Joey Hogan
Analyst · Stephens. Please go ahead
Thanks, Olivia. Welcome to Covenant Logistics Group Second Quarter Conference Call. As a reminder for everyone, this call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Please review our disclosures in our filings with the SEC, including without limitation, the Risk Factors section, and our most recent Form 10-K and our current year Form 10-Qs. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. A copy of our prepared comments and additional financial information is available on our new website, at www.covenantlogistics.com in the Investors section. I'm joined this morning by Paul Bunn, our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Tripp Grant, our Chief Accounting Officer. Our Chairman and CEO, David Parker is sick today and is on the phone but won't be participating on the call. First of all, we'll start with an adjusted EPS perspective. We've reported our best quarter in our history. And the team was able to improve on our record first quarter results by 71% to $0.96 per share and significantly versus the difficult second quarter of 2020. As we discussed in the first quarter, the multiyear transformation into a full-service logistics provider that we began in 2015, is really starting to gain traction. Second, I'd like to take a moment and thank our teammates for their contribution to these results. It's been the most difficult period, especially the last year, 18 months for everybody, the industry, not only our company, and I'm very proud to participate in this industry and I think our teammates the industry as a whole, has performed exceptionally all things considered to keep the economy moving and to continue to work hard in the supply chain. So, we want to say thank you to our teammates that are participating on this call. In summary, the key highlights of the quarter were: our operating freight revenue grew 29% to $232 million compared to the 2020 quarter. Second, our asset-based truckload group revenue grew 9% versus the second quarter of 2020 with 369 less trucks. Our less asset-intensive Managed Freight and warehouse segments grew a combined 89% compared to the second quarter of 2020. On the safety side, despite rising casualty insurance premiums, we produced another solid quarter with our DOT accidents per mile being 7% below the year ago period and our total cost down approximately $0.03 a mile. After a strong first quarter, our TEL leasing company investment produced another good quarter, contributing an additional $0.12 per share versus the year ago period. And then lastly, we're able to continue to capitalize on strong cash flows by reducing our net indebtedness by $35.2 million since the first quarter of this year. Regarding the business units, I'd like to make a few comments. First of all, the Expedited division continued its strong performance in the second quarter. The freight market continues to offer strong -- the freight market continues to be strong and offers rate and lane improvement opportunities, evidenced by a 43% improvement in revenue per truck per week. Please recall that last year we still had our solo division and the closure of that unit contributed to the 342 reduction in this unit. The resultant mix change is producing some big swings in comparisons but nevertheless an outstanding quarter with an 86 OR. Versus a very weak freight market last year, during the second quarter, revenue per mile for Expedited increased 10%, despite the length of haul increasing 31% and miles per truck increased a large 31%. The driver market continues to be a challenge with us instituting a second large driver pay increase in July of this year. Our overall team count has remained flat versus the first quarter of 2021. For the future, we are working diligently to solidify long-term capacity commitments with key Expedited customers, which to date we are very pleased with the results. Our Dedicated division made progress in the second quarter. We discussed at length during the first quarter call our improvement plan and we are slightly ahead of that schedule. There were huge growth in this division throughout 2020, as we merged three separate Dedicated fleets under common leadership and operating systems. The leadership structure has been resolved and the system merger was complete in May. Revenue per truck is beginning to move nicely. It's up 10% sequentially versus the first quarter and 17% versus the second quarter of 2020. All that is giving us great confidence toward reaching our mid to high 90s OR target for the third quarter. The third quarter includes the results of a lot -- the second quarter, includes the results of a lot of execution changes with key customers and we're extremely appreciative of the hard work of our dedicated and equipment management teams, as we work through this quarter. The new business topline growth with existing targeted accounts is very encouraging, which further feeds our optimism regarding our improvement plan. Our Managed Freight division doubled its revenue base versus a year ago, primarily driven by increases in some of our larger TMS customers and by significant growth in our brokerage freight. This unit works very closely with our Expedited and Dedicated divisions providing both committed and overflow and project capacity. The robust freight market plus continuing to capitalize on the full enterprise sales and service capabilities excite us, as we continue to drive this strategic growth unit. We are cautious about the long-term sustainability of the topline revenue and operating ratio in this unit, as gross margins and volumes can be volatile. The division leadership team is working diligently with current customers to currently satisfy their needs, but also help provide long-term stability for this business unit. Nevertheless, even at lower margins the return on capital is extremely high for this non-asset-based business. The Warehousing division continues its solid profitable growth. We had one large startup last year in the second half that is affecting the first half results, with revenue being up 33% versus the second quarter of last year. As a reminder, around the current revenue size, the growth in this can be choppy, as we expect revenue growth versus a year ago to level out in the second half, unless we have an additional startups in the second half. We do have a small startup planned early this fall. Overall, we are very pleased with the direction of this unit and may invest more in this unit in both sales and operations to facilitate faster growth in this high return on asset service. Regarding our outlook for the rest of the year. Although, we are not providing specific earnings guidance, we expect to have a very strong second half of 2021, which should mean meaningful improvement over a good second half of 2020 and likely continued generation of discretionary cash flow that can be allocated across a broad range of growth, debt paydown and stockholder return alternatives. We intend to remain acutely focused on three main areas. Number one, upgrade and improve our Dedicated division; number two stabilize and diversify within our Managed Freight division; number three sustainability and long-term capacity plans within our Expedited business unit. We believe all have good accountable plans with each leadership team focused on results. Achievement of each of these though will greatly benefit our goal of driving a stronger more profitable and more predictable business, with the opportunity of significant and sustained value creation. Olivia, that's all our prepared comments and now, we'll open it up for questions.