TFI International showed some signs of improvement in its U.S LTL division in the fourth quarter of 2025, which has been a key goal of company management.
But the TFI (NYSE: TFII) earnings report released Tuesday showed other data points reflecting continued weakness.
TFI’s U.S. LTL operations have at its core the UPS Freight operations the company acquired in 2021.
On the positive side, the U.S. LTL’s adjusted operating ratio (OR) improved year-over-year to 95.3% from 97.3%. The average weight per shipment, another area that CEO Alain Bedard has said has been a target for improvement, rose to 1,284 pounds from 1,227, a gain of 4.6%.
Bedard also has made reference to routing for the U.S. LTL operations, noting that the distance between stops compared unfavorably to the company’s Canadian LTL operations, which posted an adjusted OR of 81.7% for the quarter, which was a deterioration of 170 bps.
In the U.S., the average length of haul declined to 1,122 miles from 1,194 miles, a 6% drop.
But the challenging freight market still showed up in some of the segment’s overall numbers. Revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel dropped 5.8% to $26.13 from $27.73. Total tonnage declined 6.8% to 756, but given that the segment’s OR improved alongside that decline might be considered a positive at TFI.
TFI does not break out adjusted EBITDA for its U.S. and Canadian LTL segments. The adjusted EBITDA for total LTL operations fell to $115.1 million from $123.5 million. But given a decline in total LTL revenue of 9.5% and a drop in operating income of just 7.1%, the EBITDA margin rose to 17.4% from 16.8% a year ago.
The struggles of the freight market continued to be visible in bottom line numbers. GAAP earnings per share fell to 87 cents per share from $1.03 a year ago. But the adjusted non-GAAP EPS of $1.09 was better than consensus forecasts by 24 cts/share, according to SeekingAlpha. Revenue of $1.91 billion was just $10 million short of consensus.
The adjusted OR for the entire company was 92.3%, deteriorating from 91.2% a year earlier The truckload segment’s OR deteriorated to 93.2% from 91.5% a year earlier.
TFI’s earnings call with analysts will be Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. EST.
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