SAIA’s Record $982.5M Q3 Revenue | What’s Next?

SAIA President & CEO Fritz Holgrefe breaks down the company’s impressive third-quarter earnings, including record revenue and significant improvements in customer satisfaction and claims ratios. Discover how strategic network investments and a customer-centric approach are driving SAIA’s success and what lies ahead for the logistics giant.

Saia reported record third-quarter revenue of $982.5 million, up 17% year over year, with earnings per share of $3.41, the LTL carrier’s president and CEO said in an interview with FreightWaves. Alongside the results, the company announced a $250 million share repurchase program — a signal that years of heavy network investment are giving way to a phase focused on profitability and capital returns.

The revenue gain was driven by a combination of fuel surcharges, core pricing initiatives, and tonnage growth. Tonnage per workday rose approximately 8.9% year over year, reaching a record, while revenue per shipment climbed 5.8%. Shipments per workday, however, grew less than 1%, a deliberate outcome of the carrier’s effort to attract higher-weight freight from customers that value premium service.

Service metrics underpinned the financial results. The company’s claims ratio fell 40% year over year, and its internally tracked Net Promoter Score improved 15% over the same period. The operating ratio came in at 87.6, and newly opened facilities saw OR improvement of roughly 40 basis points year over year, with operating income at those locations up about 22%.

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