggressively growing our market share throughout our core businesses."