R. David Humphrey - Vice President of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Michael E. Newcity - Chief Financial Officer and Vice President Judy R. McReynolds - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Arkansas Best Corporation First Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Humphrey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Welcome to the Arkansas Best Corporation First Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. Our presentation this morning will be done by: Ms. Judy R. McReynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Arkansas Best Corporation; and Mr. Michael E. Newcity, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Arkansas Best Corporation. As most of you know, we're in the midst of negotiations with the Teamsters union with a new labor agreement with ABF. Because of the sensitive nature of these discussions and where we are in the process, we will give an update on the current quarter's results, but we will not be taking any questions on this morning's call. We hope you can understand our reasons for doing things a little differently this time. As always, following today's call, we will be available to speak with you to discuss the publicly disclosed information about our first quarter results. We thank you for joining us this morning. In order to better help you understand Arkansas Best Corporation and its results, some forward-looking statements could be made during this call. As we all know, forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to uncertainties and risks. For a more complete discussion of factors that could affect the company's future results, please refer to the forward-looking statements section of the company's earnings press release and the company's most recent SEC public filings. We will now begin with Mr. Newcity.

Thank you for joining us this morning. As you saw in the earnings release, Arkansas Best reported an overall net loss in a traditionally weak first quarter despite a strong revenue increase of nearly $80 million year-over-year that included revenue this year from Panther we purchased in June of 2012. Revenue was higher in almost every single business we operate including ABF. Our results also reflected encouraging revenue growth and improved operating results at many of our non-asset-based businesses. These companies continue to develop into an important part of our corporate strategy to serve our customers with a full array of logistics solutions. Despite revenue and tonnage growth during the first 3 months of the year, however, our largest subsidiary, ABF, experienced first quarter operating losses that resulted from the industry high cost structure and limitations on operational flexibility under the current union labor contract. Union negotiations between ABF and the Teamsters, designed to return ABF to a path of profitability, are ongoing and the expiration of the current labor contract has been extended through the end of May. Later, Judy will give her thoughts and perspective on our recent performance and our opportunities for the future, but now I'd like to cover the details of our results for the first quarter of 2013. Arkansas Best first quarter 2013 revenue was $520.7 million compared to $440.9 million last year. The first quarter 2013 net loss was $0.52 per share compared to a net loss of $0.71 per share last year. Our effective tax rate for the first quarter was a benefit of 42.5%. As I mentioned last quarter, tax legislation signed in early January of 2013 included language extending the tax credits for use of renewable energy and alternative fuels that previously expired at the end of 2011. The new…

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Our first quarter results generally reflect the same trend that we saw in the second half of 2012. While our emerging non-asset-based businesses continue to grow and generate improving cash levels, ABF had continued losses due to its industry high cost structure. As you know, we are in the final stages of our contract negotiations with the Teamsters, and I'll talk more about that later. Heavy investment in our emerging businesses in 2012 is paying off and improving the way we go to market. We've invested in sales, customer service and information technology, and all of these businesses posted positive EBITDA individually and $3.4 million in total. As Michael noted, revenue from these subsidiaries was 22% of our total first quarter revenues, similar to the fourth quarter of last year. Chart brokerage and management and our emergency and preventive maintenance businesses saw combined revenue gains of more than $16 million in the quarter, which was very encouraging. First quarter revenues at Panther were impacted by reduced demand for expedited services related to increased availability of industry capacity in the full load market. Demand in the market segment that Panther serves was mixed with strength in life sciences and high value segment, while the biggest weakness was seen in the auto segment. In addition, the government segment was down as declines in spending, particularly by the Defense Department, impacted the availability of those shipments Panther was able to handle. Throughout the first quarter, Panther made ongoing investments in personnel and resources needed to enhance its ability to meet customer needs. Although these investments contributed to lower first quarter margins, they are expected to benefit Panther and our customers in the future. Panther has many experienced and energetic team members who are pursuing opportunities to…

We thank you for joining us this morning, and we appreciate your interest in Arkansas Best Corporation. We will be available for follow-up discussions as needed today. This now concludes our call. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation, and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.