Yellow fallout apparent in Saia’s August numbers

LTL carrier reports 13% y/y jump in shipments

Less-than-truckload freight flows continue to be redistributed following the shutdown of carrier Yellow Corp. Saia Inc. said Tuesday after the market closed that shipments per day were up 13% year over year (y/y) through the first two weeks of August.

The update followed a 6% y/y increase in shipments during July, the first month in which Yellow’s (NASDAQ: YELL) troubles resulted in a material diversion of freight from its network. By comparison, Saia’s shipments were down 4% y/y in the second quarter.

Saia’s (NASDAQ: SAIA) daily tonnage was up a little more than 3% y/y in July and has increased by 6% so far in August. Weight per shipment was down 2% and 6% in both periods, respectively.

The update comes ahead of management’s appearance with investors Wednesday at Deutsche Bank’s (NYSE: DB) annual transportation conference.

During the second-quarter earnings season, all LTL carriers noted some impact from the fallout at Yellow, with two remaining union carriers reporting the largest increases. On average, most carriers saw shipment counts increase by 3,000 from the beginning to the end of July.

TForce Freight, a TFI International (NYSE: TFII) company, said shipments jumped 13% from the beginning to the end of the month. The carrier also saw a 4% increase in revenue per shipment over that stretch. ABF Freight, an ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) subsidiary, reported a 10% increase in shipments from its core accounts in its latest week reported.

Nonunion carrier XPO (NYSE: XPO) said it would likely bolster network capacity to meet the increased demand. It reported a 9% y/y increase in shipments for the full month of July.

Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported a 6% increase in shipments in the week leading up to its report, and asset-light provider Forward Air (NASDAQ: FWRD) said tonnage increased 7% y/y in the days leading up to its second-quarter call.