SAIA President & CEO Fritz Holgrefe breaks down the company’s impressive third-quarter earnings, including record revenue and significant improvements in customer satisfaction and claims ratios. Discover how strategic network investments and a customer-centric approach are driving SAIA’s success and what lies ahead for the logistics giant.
Saia reported record third-quarter revenue of $982.5 million, up 17% year over year, with earnings per share of $3.41, the LTL carrier’s president and CEO said in an interview with FreightWaves. Alongside the results, the company announced a $250 million share repurchase program — a signal that years of heavy network investment are giving way to a phase focused on profitability and capital returns.
The revenue gain was driven by a combination of fuel surcharges, core pricing initiatives, and tonnage growth. Tonnage per workday rose approximately 8.9% year over year, reaching a record, while revenue per shipment climbed 5.8%. Shipments per workday, however, grew less than 1%, a deliberate outcome of the carrier’s effort to attract higher-weight freight from customers that value premium service.
Service metrics underpinned the financial results. The company’s claims ratio fell 40% year over year, and its internally tracked Net Promoter Score improved 15% over the same period. The operating ratio came in at 87.6, and newly opened facilities saw OR improvement of roughly 40 basis points year over year, with operating income at those locations up about 22%.
“We see the potential in this business to really drive, as we continue to mature the network, mature our portfolio of customers, the opportunity is really to get our OR kind of into the, you know, sort of low 80s, upper 70s,” the CEO said. “Good quarter, but just kind of tip of the iceberg of where I think we could take this.”
One persistent drag is the Los Angeles region, which the CEO described as the carrier’s longest length of haul and highest revenue-per-bill market. That market has remained soft year over year, creating a mix headwind. He attributed the weakness partly to modal shift and partly to disciplined pricing — acknowledging that some freight simply does not fit Saia’s network economics at current rate expectations.
On the network side, Saia has added more than 40 facilities and relocated 25 since 2022, bringing 60% of its locations within 50 miles of 60% of the addressable U.S. market. That compares with 35% in 2017. The carrier now operates 219 facilities across the lower 48 states. Future expansion will be more measured, with the CEO pointing to underpenetrated markets — citing Trenton, New Jersey, and Laredo, Texas, among facilities acquired through the bankruptcy auction process — as areas with long-term strategic value.
“We are as well positioned as the company has ever been,” he said, adding that the focus going forward will be converting newer facilities into established markets with double-digit share, similar to what Saia has achieved in Texas over many years.
- Saia posted record Q3 revenue of $982.5M, up 17% YoY, with EPS of $3.41 and an 87.6 operating ratio
- Claims ratio dropped 40% and Net Promoter Score rose 15% YoY, while tonnage per workday hit a record, up ~8.9%
- Saia announced a $250M share repurchase and targets an OR in the low 80s to upper 70s as its 40-plus new facilities since 2022 mature
This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.
