The corporate earnings of Marten Transport released Thursday do not show a company that has benefitted yet from a stronger freight market, year-on-year or sequentially. For example, its company-wide operating ratio (OR) net of fuel was 99.1%. That showed a deterioration from 97.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and was worse sequentially than 97% in the first quarter of 2025. The company’s operating income was $1.6 million in the first three months of this year. A year ago, it was $5.9 million. Fourth quarter 2025 operating income was $4.6 million. For Marten’s (NASDAQ: MRTN) truckload segment, the OR net of fuel in the first quarter of 2026 was 101.1%. A year ago it was 100.3%; in the fourth quarter of 2025 it was 99.1%. The dedicated segment’s OR net of fuel of 96.9% was 470 basis points worse than the 92.2% recorded a year ago. It was also a sequential deterioration from the 94.6% recorded in the final three months of 2025. There were some positive numbers. The average revenue net of fuel per tractor per week in the Truckload segment was $4,425 compared to $4,196 a year ago . It was also improved sequentially from $4,200 in the fourth quarter of 2025. A similar story played out in the dedicated segment, where the weekly figure of $3,909 was stronger than $3,846 a year earlier, and better than the $3,870 recorded in 2025’s fourth quarter. Chairman and CEO Randolph Marten cited those figures as a positive in his prepared…
