Note 11 - Business Segments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Notes to Financial Statements

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

(11) Business Segments

We have aggregated our five current operating segments into four reporting segments (Truckload, Dedicated, Intermodal and Brokerage) for financial reporting purposes.

The primary source of our operating revenue is provided by our Truckload segment through a combination of regional short-haul and medium-to-long-haul full-load transportation services. We transport food and other consumer packaged goods that require a temperature-controlled or insulated environment across the United States and into and out of Mexico and Canada.

Our Dedicated segment provides customized transportation solutions tailored to meet individual customers’ requirements, utilizing temperature-controlled trailers, dry vans and other specialized equipment within the United States. Our customer contracts range from three to five years and are subject to annual rate reviews.

Our Intermodal segment transports our customers’ freight within the United States primarily utilizing our temperature-controlled trailers and also, through March 2015, our dry containers on railroad flatcars for portions of trips, with the balance of the trips using our tractors or, to a lesser extent, contracted carriers.

Our Brokerage segment arranges for smaller third-party carriers to transport freight for our customers in temperature-controlled trailers and dry vans within the United States and into and out of Mexico while we retain the billing, collection and customer management responsibilities.

The following table sets forth for the periods indicated our operating revenue and operating income by segment. We do not prepare separate balance sheets by segment and, as a result, assets are not separately identifiable by segment.

	Three Months
	Ended March 31,
( Dollars in thousands )	2016		2015
Operating revenue:
Truckload revenue, net of fuel surcharge revenue	$	82,942	$	86,811
Truckload fuel surcharge revenue		7,112		14,590
Total Truckload revenue		90,054		101,401
Dedicated revenue, net of fuel surcharge revenue		35,510		19,863
Dedicated fuel surcharge revenue		1,587		2,591
Total Dedicated revenue		37,097		22,454
Intermodal revenue, net of fuel surcharge revenue		15,854		17,019
Intermodal fuel surcharge revenue		1,347		3,373
Total Intermodal revenue		17,201		20,392
Brokerage revenue		17,577		17,040
Total operating revenue	$	161,929	$	161,287
Operating income:
Truckload	$	6,940	$	9,602
Dedicated		4,324		2,004
Intermodal		1,929		1,251
Brokerage		932		742
Total operating income before gain on disposition of facility		14,125		13,599
Gain on disposition of facility		-		3,712
Total operating income	$	14,125	$	17,311

             Truckload segment depreciation expense was $13.7 million and $13.2 million, Dedicated segment depreciation expense was $5.0 million and $2.9 million, Intermodal segment depreciation expense was $941,000 and $1.5 million, and Brokerage segment depreciation expense was $481,000 and $270,000, in the three-month periods ended March 31, 2016 and March 31, 2015, respectively.