Knight Transportation’s 1Q Income Slips

Knight Transportation said Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell from a year ago, citing higher fuel prices and softer freight demand in the West.

Net income slipped to $9.9 million, or 12 cents a share, from $12.3 million, or 15 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 12.5% to $186.5 million.

Besides soaring diesel prices, Chairman and CEO Kevin Knight said the quarter was affected negatively by fuel, softer Western demand, the truckload carrier’s adoption of electronic onboard recorders and severe weather during the quarter around the country.

“We expect that we will grow our revenue before fuel surcharge over the remaining three quarters of this year by a double-digit average as we see demand building for each of our services,” he said in a statement.

Phoenix-based Knight Transportation is ranked No. 34 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.