Old Dominion Freight Line provides positive second quarter update

National less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) provided guidance earlier today for key LTL operating metrics for the month of May.

The Thomasville, N.C.-based carrier reported that LTL tons per day increased 15.3% in May on an annual basis, with the main drivers being an 11.0% increase in daily LTL shipments and a 3.9% increase in LTL weight per shipment.  And for the second quarter-to-date period, LTL revenue per hundredweight is up 6.7% annually.

“Our May and quarter-to-date operating metrics remained strong, reflecting continued strength in the economy and a positive yield environment,” said ODFL President and CEO Greg Gantt in a statement. “The substantial growth in our LTL tons per day reflects ongoing gains in market share, which we believe is driven by our ability to deliver superior service at a fair price. In addition, we have invested in long-term capacity to accommodate increasing demand for our services. The three new service centers that we have opened this year and our 2018 planned capital expenditures of $555 million demonstrate our continued commitment to invest in future growth opportunities. Based on the long-term success of our business model, we are confident that continued execution will produce further long-term gains in market share and shareholder value.”

In a recent interview, Gantt told LM that ODFL is busy across the entire market, whether it is the industrial economy, the retail economy, and everything else it is in, like its medical business, for example.

“It really applies to all aspects of our industry relating to our customers’ business lines,” he said. “There is some impact on the last-mile side, too, and there are some different ways to ‘skin that cat’ by hauling product out from the Amazon’s of the world and deliver it to somebody’s home. That is one aspect.  A company like Amazon not only has last-mile, they also have middle mile, with somebody bringing freight into a DC that does not always come in as a truckload. A lot of it arrives via LTL, and we think that is where we fit maybe in many cases better than in the last-mile piece of that business. But we have outlets for that, too.”