Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported Q1 EPS of $1.70, $0.12 better than the analyst estimate of $1.58. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.13 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.1 billion.

“Old Dominion produced strong profitable growth in the first quarter of 2021 that included double-digit increases in both revenue and operating income,” said Greg C. Gantt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Old Dominion. “We are winning market share as demand for our industry-leading service continues to increase. In addition, we believe the domestic economy is getting stronger while industry capacity is generally limited. We are encouraged by these trends and believe the combination of our value proposition, existing capacity, and ongoing investments to expand our capacity will support future revenue growth opportunities.

“Our revenue increased 14.1% in the first quarter due primarily to an 8.3% increase in LTL tons and a 5.6% increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight. The increase in LTL tons included a 6.9% increase in LTL shipments and a 1.3% increase in LTL weight per shipment. The improvement in freight density across our network created operating leverage that helped improve our aggregate overhead costs as a percent of revenue. Operating efficiencies and the increase in yield also contributed to the improvement in our direct operating costs as a percent of revenue. As a result, our operating ratio improved 530 basis points to a new first-quarter Company record of 76.1%. We also added a significant number of new employees to our team during the quarter and were pleased that our team operated so efficiently while also maintaining our best-in-class service metrics. We intend to continue to increase our workforce in the second quarter to support the ongoing acceleration in volumes.”

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