XPO’s U.S. LTL revenue increased 1.9% year-over-year in Q3, attributable to service quality improvements and capacity investments, “as well as the impact of a competitor ceasing operations,” the company said in an earnings report. 

The carrier grew its daily average shipment count by nearly 8% YoY while the carrier’s labor hours increased by less than 1% in the quarter, CFO Kyle Wismans said on an earnings call.

“Importantly, it was the third consecutive quarter that shipment count grew at a faster pace than labor hours, and the spread has widened sequentially with each period,” he said.

XPO’s network and service investments paid off at a critical time, Chief Strategy Officer Ali Faghri said on the call.

“When Yellow exited the LTL market, we were well positioned to onboard incremental freight, given that we've been investing in expanding our network since 2021,” Faghri said.

ArcBest’s asset-based revenue dropped almost 6.4% YoY in Q3, according to an earnings report. ABF Freight grew daily shipments 1% YoY in Q3, President Seth Runser said on an earnings call.

ABF Freight aims to normalize its average shipments per day at about 20,500, ArcBest President and CEO Judy McReynolds said on the call. Shipments per day surpassed 20,300 in Q3, and the carrier’s nine-month average is 20,700, according to the earnings report.

“But that varies day-to-day, week-to-week, based on the opportunities that are in our pipeline and what the current capacity situation is,” McReynolds said.

At ABF Freight and ArcBest’s other subsidiaries, the company maintains the capacity to step in and help navigate customers’ problems, she said.

“It's just a good model in a period of disruption, which seems to be happening a lot more often,” the CEO added. 

Saia’s Q3 revenue increased 6.2% YoY on a 12.2% increase in shipments and a 6.7% increase in tonnage per workday from the same period last year.

The sudden surge following Yellow’s exit from the market quenched a drought of slow or no shipment growth, Holzgrefe said. 

Working through the post-pandemic freight demand whiplash prepared Saia to handle the sudden rise in shipments, he told analysts.

“With the pandemic and all the challenges that came along with that, our team was ready to go, and we executed on taking care of the customer,” he said. “The pace probably surprised me. ... To watch our team respond to that, frankly, was awesome.”

Old Dominion's Q3 revenue sank 5.5% YoY due to a 6.9% decrease in LTL tons per day, partially offset by a small increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight.

Shipment levels dropped YoY for the fifth straight quarter, but the carrier handled 49,670 LTL shipments per day in the quarter, after averaging 47,077 per day through the first half of the year, said Kevin “Marty” Freeman, who took over as CEO in July.

“While a portion of this growth can be attributed to the loss of one large competitor, we believe we are winning new business from other carriers in the industry due to the quality of our service and overall value provided to our customers,” Freeman said.

While its premium pricing might not make it the most immediate destination for former Yellow freight, Old Dominion’s strategy is a longer-term play: It lets other carriers chase freight — then scoops up their existing business once they stretch themselves too thin and allow service and reliability to lag.

EVP and CFO Adam Satterfield said that's already playing out.

"We're hearing about competitors that are missing pickups," Satterfield said on the earnings call. “They don't have the people part of the capacity equation solved and maybe took on too much freight.”