Old Dominion: LTL truck pricing competitive

Old Dominion: LTL truck pricing competitive Old Dominion Freight Line, a leading national less-than-truckload carrier, said volumes grew in the third quarter but pricing remains “increasingly competitive.”
   The trucking company said it had record revenue of $363.3 million compared to $337.6 million for the third quarter of 2006.
   Net income for the third quarter was nearly flat, $20.0 million compared with $20.1 million for the third quarter of 2006.
   Earl E. Congdon, chairman and chief executive officer, said the “industry environment continues to be very challenging. We are pleased with the 8.7 percent growth in our total tons shipped during the quarter.”
   “The pricing environment, however, was increasingly competitive during the third quarter, as indicated by the decline in our revenue per hundredweight of 0.7 percent from the third quarter of 2006 and 0.9 percent sequential decline from the second quarter of 2007.”
   He noted the company would add nine service centers this year bringing its total to 191. New centers have been added recently in Erie, Pa., and Jonesboro, Ark. Another is planned for Eugene, Ore. later this year.
   “Similar to our outlook at the start of the third quarter, we are cautious about the LTL industry’s growth prospects for the fourth quarter,” Congdon said. “We continue to expect that our tonnage for the fourth quarter of 2007 will improve over the same period of the prior year; however, we expect that soft demand within our industry will continue to drive a highly competitive environment, particularly with respect to pricing.”