ODFL Q2 Profit Slides 16.6% as Market Weakness Persists
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Profit and revenue at Old Dominion Freight Line , but senior executives said clarity is growing on how the ongoing freight recession might start to see an upturn.
Thomasville, N.C.-headquartered ODFL’s net income slumped 16.6% to $268.63 million in Q2 from $322.05 million in the same period 12 months earlier.
ODFL reported a 6.1% decrease in revenue to $1.41 billion from $1.5 billion. The carrier’s core LTL service revenue fell 6.1% year over year to $1.4 billion from $1.49 billion. Other service revenue fell 8.1% in the most recent quarter to $12.61 million from $13.73 million.
The carrier ranks No. 9 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 2 on the LTL list.
“Old Dominion’s financial results in the second quarter reflect the ongoing softness in the domestic economy. While the challenging macroeconomic backdrop created demand headwinds for our business during the quarter, our market share remained relatively consistent, and our team continued to execute on our long-term strategic plan,” CEO Marty Freeman said in a statement accompanying the results.
“The decrease in our second-quarter revenue was primarily due to a 9.3% decrease in our LTL tons per day, which was partially offset by an increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight,” Freeman said.
ODFL’s tonnage per day averaged 33,178 in the most recent quarter, compared with 36,560 in the same period 12 months earlier. The carrier’s revenue per hundredweight averaged $32.84 in Q2, up 3.4% year over year from $31.77.
“The decrease in LTL tons per day reflects a 7.3% decrease in LTL shipments per day and a 2.1% decrease in LTL weight per shipment. LTL revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharges, increased 5.3% compared to the second quarter of 2024 as we continued to maintain our long-term, disciplined approach to yield management,” the company’s top executive added.
Despite the decline in revenue, ODFL’s management is satisfied with the company’s position. During ODFL’s July 30 earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Adam Satterfield said employees were doing a great job in the current market environment in response to a question about chasing new clients.
“We don’t feel the need to chase bad revenue,” Satterfield said, adding: “We’re hanging in there. We’re not seeing a variance with our true volumes.”
ODFL’s decrease in revenue hit its industry-leading operating ratio. The company posted an OR of 74.6 in the most recent quarter, compared with 71.9 in the year-ago period and 72.7 for the entirety of 2024.
Carriers’ OR provides insight on how well a company is balancing its costs and revenue generation. The lower the ratio, the better a company’s performance. ODFL’s OR is typically the best of all the publicly traded LTL carriers.
“Our operating ratio increased by 270 basis points to 74.6 for the second quarter of 2025. The decrease in revenue had a deleveraging effect on many of our operating expenses. This impact, as well as an increase in depreciation expenses, contributed to a 160 basis-point increase in our overhead costs as a percentage of revenue,” Freeman said.
Looking forward, the company typically sees a 3% increase in revenue per day between the second and third quarters, which improves the operating ratio by as much as 50 basis points or 0.5. At the moment, however, ODFL expects revenue to be relatively flat, which would likely lead to a 80 to 120 basis-point weakening in its OR, Satterfield said.
Freeman and Satterfield said during the analyst call that July was turning out better than the second quarter, but the latter cautioned that more data points were needed for a market upturn.
Satterfield said ODFL is not quite ready to say the long-awaited freight market turnaround is underway but noted that July saw a little over 2% month-on-month decline in tons per day, compared with a typical decrease of 3%.
Some 55-60% of ODFL’s business is industrial customers. There was some positive sentiment at the end of 2024 and in the first couple of months of 2025 based on figures, said Satterfield.
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Tariffs created a lot of uncertainty, throwing cold water on that early 2025 momentum, the CFO said. It was hard for customers regarding cost structure, he said, adding that some were waiting things out.
With the One Big, Beautiful Bill bonus depreciation extension finalized — which could spur investment — plus trade deals, it was possible customer confidence could see an upswing, he said.
“That’s why we’ve got a little cautious optimism now,” Satterfield said. “The final piece will be if we get some relief on interest rates.”
“Once you get clarity on all those big-picture items, I think that’s what it is going to take to really spur the economy forward. We feel like we’re closer to that. Now that we’re getting clarity on some of these items,” he said. “But we want to turn that feeling into true freight.”
