Pilot hits $500 million revenue milestone

At our National Meeting in Philadelphia two years ago, I stood up in front of 300 Pilot employees and announced my goal to reach $500 million in revenue in 2012. I could not be more proud to say that we have reached that goal.

This is an incredible accomplishment, one that truly shows the strength and determination of all Pilot employees. It’s impossible to give this credit to any one person or group of people, because our growth has been across the board. From special services to home delivery to government services, our team continues to exceed customer expectations and drive success.

I've said this before, and I’ll say it again – my excitement over this achievement isn't just because we hit a big number. It’s because we hit a big number by staying true to our core strengths, which lie in heavy-weight expedited freight. We don’t take every piece of business that comes our way. And in fact, in the past year we've chosen to walk away from some very attractive, big revenue accounts in order to go after the business that positions Pilot for long-term, sustainable growth. As a result of this strategy, I am confident that Pilot will continue to hit huge milestones in the years to come.

This will be another exciting year for us, as we continue to expand our footprint with new locations internationally, and many of our domestic stations moving to larger facilities to accommodate their rapid growth. Along with this expansion comes great opportunity for the Pilot community, and we are excited to see where 2013 will take us.

A big thanks and congratulations go out to all members of the Pilot family!

Nine quarters of growth and counting

Over the past several years, we've seen more and more of our competitors scale back their operations, lay off employees, and in some cases, close their doors entirely. But for the ninth consecutive quarter, Pilot has seen year-over-year revenue growth -- not a small feat when the economy is still struggling to rebound.

Today, we announced our numbers for the first quarter, which reflected growth across the company, thanks to another three months of amazing work from the entire Pilot team. A couple of highlights include 71 percent year-over-year growth for our special services business, and an almost 20 percent increase for our government business. 

With numbers like these, broad-based growth across the company as a whole, and the U.S. economy showing more signs of improvement, I can tell you that it's going to be another great year for Pilot.

Another record-breaking quarter comes to a close

When I spoke with Joe DiStefano from the Philadelphia Inquirer for a story about Pilot over the summer, the topic of the recession was a major theme. I explained to Joe that while our competitors were cutting jobs, facilities and services to stay afloat in 2009, Pilot saw the recession as an opportunity to grow stronger. We remained committed to maintaining our personnel and services during that difficult time. In fact, we continued to develop new service offerings, like our automotive and logistics services. We took the opportunity to add talent. And we stayed committed to taking market share. We continue to see the results of that commitment.

My interview with Joe came on the heels of an extremely strong Q2, including the largest volume month in Pilot’s history. Then Q3 started, and we blew away all of our old records. We announced today that the third quarter of 2010 was the largest quarter in company history, with $114.5 million in revenue. This number represents an incredible 36 percent growth over the same period in 2009.

In addition to our largest ever quarterly revenue, we had two record-breaking months in the third quarter. In August, we blew away all of the old records by posting $39.9 million. August represented 40 percent growth over the prior year. It was also an astonishing 13 percent higher than the previous record for any month in Pilot history. We had set a new bar. Then in September, we turned around and blew that record away, posting $41.2 million in revenue.

There’s no question that our ongoing success as a company can be credited largely to our continued focus on customer service. However, the explosive growth that we’re seeing now is really due to how we dealt with the economic slowdown last year. As a result of that strategy, as well as the continued hard work put in by our employees, 2010 will be the largest year Pilot has ever had. And more importantly, we’re positioned for continued growth and expansion of our services over the coming year. It’s an exciting time, and while the economy is certainly not out of the woods yet, I feel confident that I’ll be continuing to announce new broken records in the months to come.


To see the full press release, read more here.