Earnings Watch: Daeske, ArcBest, Radiant Release 1st Quarter Financials

Earnings Watch: Daeske, ArcBest, Radiant Release 1st Quarter Financials

Not all carriers are riding high on the current trucking business environment. While a major less-than-truckload player turned a profit following a loss a year earlier, a major flatbed and specialized carrier trimmed its losses compared to a year ago, while a third-party logistics provider was barely in the black.

Daseke Trims Losses in Hot Flatbed Market

Daseke Inc., the holding company for more than a dozen flatbed and specialized trucking and logistics providers, released first quarter showing its trimmed it losses while it doubled revenue. Revenue rose 104% from the first quarter of 2017, totaling $327.6 million. This was due to gains of 78% in its flatbed revenue and a 129% jump in specialized revenue as the company acquired seven companies in 2017.

The Texas company saw its net loss improve significantly to $800,000, or 4 cents per share, from $7.7 million, or 32 cents per share a year earlier. The first quarter marked the company's one year anniversary of being public.

“We began 2018 on a strong note, with 10% revenue growth in both our specialized and flatbed segments on an acquisition-adjusted basis,” said Don Daseke, chairman and CEO. “This was driven by favorable year-over-year rate increases in each segment, along with 11% growth in specialized revenue per truck due to increased revenue synergies in several key markets."

During Daseke's fourth quarter 2017 earnings call, it introduced its 2018 outlook, expecting to grow revenue to approximately $1.35 billion compared to $846.3 million in 2017. While the company reported a strong first quarter, Daseke plans to update its full-year outlook on the second quarter conference call, which will reflect its latest acquisitions.

ArcBest Records $10 Million Profit

ArcBest Corp., the parent company to ABF Freight among others, moved from a loss in the first quarter of 2017 to a profit during the same time ...Read the rest of this story

Five Factors Driving Trucking Economic Trends

Eric Starks, CEO of FTR, speaks at the 2018 HDTX conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photo: Stephane Babcock

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Although trends are favorable overall, economist Eric Starks, CEO of FTR, told attendees at the Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange conference May 10 that markets are showing signs of volatility, adding a degree of uncertainty to economic conditions.

Starks, speaking on the state of trucking industry during the event in Scottsdale, Arizona, noted that a spike in fuel prices is now likely, given President Trump's decision to walk away from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Iran.

Adding to the whiff of uncertainty, Starks added that he believes President Trump will soon pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well. “That scares me to death,” Starks told the assembled fleet executives, “because NAFTA has a huge impact on your businesses.”

A final piece of uncertainty Starks pointed to was the growing federal deficit, although he noted that's a longer-term issue that won't be felt right away. "This will likely increase further economic growth in the short term," Starks said. "But the outlook beyond 2019 is murky at the moment."

Those negative factors aside, Starks called out five specific positive trends that are currently creating a white-hot trucking market:

1. Businesses are now actively participating in the recovery.

“Manufacturing is growing,” Starks said. “We're not back to the peak level we saw before the Great Recession, but business activity related to consumer goods is showing a healthy, growing trend as well. These are welcome signs businesses are now participating in this recovery. And we haven't seen that until this point.”

2. Rising fuel prices are not a drag on the economy – yet.

“If you've been smart and have negotiated a fuel surcharge that will kick in as prices rise, you're in good shape now,” Starks said. “We don't like to see ...Read the rest of this story

Trailer Orders Decline as Expected but Remain Solid

Despte a seasonal drop, trailer orders remained above last year's levels in April, according to FTR. Photo: Stoughton

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April trailer orders are projected to decline as much as 20% compared to the previous month, following seasonal ordering patterns, according to a preliminary report from FTR Transportation Intelligence.

Despite the drop, trailer order numbers still topped last year's in the same month and remain at a solid level, according to FTR. April 2018 trailer orders are projected at 22,000 units, up 10% year-over-year.

“Most fleets have their orders placed for 2018, and some dry van OEMs are booked solid for the year,” said Don Ake, FTR vice president of commercial vehicles. “This is still a decent April for trailer orders. It is higher than 2015 and signals the market will stay red-hot for a while.”

