Old Dominion Report Sees An LTL Market That Is Slowing

LTL carriers Old Dominion Freight ODFL and SAIA Inc. SAIA released intra-quarter updates on tonnage and revenue, with Old Dominion's numbers reflecting slowing demand.

Old Dominion, one of the largest LTL carriers in the trucking sector, reported a revenue per day increase of 4.2% because of an increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight. The Old Dominion report did not break out LTL revenue per hundredweight for May but said that for the second quarter of this year, LTL revenue per hundredweight was running 10.4% more than the corresponding quarter of 2018. Revenue per hundredweight in the first quarter, reported in the company's earnings, was up 9.6% from the first quarter of last year.

The gains in revenue were offset in part by a 5.8% decrease in LTL tons per day. The report strongly suggests that rate increases presumably put into effect through contract agreements last year are sticking, but less LTL freight is being moved.

The slowdown in demand for Old Dominion was also evident in two other statistics reported by the company for its May operations. There was a 4% decrease in LTL weight per shipment and a 1.9% decrease in LTL shipments.

In the company's first quarter earnings call, which took place at the end of April, CEO Greg Gantt talked about the pricing environment Old Dominion was seeing then. "We're not losing business accounts, but we're maybe losing certain lanes, because we were outpriced," he said on the call. "(W)e're just seeing some aggression that we have not seen in prior years. It's not widespread at this point, but we are seeing some." But the 10.4% gain in revenue per hundredweight for the first two months of this quarter actually ran above the 9.6% of the first quarter.

In the prepared statement released Tuesday with the data, Gantt said Old Dominion was "pleased to see the continued improvement in our yield and general stability of industry pricing."

At Saia, shipments were up in April but tonnage was down. The Saia announcement covered April but not May.

Saia said its shipments per workday were up 1.3% in April and LTL tonnage per workday was down 4.7% compared to April 2018. But after adjusting for Good Friday–Good Friday was in March in 2018 and in April in 2019–the shipments per workday came in at 3.2% higher than last year but tonnage per workday was down 2.7%. In May, shipments per workday were up 3.1% and tonnage per workday declines 2.5% compared to May 2018. In short, more shipments but less tonnage per shipment. Saia made no other comment about its numbers in its filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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