Saia expansion terminals deliver improved Q3 results

Less-than-truckload carrier Saia Inc. cited improved performance at terminals added during its recent phase of expansion, with the operating ratio at those facilities improving 40 basis points in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. In addition, operating income at those locations opened in 2023 and 2024 increased 22% year over year in the most recent quarter, company executives said Oct. 29 during Saia’s third-quarter earnings call. Saia’s newest terminals are part of the company’s long-term ambitions to position itself in the top tier of national LTL carriers, including through improving its service levels. “At the beginning, when you open these facilities, you often don’t have enough freight to move directly to a destination, so it’s got to go back to a break, get offloaded and aggregated with more freight,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Batteh told analysts and investors. “When you’ve got density and that starts to build, you’re able to run that more directly. You see that in the handling and the touches. You see that in the revenue per shipment where we’re able to charge more because part of it is being applicable or faster on the transit time,” he added. The newest terminals’ OR was in the low 90s in the most recent quarter. The company’s overall operating ratio weakened to 87.6 from 85.9 in the year-ago period. SAIA Quotes by TradingView See more transportation stock listings A carrier’s OR provides insight on how well a company is balancing its costs and revenue generation. The lower the ratio, the better a company’s performance.…

This story was originally published by Transport Topics. Read the full story at Transport Topics →