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Old Dominion posts best first quarter ever

Yield improvement leads to 76.1% operating ratio

Old Dominion "winning market share" on way to record first quarter (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported first-quarter earnings per share of $1.70, 12 cents better than the consensus estimate and significantly ahead of the year-ago result of $1.11.

The Thomasville, North Carolina-based company reported a 14.1% year-over-year increase in revenue as tonnage increased 8.3% (shipments +6.9%). Tight truck capacity allowed the carrier to raise yields again with revenue per hundredweight up 5.6%.

Click for full article – Old Dominion poised for more records in 2021

“We are winning market share as demand for our industry-leading service continues to increase. In addition, we believe the domestic economy is getting stronger while industry capacity is generally limited,” commented Greg Gantt, president and CEO, in a Thursday press release.

The company posted a record first-quarter operating ratio of 76.1%, 530 basis points better year-over-year. Improved yields and increased weight per shipment (+1.3%) were cited as some of the catalysts.


“The improvement in freight density across our network created operating leverage that helped improve our aggregate overhead costs as a percent of revenue. Operating efficiencies and the increase in yield also contributed to the improvement in our direct operating costs as a percent of revenue,” Gantt added.

The OR improvement was achieved even as the carrier added employees to its workforce, a trend it expects to continue in the second quarter to handle the increase in volume.

Old Dominion will hold a conference call to discuss these results on Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT. Stay tuned to FreightWaves for more coverage on Old Dominion’s earnings report.

Click for full article – Old Dominion poised for more records in 2021

Table: Old Dominion’s key performance indicators

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Todd Maiden

Based in Richmond, VA, Todd is the finance editor at FreightWaves. Prior to joining FreightWaves, he covered the TLs, LTLs, railroads and brokers for RBC Capital Markets and BB&T Capital Markets. Todd began his career in banking and finance before moving over to transportation equity research where he provided stock recommendations for publicly traded transportation companies.