Marten Transport announced Monday, April 23, its financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31. Net income decreased 9.1 percent to $4.6 million from $5.1 million for the same quarter of 2006.
Operating revenue, consisting of revenue from truckload and logistics operations, increased 9.9 percent to $131.4 million in the first quarter of 2007 from $119.6 million in the 2006 quarter. Truckload revenue increased 4.7 percent to $118.1 million from $112.9 million in the 2006 quarter. Logistics revenue, which consists of revenue from brokerage and intermodal operations, increased 98.4 percent to $13.3 million from $6.7 million in the 2006 quarter. Operating revenue included fuel surcharges of $17.4 million, compared with $16.0 million for the same quarter of 2006. Operating revenue, net of fuel surcharges, increased 10.1 percent to $114.0 million from $103.5 million in the 2006 quarter.
“We were relatively pleased with Marten’s performance in the first quarter given the challenges of a somewhat softer freight market and severe winter storms that impaired productivity,” said Randolph L. Marten, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Mondovi, Wis.-based company. “We were able to mitigate the effects of generally declining freight tonnage by concentrating on our core business of transporting food and consumer products, which we believe are generally less cyclical than many other products. Winter weather dealt a harsher blow, however, as we lost approximately three days of fleet operations to winter storms, which was more than we have experienced in some time.”
Through a combination of seating more trucks, obtaining rate increases where justified and holding the line on nonrevenue miles, the company was able to increase asset productivity over the first quarter of 2006, Marten said.