Trailer orders have totaled 330,000 units for the past 12 months. Component shortages have increased and may affect manufacturer's ability to build all of the orders on backlog this year, said Ake.

“There is still capacity available for refrigerated van and vocational trailer orders, and the chugging economy should continue providing increased sales of all trailer types,” said Ake. “Some orders are already rolling into 2019. Solid freight growth and high trailer capacity utilization rates mean more trailers are needed to help relieve this capacity crunch and compensate for driver shortages.”

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Better Trucks Make for Happier Drivers

Corliss Resources' new seven-axle 12-cubic-yard mixers boost productivity, while automatic transmissions keep drivers coming back for more. Photo: Jim Park

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Corliss Resources has been in business for 99 years, and hasn't had to really worry about staffing – until recently. The company is a fixture in Pierce County, Washington, with aggregate and concrete comprising its core business. It has seen booms and busts, and occasionally suffered through slow winter off-seasons. But since emerging from the Great Recession in 2010, Corliss has seen steady growth, fueled by a tech-sector expansion in the Seattle area, a half-hour to the north.

“There's a lot of migration from King County down to Pierce County,” says Steve Corliss, vice president of operations. “As home prices have gone up, it just pushed people further and further south, and a lot of industry has moved down here into this area – warehouses, manufacturing. From what we're hearing from a lot of economists, things are going to be really healthy through 2020 and 2021.”

And that's keeping Darrin Rousseau, Corliss' safety coordinator and fleet supervisor, awake at night. He's watching his driver pool age and he's painfully aware of the challenges of bringing in new talent.

“They're getting to about that age where [retirements] will start happening in the next 10 years,” he says, and “it's hard to find a younger person these days that wants to drive a truck when they can go play on their phone or sit behind the computer screen and make more than a truck driver.”

Corliss has one advantage over long-haul companies: The work is all local. Drivers are home at the end of every shift and they operate six days a week, so there's plenty of earning potential for home-starved highway drivers.

Related:

The company has sweetened the pot recently with a higher pay structure, ...Read the rest of this story

Cisco Systems Inc. At Dot-Com Boom Highs As Investors Wonder What’s Next

Opening this morning at $46, CSCO stock is at its highest since those glory days of the dot-com boom, when Cisco was briefly the world's most-valuable company, above $68 a share in early 2000. Cisco is due to report earnings on May 16, with analysts expecting it to earn 65 cents per share, and hoping for 66 cents, on revenue of $12.33 billion. Cisco can indeed rise ahead of earnings, as our Bret Kenwell writes, thanks to a cash hoard of $74 billion, against debt of less than $30 billion.


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TMAF Supports Infrastructure Week 2018

Infrastructure Week kicks off May 14-19 and Trucking Moves America Forward is once again an official affiliate of the event. Image via TMAF

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Trucking Moves America Forward has announced that it is once again an official affiliate of Infrastructure Week, which kicks off May 14 and runs through May 19.

Infrastructure Week is a series of events and educational advocacy efforts aimed at highlighting infrastructure as a key policy issue nationwide. The effort is being supported by a new message that includes a Twitter hashtag, “The future won't wait. Neither can we. It's #TimeToBuild.”

In a blog post for Infrastructure Week, TMAF co-chairman and president of Jet Express Kevin Burch wrote that crumbling infrastructure was preventing the trucking industry from delivering goods in a safe and efficient manner and solving the problem through investment was vital to keeping the $739 billion industry moving forward.

“Strong infrastructure is critical to the success of the trucking industry and economic security of all of America,” said Burch. “TMAF is proud to unite with a diverse coalition of transportation and infrastructure groups to bring awareness to the role that infrastructure plays in our daily lives, especially as the President and Congress work towards passing an infrastructure bill. Closing the nation's infrastructure investment gap must be a top priority.”

TMAF will be promoting messages on the need for stronger infrastructure through social media, which includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Medium. The group is also running 30-second radio advertisements on WTOP News in Washington, Red Eye Radio, and Nemo Radio. The radio spots can be found here.

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