Northwest Arkansas — USA Truck Inc. on Thursday blamed lagging fuel surcharge revenue as part of the reason for its weak fourth-quarter earnings performance.
The Van Buren carrier said the quarter’s 35 percent drop in diesel expenditures had a profound effect on the October through December period.
The carrier reported a net loss of $2.51 million, or 24 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of $600,000, or 6 cents per share, in the same year-ago period.
USA Truck missed theaverage earnings estimate of 17 cents per share from five analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Fourth-quarter revenue fell to $100.32 million in the fourth quarter, a 14 percent drop, compared with $116.17 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
“Fuel prices per gallon were similar in the comparative quarters but their trends were substantially different,” USA Truck President and Chief Executive Officer Cliff Beckham said in a statement.
Fuel fell in the 2008 fourth quarter but rose during the 2009 fourth quarter. And a collections lag didnot allow for a full recovery of the fourth-quarter money, the company said.
Had the carrier experienced a similar fuel situation there would have been a 29 cent-pershare gain in 2009 fourth-quarter earnings, the company said.
Fuel surcharges help truckers recover part of the total fuel expense when prices are rising and take effect after prices exceed an agreed-on price per gallon. It varies among shippers and brokers. Declining fuel prices, however, also trigger fuel surcharge, but in the downward direction.
USA said it held the line on other costs and truck-specific costs.
The business reported reducing its fleet of 190 tractors during the quarter which reduced fuel consumption and improved the use of those trucks that remained in operation.
For the quarter, the business operated 2,320 trucks with each totaling about 2,000 miles per week - a drop of less than 5 percent compared with average miles per tractor per week for the same period a year earlier.
Beckham in a telephone call Thursday said despite the challenging operating environment, investors had good news to take away from the earning report.
“With wild spikes in our fueland employee costs we would have made 12 cents a share,” he said mentioning a one-time 7 cent per share labor expense.
The trucking business reported a net loss of $7.2 million, or 70 cents per share, for the 2009 year end, compared with net income of $3.1 million, or 31 cents per share for the 2008 year end. It reported $331.5 million in revenue for the 2009 year end, a decline compared with $397.6 million for the yearago period.
USA Truck shares fell 19 cents, or 1.54 percent, to $12.16 per share Thursday on the Nasdaq. Its shares have traded as high as $16.09 and as low as $10.78 over the last year.
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Business, Pages 21 on 01/29/2010