U.S. Xpress Reports Revenue of $450M for Q1
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U.S. Xpress Enterprises saw revenue and earnings growth during the first quarter of 2021, the company reported April 22.
The Chattanooga, Tenn.-based truckload carrier posted net income attributable to controlling interest of $2.5 million, or 5 cents per diluted share, for the three months ending March 31. That compared with a net loss of $9.2 million, or a loss of 19 cents a share, during the same time the previous year. Total operating revenue increased by 4.12% to $450.8 million from $432.6 million.
The company attributed the revenue growth primarily to gains in its brokerage segment that were partially offset by a decrease in truckload revenue, as well as decreased fuel surcharge revenue of $6.6 million.
Fuller
“Our team addressed customer pricing in certain dedicated accounts through the first quarter in response to driver and capacity cost inflation, which we expect to contribute to improved dedicated division results as the year continues,” U.S. Xpress CEO Eric Fuller said in a statement. “As we look forward to the balance of the year, we believe all of our businesses are firmly positioning the company to deliver on our goals of growing our digital businesses and achieving scale benefits which will begin to drive meaningful margin expansion as we exit the year.”
The company’s truckload segment reported Q1 operating revenue decreased 1.9% to $335.8 million from $342.3 million last year, but operating income for the segment soared 460.7% to $6.7 million from $1.2 million during the prior-year quarter. The truckload segment includes over-the-road, dedicated and consolidated operations.
The results for the segment were primarily the result of higher rates per mile combined with lower claims expense and other costs that were partially offset by fewer average tractors. OTR operations saw average revenue per tractor per week increase 7.5% compared with last year. The improvement was primarily the result of a 16% increase in average revenue per mile, which was partially offset by a 7.3% reduction in average miles per tractor. Dedicated saw average revenue per tractor per week increase $87.
The brokerage segment reported Q1 operating revenue increased 62.1% to $81.8 million from $50.5 million during the prior year. This is primarily a result of increased revenue per load, U.S. Xpress said. Operating income for the segment in Q1 increased to $1.3 million compared with an operating loss of $4.9 million last year.
U.S. Xpress also provided an update on its digitally dispatched and managed asset-based fleet Variant. The platform, which the company said has helped drive business growth since being launched in Q2 2020, exceeded its goal of incorporating 900 tractors into the broader OTR division by the end of Q1 2021. Longer term, U.S. Xpress aims to convert its entire legacy fleet to the digital platform.
“The severe weather, primarily through Texas in February, impacted Variant’s utilization to 1,815 average revenue miles per tractor per week in the first quarter as compared to 1,863 in the 2020 fourth quarter,” Fuller said. “Excluding February’s results, Variant’s utilization was 1,864 as the fleet’s key metrics held stable with the 2020 fourth quarter, while growing average tractors in the fleet by more than 30% sequentially as Variant ended the first quarter with more than 950 tractors.”
The average number of tractors in the division increased approximately 33% to 811 tractors sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2020. The growth in truck count combined with improved utilization compared to the legacy OTR division allowed Variant’s revenue to grow to 11.8% of total truckload revenues sequentially.
U.S. Xpress ranks No. 24 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 47 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
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