Apr. 23--Werner Enterprises' revenue and profits dropped sharply in the first quarter because of the recession.

The numbers might have been worse but for steps the Sarpy County trucking and transportation services company took to offset the effects of reduced freight shipments.

The company purposely took freight away from its value-added shipments unit and moved it to its trucking business. That reduced revenue in the value-added segment but soaked up available capacity on the trucking side and boosted revenue there.

In normal economic times, the company said, the loads it moved to the trucking side might have been outsourced to other trucking companies.

Werner's value-added segment provides full transportation services, from pickup to delivery including the paperwork and arranging shipping by truck, rail, air and ship. In many cases the load never gets aboard a Werner truck.

Besides that freight-shifting, Werner took more steps to increase fuel efficiency and reduced its fleet by 325 additional trucks in the January-March quarter.

Still, revenue dropped 23 percent and profits, measured on a per-share basis, 18 percent.

Profits were $6.9 million, 10 cents a share, on revenue of $394.51 million compared with first-quarter 2008 profits of $8.38 million, 12 cents, on revenue of $512.79 million.

"The already soft freight market weakened further" during the first quarter, the company's earnings report said. Many shippers, particularly in retail, "aggressively" reduced inventories, the report said. Retail is Werner's biggest shipping market.

The report noted, though, that freight volumes, while still well below year-earlier levels, began to improve in the last days of March and the first half of April.

The improvement, while "slightly more encouraging," may be a sign of companies stabilizing inventories more than a return to growth, John Steele, Werner's chief financial officer, said Wednesday.

"I would not say we are predicting an improved economy," he said.

--Contact the writer: 444-1081, virgil.larson@owh.com

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