Echo grows Q3 earnings, revenues

Chicago-based freight broker and third-party provider Echo Global Logistics recorded a net income of $2.4 million on revenues of $509.5 million for the quarter, according to the company’s most recent financial statements.    Echo Global Logistics reported a net income of $2.4 million for the third quarter of 2017, ticking up 1.3 percent from the same 2016 period, the company’s latest financial statements revealed.
   Revenues for the freight broker and third-party logistics provider shot up 10.7 percent year-over-year to $509.5 million.
   Founded in 2005, Chicago-based Echo currently handles 15,000 shipments per day, 9,000 of which are less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments, Echo CEO Doug Waggoner said at the 3PL Value Creation Chicago Summit last week.
   In Echo’s truckload business, about 45 percent of the business is contractual and 55 percent is spot market, while its about 50/50 in the managed transportation business, Waggoner said. In LTL, Echo essentially has wholesale pricing from its carriers that it marks up and sells.
   Echo is automated with all of its LTL carriers and tends to sell LTL to smaller shippers, he said.
   When asked at the conference what Echo is doing to bring value to customers, Waggoner said the company is doing a lot of things to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its tracking capabilities. However, he said a company can have all the technology in the world, but good solid relationships with customers and talking to them to know what they want is key.
   “Our strong performance in volatile market conditions demonstrates the power of our technology and business model,” Waggoner said in a press release.
   Looking ahead, Echo expects revenues for the fourth quarter to range between $460 million and $500 million, bringing the full year revenues guidance to a range of $1.86 billion to $1.9 billion, Echo Chief Financial Officer Kyle Sauers said.
   Meanwhile, investment bank Stifel said, “With revenues accelerating into the positive direction and what we are viewing as trough gross margins, we see the company as well positioned to outperform the market over the next 12 months and possibly even become more constructive on doing deals again.”