William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Feb 03, 2012 2:36PM EST
Old Dominion Freight Line increased its profit 84.4 percent in 2011 to $139.5 million, while revenue rose 27.1 percent to $1.88 billion for the full year.
Fresh from a wave of expansion activity beyond its core less-than-truckload business, ODFL reported increasing revenue and profit in LTL trucking. Net profit jumped 80.8 percent in the fourth quarter to $39.9 million, while ODFL’s operating ratio, a measure of profitability, dropped to 86.9 percent.
Revenue grew 21.6 percent to $485.1 million in the fourth quarter, just short of the $495.4 million in revenue ODFL reported in the third quarter of 2011. The Thomasville, N.C., company was the sixth-largest LTL carrier in 2010.
With a 9.8 percent year-over-year increase in fourth quarter shipments and 9.7 percent gain in tonnage, the carrier outpaced trucking industry growth. ODFL’s revenue per hundredweight or yield, a pricing indicator, increased 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter, or 6.4 percent excluding fuel surcharges.
Excluding fuel surcharges, ODFL revenue per hundredweight rose more than 6 percent in each of the last four quarters, said President and CEO David S. Congdon. ODFL gained traction toward the year’s end, Congdon said, improving linehaul, pickup and delivery and platform operations at a faster pace than for the full year.
-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @wbcassidy_joc.
