Knight Transportation Inc. on Wednesday, July 23, announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30. Total revenue increased 14.4 percent to $206.1 million from $180.2 million for the same quarter of 2007. Revenue, before fuel surcharge, increased 1.2 percent to $154.8 million from $153.0 million. Net income decreased to $12.7 million from $18.2 million.
“Although we are not satisfied with our recent results, we are encouraged and cautiously optimistic that the second quarter reflected a first step toward a more favorable relationship between freight tonnage and industrywide trucking capacity,” said Kevin Knight, chairman and chief executive officer of the Phoenix-based company. “Our progress during the quarter was attributable to a modest improvement in freight demand, what appears to be a shrinking of available truckload capacity, vigilant management of our asset-based fleet, and continued growth in our nonasset-based brokerage operations.”
Knight said that during the quarter, the company continued to position itself to provide truckload service solutions to its customers as the freight environment improved. During the second quarter of 2008, the company opened new service centers in Syracuse, N.Y. (dry), Nashville, Tenn. (dry) and Dallas (refrigerated).
“With 29 dry van service centers, five refrigerated service centers and 11 brokerage branches, we believe we are assembling a powerful and geographically diverse network that can support a substantial increase in freight volumes and our ability to provide solutions to our customers,” Knight said. “Based on our growing network, a history of low-cost operation and solid execution, and access to substantial capital resources, we feel very optimistic about our competitive position and our ability to execute our model based on leading growth and profitability.”
