While overall revenue was down 1% year over year, truck revenue was up year over year for the first time since the third quarter of 2022. Notwithstanding the political and macro-economic uncertainty thus far in 2025, our focus continues to be on accelerating our business model and executing on our strategic growth initiatives. We generated approximately $138 million of heavy haul revenue during the 2025 second quarter, or a 9% increase over the 2024 second quarter. This achievement was driven by a 5% increase in heavy haul revenue per load and a 4% increase in heavy haul volume.
Turning to slide fivr, the freight environment in the 2025 second quarter was characterized by relatively soft demand from a seasonal perspective. Our balance sheet continues to be very strong, and our capital allocation priorities are unchanged. As noted in the release, during the first six months of 2025, we deployed approximately $103 million of capital towards buyback and repurchased approximately 686,000 shares of common stock. JT will get into the details on revenue, loadings, and rate per load in a few moments.
As noted during previous earnings calls, Landstar's safety culture is a crucial component of our continued success. BCO turnover continues to be influenced by a persistent low rate per load environment combined with the significant increase in the cost to maintain and operate a truck today compared to before the pandemic. On a sequential basis, truck revenue per load increased 3.2% in the 2025 second quarter versus the 2025 first quarter, stronger than the typical pre-pandemic normal seasonality increase of approximately 2%. The March to April decline and the April to May approximately flat performance both underperformed pre-pandemic seasonal trends, while the May to June increase outperformed pre-pandemic historical trends.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Truck loads hauled (July) | Q3 2025 | Approximately 1% above July 2024; viewed as slightly better than normal seasonality |
| Truck revenue per load (July) | Q3 2025 | Approximately 3% below July 2024; below normal seasonality |
| Variable contribution margin | Q3 2025 | Typically relatively flat from Q2 to Q3 |
| SG&A costs | Q3 2025 | Decline approximately $3 million sequentially as the agent convention cost cycles off (assuming normalized bad debt and benefit costs) |
| Other operating costs | Q3 2025 | Approximately $1.5 million sequential headwind from the BCO All-Star Celebration |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | -1% | Soft seasonal freight demand and lower non-truck transportation revenue, partially offset by higher truck revenue per load. |
| Truck revenue per load | +2.6% | 3.2% increase on unsighted platform equipment and 1.2% increase on van equipment. |
| Heavy haul revenue | +9% to ~$138M | 5% increase in revenue per load and 4% increase in volume; mix rose from ~33% to ~35% of unsighted platform revenue. |
| Non-truck transportation revenue | -22% (~$21M) | 20% decline in ocean revenue per shipment, 14% decline in ocean volume, and 9% decline in intermodal revenue per load. |
| Gross profit | -$10.7M to $109.3M | Lower revenue and margin pressure; gross profit margin fell to 9.0% from 9.8%. |
| Consumer durables revenue | -3% | 5% decrease in volume partially offset by a 2% increase in revenue per load. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freight market balance | Persistent low rate per load environment | Sequential truck revenue per load improvement plus brokerage margin compression seen as signs the market is working back toward balance; July pricing softened again | Tentatively improving |
| Heavy haul / data center demand | — | Strong broad-based demand across wind, machinery, electrical equipment, data centers, and 3PLs, tied to AI infrastructure build-out; viewed as a long runway | Strong tailwind |
| BCO capacity retention | Truck count losses; turnover at 34.5% at year-end 2024 | Essentially flat sequential count, turnover down to 31.9%, best gross adds in seven quarters | Stabilizing |
| Tariffs and trade policy | — | Automotive and cross-border (U.S.-Mexico, U.S.-Canada) businesses pressured; possible H1 tariff pull-forwards; uncertainty weighing on demand | Headwind |
| Brokerage carrier base / fraud | Flagged on the prior call that count would drop | Approved and active brokerage carriers fell as the company became more selective on fraud-prevention efforts | Deliberate reduction |
| Regulatory capacity (ELP, non-domiciled CDLs) | — | English language proficiency enforcement began June 25 with 349 out-of-service violations in 10 days; non-domiciled CDL review underway; seen as potential capacity tightening with no Landstar-specific exposure | Potential tailwind |