Hartline named COO of USA Truck

David Hartline has been named executive vice president and chief operations officer for Van Buren-based USA Truck Inc. effective immediately.

Hartline has nearly 20 years of industry experience. For the past 14 years he was employed by Liberty, Iowa-based Heartland Express Inc., most recently as director of Southeastern Operations.  Hartline earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and a masters in project management from the Keller Graduate School of Management.

"I am delighted to have David join our team," USA Truck President and CEO Cliff Beckham said in a statement. "We are in the final implementation stages of our VEVA strategic plan at USA Truck, and we believe David’s talents for operational execution and leadership development are just what we need to help unlock our model’s earnings leverage through greater load velocity in our Spider Web freight network."

The company on July 21 reported second quarter revenue up more than 22% and net income moving into the black after two consecutive quarters of more than $4.5 million in losses. The long-haul trucking company posted second quarter net income of $598,000, less than the $900,000 in the second quarter of 2010. Per share earnings of 6 cents beat analyst estimates of 4 cents.

"I am excited to join the USA Truck team," Hartline said in the USA Truck statement. "We expect to aggressively drive load velocity in Spider Web lanes with superior customer service. Not only do we want our customers to utilize our services, but we also want them to prefer USA Truck because our service makes a difference."