U.S. Xpress grows digital fleet, revenues in first quarter of 2021

Staff file photo by C.B. Schmelter / A truck navigates the driving range at the U.S. Xpress Tunnel Hill, Georgia, facility.
Staff file photo by C.B. Schmelter / A truck navigates the driving range at the U.S. Xpress Tunnel Hill, Georgia, facility.

U.S. Xpress Enterprises rolled out of the first quarter of 2021 with operating revenue of $450.8 million compared to $432.6 million in the first quarter of 2020, and operating income of $8 million compared to a loss of $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2020.

"I am pleased with our team's continued execution of our digital initiatives, which are designed to support our goal of doubling our revenues over the next four years," U.S. Xpress CEO Eric Fuller said in sharing the results Thursday.

The company missed analysts' predictions for earnings per share by a penny, with earnings of 5 cents per share, compared to a loss of 19 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020.

Brokerage revenue grew to $81.8 million, up 62% compared to the first quarter of 2020, with 67% of volumes processed across the company's digital platform called Variant.

The Variant fleet includes load planning and scheduling performed by a suite of machine learning and artificially intelligent algorithms. Variant maximizes loaded miles per week, which helps improve both company profits and driver retention. Fuller has said he expects the digitally recruited, dispatched and managed asset-based fleet to transform the industry.

Variant finished the quarter with 951 tractors, exceeding its goal of 900, and providing 11.8% of truckload revenues for the quarter. In the first quarter of 2020, Variant provided 2.3% of truckload revenues.

U.S. Xpress has a goal of 1,500 Variant tractors generating approximately 25% of truckload revenues by the end of 2021, Fuller said.

"As we look forward to the balance of the year, we believe all of our businesses are firmly positioning the company to deliver on our goals of growing our digital businesses and achieving scale benefits which will begin to drive meaningful margin expansion as we exit the year," Fuller said.

The first quarter of 2021 began smoothly, with better than typical fleet performance, but weather hampered business in February and March, Fuller added.

'"Severe weather in February created a very challenging environment, which was one of the worst that we have seen, as many of our key customers in both our [over-the-road] and dedicated divisions closed, and accident frequency increased," he said. "In fact, it wasn't until the first week of March before our operations began to normalize as our customers' volumes started to return to more seasonal levels."

U.S. Xpress anticipates demand for freight will grow as the economy recovers, Fuller added.

"The company's core markets have recovered from the weather-related disruptions that occurred through February and freight demand is running better than normal seasonality through the first three weeks of April," he said. "The company's expectation is for freight demand to remain strong throughout 2021 given the broader economic recovery and tailwinds that it is experiencing as a result of the federal government's most recent stimulus package which is having a notable impact."

A shortage of experienced drivers is one of the industry's biggest headwinds, he said.

- Compiled by Mary Fortune who may be reached at mfortune@timesfreepress.com

Upcoming Events