Proficient sees big bump in volume from Brothers buy and Jack Cooper exit

CEO Rick O’Dell says his team is focused on cutting more costs, including by consolidating facilities and trimming staff.

Geert De Lombaerde

Aug. 13, 2025

3 min read

Key takeaways

Proficient Auto Logistics achieved a 28% increase in second-quarter unit volumes, delivering around 631,000 vehicles due to strategic acquisitions.
Revenue rose by 21% to over $115 million, and operating profits increased to $3.8 million, although still lower than last year.
CEO Rick O’Dell emphasized efforts to reduce costs across acquired businesses, aiming for better efficiencies and improved margins in a volatile market.

Auto-hauling venture Proficient Auto Logistics posted a 28% jump in second-quarter unit volumes compared to the first three months of the year, thanks both to the acquisition of a Northeast peer and the closure of Jack Cooper Transport.

Jacksonville-based Proficient and its subhaulers delivered a total of about 631,000 vehicles in the three months that ended June 30, up from nearly 495,000 early this year. Despite the average revenue per unit slipping about 3% from the first quarter, that volume jump helped grow Proficient’s revenue up 21% to more than $115 million. Adjusted for non-cash items related to stock compensation and amortization related to the company’s acquisitions, operating profits were $3.8 million for the quarter, more than triple Q1’s but about half those of the second quarter of last year.

Those numbers and commentary from CEO Rick O’Dell about further focusing on cutting costs and gaining more market share gave shares of Proficient (Ticker: PAL) a big bump. In early-afternoon trading Aug. 12, they were up about 23% to $7.35. Yet that jump only has them back to where they traded in late July, and they’re still down more than 30% over the past six months. Proficient’s market capitalization now stands at nearly $200 million, which is only slightly more than half of the value investors accorded the company in the wake of its initial public offering 15 months ago.

Speaking to analysts after reporting those numbers, O’Dell and President and COO Amy Rice said the former Jack Cooper business Proficient has picked up—three months ago, they said they expected that to be worth $60 annually—has performed according to their expectations. Rice added that the April acquisition of Brothers Auto Transport, which runs terminals in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia, has done better than expected.

Operations

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Operations

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Despite the top-line growth, O’Dell focused his conference call comments on Proficient’s work to trim costs at the seven companies it has acquired over the past five quarters. Three of those businesses, he noted, are running operating ratios of 90% or lower despite a topsy-turvy market, but there are many more areas where the overall company can save money. Those include consolidating some of its terminals, reducing empty miles, and “some personnel synergies.”

“We’re not satisfied with the cost structure that we currently have in the volatile market,” O’Dell said. “We’re continuing to advance those initiatives aggressively [and will] continue to improve margins regardless of the external environment.”

Stifel analyst Bruce Chan said O’Dell and his team have “largely been successful” in what they’ve tried to do since taking Proficient public last year, and that the weak automotive sector has made it difficult to consistently grow profits. That latter dynamic, he said, now seems to be settling down as the overall tariff picture has become clearer than in the spring.

“We saw some good things with Proficient this quarter—chief among them were a cleaner look into the top-line potential of the company, and clearer evidence of meaningful market share gains, even in a soft market,” Chan wrote in a note to investors. “With a sizable inflection in volumes and more stable customer behavior, we believe we are seeing the benefits of idiosyncratic growth opportunity and slow market stabilization.”

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde

Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of experience in business journalism. Since 2021, he has written about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications FleetOwner, Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, Oil & Gas Journal, and T&D World.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector and many of its publicly traded companies.