Knight Reports Higher 1Q Profit

Truckload carrier Knight Transportation said its first-quarter profit rose 5.1% to $12.3 million, or 15 cents a share, from $11.7 million, or 14 cents, a year ago.

Revenue rose 11.4% to $165.7 million, the company said late Wednesday.

“The operating environment grew increasingly positive during the first quarter 2010 [and] we appear to be firmly in a recovering truckload freight market,” Chief Executive Officer Kevin Knight said.

First-quarter equipment productivity, measured by average revenue before fuel surcharge per tractor, rose 3.8% from the same period last year, he said in a statement.

“In this strengthening freight market we were able to decrease our non-paid empty miles by 12.8% from 12.5% to 10.9%,” Knight said. “This improvement in non-paid empty miles offset a 1.9% decline in average freight revenue per loaded mile as average freight revenue per total mile was flat, year over year.”

Knight Transportation is ranked No. 38 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.