Initial feedback points to meaningful time savings, higher shipment lifecycle throughput, and improved visibility across the network, empowering our entrepreneurs to spend more time on revenue-generating and relationship-driven activities. As a reminder, earnings per share during the 2025 first quarter were unfavorably impacted by approximately $0.10 per share related to the previously disclosed supply chain fraud matter. This part of our business posted another strong quarter with an 8% year-over-year revenue increase, driven by the performance of Landstar's heavy-haul service offering. We generated approximately $134 million of heavy-haul revenue during the 2026 first quarter, representing an 18% increase over the 2025 first quarter.
This achievement reflected a 12% increase in heavy-haul revenue per load and a 6% increase in heavy-haul volume. Our focus continues to be on accelerating our business model and executing on our strategic growth initiatives. The freight environment in the 2026 first quarter was characterized by relatively strong demand from a seasonal perspective and an improving price environment as we moved through the quarter. We were pleased to see sequential outperformance in the number of loads hauled via truck and truck revenue per load compared to pre-pandemic normal seasonal patterns.
As noted in the press release, we were encouraged to see that overall truck revenue per load increased 6% compared to the 2025 first quarter. Our balance sheet continues to be very strong, and our capital allocation priorities are unchanged. On a sequential basis, truck revenue per load increased 0.2% in the 2026 first quarter versus the 2025 fourth quarter. Based on preliminary April BCO processed revenue per load data, we expect the underperformance experienced from February to March to reverse during fiscal April.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Approach to outlook | Q2 2026 | Providing second-quarter financial and operational commentary rather than formal guidance, citing a fluid freight and volatile geopolitical/macroeconomic environment (Commentary in lieu of formal guidance) |
| Truck loads (April 2026) | Q2 2026 | April truck loads essentially equal to April 2025 on a dispatch basis, trending in line with normal seasonality (In line with seasonality) |
| Truck revenue per load (April 2026) | Q2 2026 | April revenue per load approximately 13% above April 2025 on a profit basis, outperforming normal seasonality (Above seasonality) |
| Variable contribution margin (sequential) | Q2 2026 | Historically a 25-45 basis point compression from Q1 to Q2, driven by mix as BCO revenue is a larger share of Q1 (Expected sequential compression) |
| Truck volume (typical Q1-to-Q2 seasonality) | Q2 2026 | Pre-pandemic seasonality implies +7% sequential truck loads and +2% revenue per load; recent-history volume lift has been closer to +3% to +4% (Context for sequential expectations) |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy-haul revenue | +18% | Strong, broad-based demand with 17 heavy-haul customers each growing by at least 50 loads year-over-year across data center, energy, government, machinery, and aerospace/defense; 12% higher revenue per load and 6% higher volume. |
| Unsided/platform revenue per load | +10.8% | Heavy-haul mix shift, with heavy-haul rising from about 33% to 36% of the category, plus standard flatbed/step-deck pricing accelerating to 730 basis points year-over-year from 50 basis points in Q4. |
| Van equipment revenue per load | +5.2% | Improving price environment through the quarter; revenue per mile on BCO van loads ran about 3% above the prior year. |
| Non-truck transportation revenue | -19% | Primarily a 31% decline in ocean volume, believed partly driven by shipper pull-forward during the 2025 first quarter. |
| Consumer durables revenue | +1% | A 7% increase in revenue per load was partially offset by a 5% decrease in volume. |
| Top-five commodity aggregate revenue | +4% | Categories making up about 70% of transportation revenue benefited from gains including electrical volume up 23%, energy up 17%, government up 8%, and machinery up 5%. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy-haul as a strategic growth initiative | — | Designated a strategic initiative with new leadership, agent engagement, BCO recruiting, equipment investment, and a dedicated sales/marketing effort driving broad-based new and existing customer growth | Rising |
| Freight cycle inflection | Prior call described uncertainty over beginning of the end versus beginning of the beginning | Management now feels convinced the cycle is at the beginning of the beginning, with ISM above 50 for all three months and improving pricing momentum | Rising |
| AI adoption across corporate and agent network | Two AI slides replicated from the Q4 call | Seven active agent pilots across the shipment lifecycle, more than half of the IT capital budget allocated to AI, plus corporate initiatives including ERP modernization and fraud detection | Rising |
| Cargo theft and fraud mitigation | Began investing after a tough cargo theft quarter roughly a year earlier | Continued investment in people, process, and technology produced lower cargo claim frequency and severity and reduced insurance/claim expense; tighter carrier vetting with dozens of attributes | Rising |
| Regulatory environment (FMCSA/USDOT) | — | Enforcement on English language proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs, CDL mills, and ELD technology is removing lower-end capacity, leaving Landstar's professional owner-operators largely unimpacted | Rising |
| Montgomery/F4A Supreme Court case and BCO/brokerage mix | — | Awaiting a decision expected in the June-July window; an adverse ruling could raise insurance costs for brokers and price out smaller players, while Landstar's insured BCO model is comparatively well positioned | Rising |