USA Truck expands freight brokerage business

Van Buren-based USA Truck announced Tuesday (Dec. 9) an expansion of its Strategic Capacity Solutions (SCS) division primarily through opening a new office in the east coast port city of Jacksonville, Fla., and opening a larger office in Chicago.

SCS is a freight brokerage business for the long-haul trucker and has helped the company return to profitability in recent quarters.

Operating revenue in the segment during the thrid quarter was $49.359 million, or more than 32% of total revenue. That is up from 27.2% during the same quarter of 2013. For the first nine months of 2014, SCS division operating revenue was 31.94% of total USA Truck revenue, up from 25.99% in the same period of 2013.

“Our growing footprint — including the opening of our first SCS office in Florida — reflects our recently announced strategy to build aggressively on the success of our Strategic Capacity Solutions business,” John Simone, president and CEO of USA Truck, said in a statement. “SCS has been a key contributor to USA Truck’s strong performance throughout 2014, and we are taking a series of steps to expand and strengthen the blend of transportation services we offer in the coming year.”

Simone also said in the statement that SCS is growing its customer base, which now includes more than 25% of Fortune 100 manufacturers.

“In fact, more than 90 percent of our top 100 customers consistently use multiple USA Truck services, underscoring the power of our Company’s diversified and integrated business model,” Simone said.