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!

Strong first half of 2012 shows continued momentum for Pilot

It’s been an exciting first half of the year for everyone at Pilot. Our first quarter marked nine quarters of steady revenue growth and we are happy to say that the second quarter of 2012 has been no different. As a company, we have seen significant and continued growth, increasing our revenue by 12.5 percent from the second quarter of 2011.

The fantastic team at Pilot deserves much of the credit; especially those that helped our special services business grow this quarter—now up 65.5 percent year-over-year, along with our home delivery segment, which is up 37.2 percent over last year. Take a peek below for more about our solid second quarter. In addition, we congratulate Miami and Laredo on breaking the $1 million mark in monthly revenues, and recognize Pilot Seattle for their tremendous growth.

I have every confidence in the world that Pilot will continue to make huge strides and finish out the second half of the year with long-term revenue growth. We are excited about our employees’ hard work and Pilot’s ongoing commitment to exceeding customer expectations.

Pilot's momentum continues into 2012

A year ago, I announced that 2010 was the year that Pilot broke all of its personal revenue and volume records. After a year like that, most companies would expect -- and be content -- to level off. Not Pilot. The numbers are in, and we have once again blown away our old records with $491 million in revenue for the year, up 16 percent from 2010. 

That number would have been impossible without every single one of our business segments marking significant gains for the year. Congratulations are in order for everyone for making this growth possible, and a special recognition goes to Larry Wenrich and the government group, which grew its revenue by an unbelievable 65 percent over the previous year. The work that they've done with both existing and new customers to serve U.S. interests at home and abroad clearly has not gone unnoticed.

As if these numbers weren't exciting enough on their own, I'm even more impressed by the fact that while we handled more volume in 2011 than ever before, we did so while achieving our best ever performance numbers. So not only did Pilot continue to grow, we also continued to deliver the excellent service our customers have come to expect. And that deserves a big round of applause all around.

After a year like that, where do we go from here? Nowhere but up.

Pilot Seattle sets revenue record

As the third quarter comes to a close and we gear up to handle record volumes of home delivery business this holiday season, I want to congratulate the folks in our Seattle station, who had a phenomenal month in August. The station brought in $6.27 million in revenue for the month, beating out the previous company-wide monthly record by about $500,000.

I spoke with Seattle station owner Patrick Allen, who credited the station's success to strong numbers from established customers, as well as landing several new clients. I personally visited there last month, and every employee in the office is totally focused on customer experience, and on spreading the word that there is something special at Pilot. The atmosphere is electric. Patrick has long talked about how proud he is of his whole team, and that pride shows in the way they handled the unprecedented volume.

Congratulations to the Seattle team, and we look forward to seeing who will set the next record!

Starting out 2011 on a high note

Considering the fact that Pilot achieved such amazing milestones in 2010, it may seem hard to believe that the first quarter of 2011 brought in 34 percent higher revenue than Q1 of last year. Well, believe it!

At our National Sales Meeting in March, I told the Pilot team that we expect to hit $500 million in revenue for the year. And with a nearly $115 million Q1, we're well on the way to hitting that mark.

I have to give a special shout out to our automotive group, which had an impressive first quarter compared to last year, marking 13 percent growth and setting a new bar for themselves. The business unit is an area that we see great potential in, and I'm thrilled to see them doing so well.

For more information, read our full press release below.

It’s official: 2010 breaks all records

After continuing to break monthly and quarterly records all year long, we have been anticipating for months that 2010 would be the largest year in Pilot’s history. I’m happy to officially announce that we crushed our previous records, with $423.5 million in revenue for 2010. This marks an incredible 31 percent increase over 2009’s numbers.

The thanks for our success, as always, goes to the incredible Pilot team, who works tirelessly to serve our customers above and beyond their expectations.

This is a huge milestone for our company. We have emerged from the recession stronger than before, with local accounts, international shipping, national accounts, home delivery, automotive and logistics all growing very well. And we have exciting things on the horizon for 2011, including the continued expansion of our services, and the opening of new stations domestically and in Europe. Stay tuned to the blog for more details on these exciting developments.

For more details on our 2010 numbers, you can read the full press release below.

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.

Closing out Q2 with a bang

After a tough year industry-wide, I'm very happy to share the fact that Pilot just closed out the second quarter of 2010 with the largest volume month in company history! In June, we handled a larger number of shipments, and larger total weight than ever before. On top of that, it was the second largest revenue month we've ever seen.

This record month closed out a strong quarter for Pilot, with more than 27% growth over Q2 of 2009. I'm especially pleased to report that this growth was not in one particular segment of our business, but spread across the company. Every segment of our business was up in Q2, including automotive services, international shipping, logistics, home delivery and domestic expedited air freight.

Hopefully the new record set in June won't last long, as we're expecting to see continued growth through the remainder of the year.

Keep reading to see the full press release we put out today.