Knight’s 2Q Income Rises 36%
Knight Transportation’s second-quarter earnings rose 36% to $25.8 million, or 31 cents per share on higher demand.
The Phoenix-based truckload carrier’s revenue per tractor rose 6%, helping to boost revenue 7.9% to $264 million.
In the year-earlier period, Knight reported net income of $19 million, or 24 cents per share, and revenue of $245 million.
“We are pleased with our positive results as we continued to grow our revenue and improve our operating margin. During the second quarter, overall demand remained strong while capacity appeared to tighten,” CEO Kevin Knight said in a statement.
In the second quarter, Knight formed Kool Trans, a full truckload temperature-controlled company that was created “to be attractive to professional drivers while providing high-quality, consistent service to our customers.”
Kool Trans will be marketed and operated separately from the company’s refrigerated business.
“We are excited about the growth opportunities we have with the creation of Kool Trans. We feel that the recent strength in the North American freight market, the tightening capacity and our experienced leadership team will enable us to provide much needed capacity for our customers and generate meaningful returns for our stakeholders,” Knight said.
Knight ranks No. 31 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
