USA Truck Inc. of Van Buren reported it lost $1.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, a decrease from a $3.3 million profit a year ago.
The quarterly loss snapped a streak of eight consecutive profitable quarters for USA Truck. Revenue for the quarter was $130.9 million, down from $132.6 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Earnings per share was a loss of 16 cents; a year ago, it was 40 cents.
“The third quarter marked a continuation of the challenging freight environment the industry has experienced in 2019,” USA Truck CEO James Reed said. “A seasonally soft market, coupled with increased trucking capacity in the market, has created an environment where shippers are motivated to allocate a larger portion of their freight to the spot market and low-priced carrier options. This environment continues to adversely impact results in both our Trucking and USAT Logistics segments.”
USA Truck’s Trucking division reported revenue of $93.4 million, up from $85.5 million a year ago. Trucking reported 44.1 million miles covered, up from 38.2 million miles a year ago, but the key metric of revenue per truck per week was $3,142, down from $3,415 in the same quarter of 2018.
The Logistics division reported revenue of $37.6 million, down from $47 million a year ago. Reed said the company had added 11 employees to the Logistics’ sales department in an effort to increase business.
“Despite our challenges, we continue to be energized by the responsiveness of our team,” Reed said. “They battle the myriad of challenges presented in the current freight environment every day, and we strongly believe our quest for change will continue to transform USA Truck into a world-class service provider.”
