Old Dominion Freight Line shows signs of breaking out of revenue slump

Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. reported Wednesday lower net-income and revenue declines during the first quarter that reflects an uptick in consumer demand.

As Thomasville-based Old Dominion has expanded into a top-10 U.S. trucking company, it has become an insightful economic bellwether of consumer spending.

Marty Freeman, Old Dominion's president and chief executive, has been warning since early 2025 about ongoing softness in the domestic economy.

Net income dropped 6.4% year over year to $238.2 million, while revenue was down 2.9% to $1.33 billion. Those totals represent improvements following five consecutive quarters of a double-digit net-income decline.

Old Dominion experienced a 7.7% decrease in its less-than-truckload shipments during the first quarter.

Diluted earnings were $1.14 per share.

The average earnings forecast was $1.05 by six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Analysts typically do not include one-time gains and charges in their forecasts.

"While our first-quarter revenue decreased on a year-over-year basis, demand for our less-than-truckload service improved as the quarter progressed," Freeman said.

"The improvement in demand, coupled with our ability to consistently deliver superior service to our customers, contributed to both the acceleration in our less-than-truckload volumes and improvement in our yield during the quarter."

Old Dominion did not provide second-quarter or full-year fiscal 2026 financial guidance.

The company spent $88.1 million on share repurchases during the first quarter.

"We believe continued domestic economy softness will pressure volumes near-term, though capacity expansion and shareholder returns remain supportive of long-term value creation in our view," CFRA Research analyst Emily Nasseff Mitsch said.

It is typical for Old Dominion's overall workforce to rise and fall with the economy and consumer demand patterns.

Old Dominion reported its overall workforce declined by 442 during the first quarter to 20,264 as of March 31. The count is down 1,553, or 7.1%, from March 31, 2025.

At last count, Old Dominion had 1,318 employees at its Thomasville headquarters, 668 at its Greensboro service center and 107 at the Kernersville service center.

Adam Satterfield, Old Dominion's chief financial officer, told analysts during the fourth-quarter conference call that "at the local level, our managers are making sure they've got the right amount of people and got the ability to flex hours up to meet the increased demand from our customers."

Satterfield said that "when you look over the long term, the change in headcount, the change in shipments really kind of match with one another."

"What we'd expect to see is when we get into the early phase of the recovery, the number of hours worked by employee will increase on a per employee basis, we'll be able to step those hours up to meet the increased volume needs as they come."

A major part of Old Dominion's success has been its focus on consistently reinvesting in equipment, technology and acquisitions.

It projects $265 million in such expenditures in fiscal 2026, of which $62.6 million was spent in the first quarter. That's compared with $415 million in fiscal 2025 and $771.3 million in fiscal 2024.

Satterfield said Old Dominion is responding to potential tariffs expenses by "continuing to take some of our older equipment out that would have had really high repair costs."

"We've continued to pare back some of our fleet in that example."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 9:38 AM.