Starting out
Ross Neely, Sr. was a truck driver. His son, Ross, Jr. was born in Gadsden, Alabama in 1927, and moved to Birmingham with his family four years later. At the age of 16, Ross Neely, Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Navy; he spent 30 months in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, Ross returned to Birmingham and finished high school, where he met and married his late wife.
Ross drove a truck for his father and delivered newspapers for several years. He bought a 1947...
Oak Harbor Freight Lines, Inc. is a privately owned and operated company headquartered in Auburn, Washington. Auburn is about 25 miles southeast of Seattle.
The company’s founding
Oak Harbor Transfer was the predecessor of Oak Harbor Freight Lines. It was founded in 1916 by Ben Koetje in Oak Harbor, which is about 100 miles northwest of Seattle. At that time Oak Harbor Transfer was a local cartage carrier servicing Whidbey Island.
In 1924, Alexander Duie Pyle worked for Lukens Steel in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. But he wanted to own his own business, so he purchased two trucks and began A. Duie Pyle, a trucking company. Lukens Steel (now part of ArcelorMittal), his former employer, became Pyle’s first customer (a relationship that lasted more than 90 years).
Nearly 100 years later, A. Duie Pyle, Inc. is one of the largest trucking companies in the...
A couple of less-than-truckload carriers reported Thursday a hot start to the fourth quarter has continued through November.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) announced its asset-based unit, which includes LTL operations, saw revenue per day increase 24% year-over-year in November. That followed a 20% revenue increase in October. Tonnage was up 7% year-over-year in November (+1% in October) with revenue per hundredweight, or yield, up 16% (+18% in...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/q3s-strength-carries-into-q4-ltl-carriers-report
Strong fundamentals in the less-than-truckload market, marked by considerably higher yields, combined with a companywide restructuring drove a net profit at Yellow Corp. during the third quarter.
Yellow (NASDAQ: YELL) reported earnings per share of 16 cents compared to a net loss of 4 cents per share a year ago. This was the first positive number on the EPS line since the 2020 first quarter. But that period included an asterisk as the company booked almost $40 million in gains on the sale of...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellow-turns-a-profit-restructuring-moves-forward
Management from ArcBest isn’t shying away from the prospect of its asset-based unit, which includes less-than-truckload operations, achieving a mid-80% operating ratio. On a Tuesday call with analysts, company officials said the potential for further margin improvement stems from capacity investments it is making in its fleet, terminals and people, as well as several years of yield improvement on its customer book.
ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/arcbest-sees-improvement-beyond-record-q3-performance
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https://www.freightwaves.com/news/daily-infographic-quick-truckload-definitions
Less-than-truckload carrier Saia reported year-over-year tonnage increases for the first two months of the third quarter on Friday.
The Johns Creek, Georgia-based carrier saw tonnage increase 12.6% year-over-year in July (shipments +3.4%, weight per shipment +9%) and 9.9% in August (shipments +1.9%, weight per shipment +7.9%). The increases compare to a 2.7% tonnage decline in July 2020 followed by a 0.5% increase in August as parts of the economy were still coming back online.
Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA)...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/saias-momentum-carries-into-3rd-quarter
Less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. announced Monday that interim CFO Dan Olivier will hold the position on a permanent basis effective immediately.
Olivier assumed CFO duties last October, following the resignation of Jamie Pierson. Pierson ran Yellow’s (NASDAQ: YELL) books when it obtained a $700 million CARES Act loan in July 2020. That loan has been highly scrutinized since by members of Congress and remains an item of interest in an ongoing probe.
A recent filing shows shares received...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellows-interim-cfo-assumes-role-permanently
For the second time this year, a truckload-centric transportation company has acquired a less-than-truckload carrier.
Canadian TL and logistics outfit TFI International (NYSE: TFII) announced the $800 billion acquisition of UPS Freight (NYSE: UPS) in January. Last week, the biggest TL carrier in the nation, Knight-Swift Transportation, inked a $1.35 billion deal for regional LTL carrier AAA Cooper Transportation.
What’s so intriguing about the LTL space that warrants the significant investment...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/knight-swift-deal-shows-the-value-in-owning-an-ltl