P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc. of Tontitown on Wednesday reported net income of $7.3 million, up from $1.6 million in the same quarter last year.
The publicly traded truckload dry van carrier (Nasdaq: PTSI) said diluted earnings per share were $1.17, up from 25 cents in the same quarter last year.
Operating revenue was $135.3 million, up 24 percent from the same quarter last year.
“One of the things I always look at, and aspire to, is improving on our year-over-year results. But this year is different in that 2017 was not a very satisfying year in regards to our financial performance, so improving over 2017 results is not good enough,” Dan Cushman, company president, said in a news release. “Coming off a year of lackluster results, we wanted to set our goals higher. We aspire to get back to the earnings level of 2015, which was a record earnings year for the Company.”
Cushman said the company was still working to improve its rates as old rate contracts expire.
“We continued to see rate improvement as we addressed these expiring rates, and as a result, our financial results became progressively better during each month of the second quarter,” he said. “We will continue to address our rate structure throughout the remainder of 2018 as we strive to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to increased costs.”
Like other trucking companies, P.A.M. continues to fight an industry-wide driver shortage. In the last quarter, the company gave drivers pay increases, which had offset some rate increases. On Thursday, Cushman said driver recruiting and retention costs will continue to rise, and that competition for qualified drivers had “intensified to unprecedented levels.”
“As a result, we implemented a significant driver pay increase at the end of 2017, which has had a significant impact on our financial results during 2018, and will continue to do so,” Cushman said. “While we believe that we offer a competitive pay and benefits package, desirable routes, favorable home time policies, and one of the newest truck fleets in the industry, we anticipate that market forces will continue to drive our total driver costs higher throughout the remainder of the year and for the foreseeable future.”
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