Werner’s quarterly earnings released Tuesday made it the first carrier that could be considered something of a pure-play truckload company to report results, and there was little bad news in the release.

Most other carriers that have reported earnings so far have truckload operations that make up a smaller share of revenue, including intermodal-focused J.B. Hunt, mixed LTL and truckload carrier TFI International, and refrigerated-heavy Marten.

Werner CEO Derek Leathers came into the earnings call after a strong 2026 run in the company’s stock. Before a recent selloff, Werner was up about 54% since the start of the year.

A year earlier, on Werner’s second-quarter 2025 earnings call, Leathers had offered an optimistic view of how the still-weak trucking market might recover.

Supply-driven cycle

“We’ve said all along, we think it’s going to be supply-driven up cycle, if you will, more than demand,” he said at the time.

A year later, Leathers said that is largely how things have played out.

While pointing to Werner’s own year-over-year improvement across several key second-quarter 2026 metrics, he also said the supply shift driven by the disappearance of thousands of drivers remains only in “the third inning.”

“The structural capacity attrition we’ve been talking about for several quarters is playing out as predicted,” Leathers said. “This tightness is being driven by intensifying regulatory pressure, specifically around non-domiciled CDOs, English language proficiency, and cabotage enforcement.”

He returned to the issue later on the call.

“Enforcement efforts are continuing, and in our view, greater agency collaboration and exchange of data, combined with utilization of technology, will further accelerate enforcement from here,” Leathers said.

ELDs disappearing

Leathers also pointed to another development that has drawn increased attention as a factor in shrinking driver supply: the FMCSA’s ongoing withdrawal of approval for various electronic logging devices, or ELDs.

He said about one-third of all ELDs either have been removed or are in the process of being removed.

“This reduction in ELD options is dismantling shadow capacity and compounding structural supply contractions,” he said.

Leathers also said he sees a benefit from the fallout from Montgomery v. Caribe and the greater liability risk now facing brokers, which was underscored last week by a Dallas jury decision against C.H. Robinson. For carriers with stronger compliance records and established customer relationships, that sort of tighter counterparty scrutiny can matter as shippers and brokers review how they source freight.

“Montgomery has resulted in shippers and brokers taking an even more cautious view of who they do business with that plays directly into Werner’s strengths, given our strong track record and reputation,” Leathers said.

Werner’s adjusted operating margin across its trucking operations rose to 4.6% from 2.5% a year earlier. On the call, Leathers said the One-Way segment’s operating margin improved by more than 700 basis points year over year.

Although Werner’s One-Way Truckload division generated far less revenue than its Dedicated segment — $138 million versus $434 million in the quarter, respectively — the figure emphasized in both the prepared remarks and the call was the sharp increase in One-Way revenue per truck per week.

A year earlier in the second quarter, that figure was $4,787. This year, it was $6,114.

By comparison, Dedicated revenue per truck per week, which would normally be expected to fluctuate less in the short term, rose to $4,789 from $4,542.

Margins remained modest

Overall results were solid, but not exceptional. In a quick note released after the earnings were published and before the analyst call, Citi’s Ariel Rosa said, “Continued thin margins (97% adj. Operating Ratio, 3% adj. op. margin vs. our 97.1%/2.9% estimates.) reflect ongoing operational challenges as Werner continues its restructuring and cost-cutting efforts.”

Werner’s Dedicated segment now includes the operations of FirstFleet, which the company acquired earlier this year. That acquisition is the main reason the number of trucks operated by the Dedicated segment increased to 6,976 from 4,855 a year earlier.

Leathers said the FirstFleet integration is “progressing very well.”

“Continuity with drivers, associates and customers have been outstanding, and synergy realization is ahead of schedule,” Leathers said.

He said customer renewal has been 98% on more than 80% of the portfolio that came with the acquisition, and he said Werner expects that level of performance to continue for the portion of the business that has not yet been renegotiated.

Forecast increased

Werner is confident enough in its outlook to raise several key forecasts for the rest of 2026.

At the end of the first quarter, the company said Dedicated revenue per truck per week was expected to be flat to up 3%. That forecast has now been raised to an increase of 3% to 5%.

Leathers reinforced that outlook when answering an analyst question, saying Werner has been seeing “low to middle single-digit increases” in renewals of its Dedicated business.

Revenue per truck per mile is now expected to rise 10% to 13% from a year earlier. At the end of the first quarter, that forecast had been 1% to 4%.

“We are updating our guidance to reflect the significant productivity improvement that we are realizing with our assets,” CFO Chris Wyckoff said on the call. “At the same time, there are currently fewer quality drivers available across the industry.”

Werner operates Roadmaster Drivers School, a network of more than 20 training locations across the country.

Asked about the school and how difficult it has been to hire new drivers into the program, Leathers said that “clearly, qualified driver hires are more difficult as we look forward. The market is tightening.”

He added that Werner is also seeking to hire experienced drivers and has “seen some benefits on that front.”

With Dedicated representing such a large part of Werner’s business, and with those jobs more likely to allow drivers to get home more often than over-the-road positions, Leathers described working in Werner’s Dedicated operations as a job that “doesn’t just pay better, but they often have better lifestyles associated with them as well.”

“We’ve got the right kind of jobs to be positioned in the market today, and we’re going to continue to lean into that,” Leathers said.