🎣 Freight’s Brutal Reality Check

Can you believe it’s already May?

Q1 earnings of publicly traded trucking companies dropped and the freight market’s all over the place.

Some CEOs are celebrating margin wins. Others are blaming bird flu and tariffs for a rough start to the year.

We dug into the latest numbers to see where things really stand.

WERN: Werner Enterprises Down Over 30% YTD

Werner posted a $10.2M net loss, flipping from a $6.3M profit last year.

• Revenue: $712.1M, down slightly
• Insurance costs jumped to $43.7M
• Truck count down 6.6%
• Deadhead miles rose to 16%, up from 14.9%—a sign of weaker asset utilization

Werner’s CEO Derek Leathers didn’t hold back on the company’s Q1 earnings call, saying:

"This does not represent who we are, and we are going to make appropriate near-term moves, but always with an eye toward the reality of ‘this too shall change.'"

Werner CEO Leathers confronts losses, outlines plans to bounce back

Werner CEO Derek Leathers held court with analysts on a quarter that was historic, but not in a good way.

FreightWavesJohn Kingston

CHRW: C.H. Robinson Down 13% YTD

CHRW made more money on less freight, delivering (pun intended) a 39% jump in operating income, despite an 8.3% drop in revenue.

• Revenue: $4B (–8.3%)
• EPS: $1.11 (+42%)
• Operating margin: 26.3% (+700 bps)
• Purchased transport costs: –11%.

CEO Dave Bozeman said the company is using AI and automation to streamline the full load lifecycle and free up employees for higher-value work.

Layoffs and restructuring are helping, but CHRW also warned of customer hesitation due to tariffs and trade policy volatility.

First look: C.H. Robinson made more money on less revenue in Q1

C.H. Robinson saw less first-quarter revenue than it did a year ago, but it made more money.

FreightWavesJohn Kingston

UPS: United Parcel Service Down 23% YTD

UPS is ditching Amazon and thousands of jobs to cut costs.

• Revenue: $21.5B (–0.7%)
• Operating profit: $1.7B (+1%)
• U.S. daily volume: +9.5% (tariff-related preloading)
• Plans to cut 20,000 jobs and shutter 73 facilities by June
• Long-term goal: 400 fully or partially automated facilities

CEO Carol Tomé confirmed UPS is offloading low-margin Amazon business while ramping up automation and tech.

CFO Brian Dykes says UPS will cut $3.5B in costs this year, with over a third from layoffs tied to its Amazon breakup.

Tariffs are hitting international volumes: 145% duties on China imports are forcing SMBs to pull back and shift from air to ocean.

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FreightCaviarJerome Washington

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TFI International (TFII) Down 41% YTD

LTL performance keeps dragging, but CEO Alain Bédard is staying optimistic.

• U.S. LTL OR: 98.9%, up from 92.6%
• Claims rate: 0.9% (“terrible,” Bédard admits)
• Tons/day: down 4% YoY
• Cash flow: $191.7M, up from $137.2M
• Stock: down 40% YoY, but rebounded 7% after the call

Bédard says recent management changes are helping morale at TForce. He’s focused on regaining SMB market share after years of losing it to low-margin corporate accounts.

“The morale in the group has never been so good,” Bédard said. “We are improving in real terms, not just in fantasy land.”

Linehaul efficiency, pricing software, and missed pickups (now 1.7%, down from 4%) are trending in the right direction—but it’s still early.

Tariffs and economic uncertainty are clouding forecasts. TFI says cross-border backhauls into Canada are especially weak, and their ag/flatbed segment is stalled by farmer hesitation over China trade.

TFI’s Bedard upbeat on revamped US LTL operations even as numbers sink

Despite numbers that continue to sink, TFI CEO Alain Bedard was mostly positive about the outlook for TForce.

FreightWavesJohn Kingston

XPO: XPO Inc. Down 20% YTD

Margins up. Volumes down. Stock still struggling.

• EPS: $0.73 (beat by $0.08)
• LTL revenue: $1.17B (–4%)
• Tonnage/day: –7.5%
• OR: 85.9% (30 bps better than Q4)
• Purchased transport: –53% YoY

CEO Mario Harik says XPO has a “long runway for margin expansion” and is cutting reliance on third-party linehaul. Revenue per shipment has now improved eight straight quarters.

“We’re executing to achieve years of outperformance, regardless of the freight market environment,” Harik said.

First look: XPO beats first-quarter earnings expectations

Less-than-truckload carrier XPO is one of the few transportation companies to report better-than-expected results for the first quarter.

FreightWavesTodd Maiden

HTLD: Heartland Express Down 30% YTD

Another quarter in the red for Heartland.

• Net loss: $13.9M (–$0.18/share)
• Revenue: $219M (–19% YoY)
• OR: 107.1% (up 150 bps YoY)
• 7th straight adjusted quarterly loss

CEO Mike Gerdin blamed weather, tariffs, and inflation outpacing freight demand. Poor equipment utilization, retention issues, and rising O&M costs dragged performance.

Heartland is shrinking its fleet and “evaluating all cost measures” to stop the bleeding.

Shares dropped 3.1% post-earnings. Maintenance costs also ticked up as average tractor age hit 2.6 years.

Losses continue to mount at Heartland Express

Heartland Express booked another net loss during the first quarter.

FreightWavesTodd Maiden

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Quick Freight Stock Hits

• ArcBest: Returned to profitability, but tonnage dropped 4.3% and its asset-light segment posted a 7th straight loss.
• Covenant Logistics: Blamed avian flu and tariffs for a soft Q1; poultry freight (a major segment of its trucking business) is expected to rebound by June.
• Norfolk Southern: Booked $750M in profit—boosted by derailment insurance—but warned tariffs may disrupt gains.
• PAM Transport: Posted a $8.1M loss with a 110.9% OR—its sixth unprofitable quarter in a row.
• Saia: Missed big; yield fell 5.8% and stock dropped 33% after aggressive growth ran into market reality.

Bank of America Slashes Saia Price Target by 50%

Saia shares have had an incredibly challenging past week, dropping 33% after missing earnings, down $117 from its high at $354.15, now trading at $237.95.

FreightCaviarAri Levy

• Universal Logistics: EPS crashed 88% as truckload volumes sank 31%—auto slowdown hit hard despite March rebound talk.

The Takeaway:

🎣 Trump’s Tariffs Weekly Recap

Plus: LAPD busts a $3.9M cargo theft ring, Nuvocargo and UPS expand in North America, U.S. moves to ease rules for self-driving trucks, Funny Freight Friday, and more.

FreightCaviarAdriana Pulley

Tariffs and trade uncertainty were key subjects across nearly every earnings call.

And while the freight recession might be softening, the path forward looks bumpier than many hoped.

From layoffs at UPS to missed pickups at TFI, it’s clear: Q1 wasn’t a turnaround, it was a reality check.

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