April 2024 Business Update
Contributed by: Eric Vander Pol, Co-President
Hard to believe but spring is already in the air in 2024. As a company we are off to a great start for the year with a lot of things to be thankful for.
Additionally, we have some exciting changes on the verge of implementation; changes that will help bring even more Peace of Mind to our customers and Employees. We cannot thank God enough for the team we have assembled and for the jobs each one of you perform each day.
First Quarter Highlights
We remain busy in somewhat uncertain economic times. Our
shipment count is up 8% year over year, with our revenue up 10% year over year. This is a great indicator that the offering we bring to the marketplace is appreciated by our customer base.
Our operation is running great. When comparing the first
quarter this year vs the first quarter last year, we were able to increase our total number of shipments by 32,00 shipments,
while reducing our number of late shipments by over 3,000.
This is a much more eye-opening way of showcasing that our on-time service improved from 94.55% to 95.61%.
We are growing across the board. Often times in our business when bill counts increase, it is due to us opening up in a new market and that drives the company numbers. Happy to share that through the first quarter, every single one of our five different regions had a year over year increase in their
outbound bill count. Again, this speaks to the confidence
customers have in OHFL throughout the entire network.
We have capacity to grow even more. As we sit currently
the company is blessed with the most employees and
equipment, we have had in company history. This provides
us opportunities to go out and bring on even more business
to deliver on.
Operating Ratio
So, the items that we have the most control on – business
levels, service, and capacity are all performing well. As for
our Operating Ratio, we have run into some significant cost
increases in areas we don’t have near as much control. Our
Operating Ratio for the first quarter actually came in 3.14%,
worse this year than the prior year. Two biggest reasons for
this downturn were the following:
Equipment Costs
Inflation is starting to really catch up with us on the price of
equipment and parts. Total spend on new equipment and
maintaining that equipment were up roughly 30%.
Healthcare Costs
We have seen an uptick in both number of claims as well
as cost per claim. This area of cost can be quite volatile
and rise and fall quickly. We will see how this flows the
remainder of the year.
Upcoming Changes
As far as changes being implemented this year, there is one main area of focus for the company. We have decided as a company to transition our Routing and Dispatching platform away from Cheetah to a company called Optym. This company has two main products that we will be utilizing: Routemax and Livehaul. Routemax will be the main P&D planning and dispatching platform. Livehaul will eventually be implemented as an outbound planning tool for our dock operations and linehaul dispatchers.
As we sit currently, six of our larger terminals have already transitioned to Routemax. All terminals will be on this platform by July 1st of this year.
In the terminals that have already moved over, we are seeing more efficient routes and the time it takes to route all the bills is being reduced. You will surely hear more about this transition throughout the rest of 2024. Big thanks to all the individuals putting in the time to help with this transition!
Henry Vander Pol Legacy Award
Lastly, I wanted to congratulate our HVP winners from last year and highlight just how they are celebrating:
Heavy Weight – Las Vegas. The Team in Vegas celebrated
recently by attending a Las Vegas Aviators baseball game
in a suite.
Light Heavy Weight – Spokane. The Team in Spokane will be celebrating in June with tickets to a local Amusement Park for them and their families.
Middle Weight – Mt. Vernon. The Team in Mt. Vernon
celebrated with a dinner and bowling night. Word has it someone on the team bowled a 244 with 9 strikes in a row!
Welter Weight – Lewiston. The Team in Lewiston were recognized with gift cards and a celebratory breakfast.
Thanks to each person on the team for the job you perform on a daily basis. God’s blessing to you and your families!
Winning the HVP award does not happen by accident or
happenstance. As a unit, you need to operate well in all facets
of the business. Doing so brings our customer and other
terminals Peace of Mind, and that is reason to celebrates.
Congratulations again to these winning terminals, excited to
see who takes it home in 2024.
