A smaller Marten turns in a second quarter of 2025 much like a year earlier

Marten Transport turned in a second quarter performance that by various metrics was an echo of the corresponding quarter of 2024, but it did so on a base that reflected a somewhat smaller company.

Compared to the second quarter of 2024, Marten’s revenue was down 6.6%. Its total number of tractors declined 6.3%. Total trailers were down 6.8%. It drove fewer miles in both its Truckload and Dedicated segments.

End result: net income was down about 9%. But there were several operating measures that showed improvement.

Marten’s operating ratio (OR) net of fuel in its Truckload segment, its largest by revenue, improved 120 basis points to 97.8% from 99%. Its Dedicated segment did see a deterioration in its OR, but it was only down 60 bps to 92.4% from 91.8%.

There was deterioration in the OR for its intermodal segment (down 180 bps to 106.3%) and its brokerage segment (down 90 bps to 93.2%).

The net result was where the year-on-year comparison looks most similar. Marten’s (NASDAQ: MRTN) company-wide OR in the second quarter of 2025 net of fuel was 95.2%. A year earlier, it was 95.3%.

There’s another financial metric in the report signaling that Marten has strengthened its business in one respect: its balance sheet, which shows cash and cash equivalent on hand at $35 million at the end of the quarter, up from $17.3 million just since the end of 2024.

The somewhat smaller size of Marten can also be seen in its figure for salaries, wages and benefits. They declined to $78.6 million from $86.5 million a year ago. For the six months, the number is down to $157.4 million compared to $175.3 million in the first half of 2024.

One expenditure that barely changed over the last year: purchased transportation. It was $43.1 million in the quarter, down from $43.2 million a year earlier. That suggests Marten moved a larger percentage of its freight with independent owner operators, given the decline in salaries and wages.

In his prepared remarks–Marten does not conduct an earnings call with analysts–Executive Chairman Randolph Marten focused on the company’s Dedicated and Brokerage segments for the last six months and full year, though he did not specifically mention the quarterly performance of those segments.

“Our unique multifaceted business model’s value continued to be highlighted by the operating results of our dedicated and brokerage operations for the first six months of this year and throughout last year,” he said in his remarks.

But for the quarter, operating income at Dedicated and Brokerage were significantly lower on a year-to-year comparison.

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Dedicated dropped 18.4% year over year, to an operating income of $5.43 million from a year earlier. Brokerage fell 6.8% to operating income of $2.7 million.

For the six months, Dedicated’s operating income was down 35.4% and Brokerage was down 13.1%. Truckload increased 27.4%.

However, on an outright dollar basis, although Truckload produced about 40% of the company’s operating revenue, Dedicated and Brokerage each produced more dollars of operating income. And both had lower ORs than Truckload.

Dedicated’s operating income of $5.42 million was about 230% of Truckload’s, and Brokerage of $2.89 million was about 115% of Truckload, which came in at $2.34 million.

Brokerage also increased its operations. For the six months, brokerage loads rose 4%. They were up 6.1% for the second quarter.

Marten released its earnings while equity markets were open, which is unusual for any public company.

Marten’s stock showed no outright reaction to the earnings release. ,At approximately 3 p.m., it was up just 0.15%, or 2 cents, to $13.15.

It has been a tough year for Marten shareholders. In the last 52 weeks, Marten stock is down about 28.5%, though in the last 3 months it is up 2.25%, per Barchart data.

Randolph Marten acknowledged the market that it continues to face in its operations. “Our earnings have continued to be heavily pressured by the considerable duration and depth of the freight market recession’s oversupply and weak demand – and the cumulative impact of inflationary operating costs, freight rate reductions and freight network disruptions,” he said in the prepared statement.

Most of the expenses listed by Marten in its earnings report were not noticeably higher with one exception: insurance.

Second quarter insurance and claims expenses rose to $15.85 million from $12.56 million a year earlier. For the six months, the comparison was $29.23 million in the first half of 2025 and $24.22 million last year.

There is a growing theme in the trucking segment that a bottom may have been reached because of an expected drop in capacity as a result of federal enforcement of regulations regarding a driver’s ability to speak English. Marten addressed that in his prepared remarks.

“We remain focused on minimizing the freight market’s impact – and the impact of the U.S. and global economies with the current trade policy volatility – while investing in and positioning our operations to capitalize on profitable organic growth opportunities,” Marten said. “We expect such growth opportunities to be positively impacted by anticipated additional industry capacity exits relating to increased enforcement of the English Language Proficiency and B-1 visa regulations.”