KNX - Knight-Swift Cutting Costs Focuses on Asset Utilization | Benzinga
Like many in the truckload arena, the company was busy adding trailing equipment in recent years to provide customers flexibility through trailer pools and to build out a power-only brokerage operation. It ended last year with more than 96,000 trailers. It entered the pandemic with just 58,300 although some of the equipment was acquired through acquisition. (It added more than 14,000 trailers when it acquired U.S. Xpress last year).
"I think our overarching strategy is still intact" said the company's new CEO Adam Miller on a Wednesday evening call with analysts. "There can be times when the market's really good that you can sometimes take your eye off the ball in a couple of areas on the cost side of the business."
Previously the chief financial officer, Miller was tapped for the position after Dave Jackson abruptly departed in late February.
Knight-Swift reported a headline net loss of $2.6 million for the 2024 first quarter. Adjusted earnings per share were 12 cents, in line with the company's update last week in which it cut its first-half outlook by more than half.
The adjusted result excluded several acquisition-related costs and severance expenses. It included an 8-cent hit from the closure of its third-party insurance business. That business lost $125 million last year. Using a normalized tax rate, higher net interest expense (due to acquisitions) ...