Stoney M “Mit” Stubbs Jr, chairman and chief executive officer, said results from the company’s trucking operations for 2002, “and especially in the fourth quarter give us reason to be somewhat encouraged about the prospects for our trucking business in 2003.
“Since most of the freight we haul is temperature-sensitive, requiring some level of refrigeration, our business is best during the warmer months. The first quarter of our year is typically the weakest, and the fourth quarter is the most unpredictable and is almost always weaker than the warm-weather quarters.
“Freight revenue of $88,428,000 in the fourth quarter of 2002 was the strongest for us in recent years,” said Stubbs. “Excluding the impact of fuel adjustment charges, fourth-quarter revenue from our freight operations was up by about 8%, when compared with the fourth quarter of 2001, and our freight revenue for all of 2002 was up by about 4.5%. Including our fuel adjustment charges, freight revenue was up by 10% for the fourth quarter and 3.4% for the year.”
