Welcome to Landstar’s 2000 Annual Report, Building Success Together. During 2000, Landstar once again achieved outstanding financial performance, exceeding Wall Street’s estimates, despite a slowing economy that began during the back half of the year. Landstar continued to build and strengthen its unique business model in 2000. The development and deployment of new technology has made the business capacity owners (BCOs), independent sales agents and customers more efficient at Landstar. With the relocation of Landstar Ligon from Madisonville, KY to Jacksonville, FL, Landstar now has all administrative, operational and information technology infrastructure located in two new state of the art facilities in Jacksonville, FL and Rockford, IL. In 2000, the safety and compliance function of the individual operating companies were segregated and consolidated into two distinct departments. This separation of functions has improved equipment and operator regulatory compliance in addition to our already industry leading safety performance.
The core of our business model continues to strengthen and grow. Landstar finished the year with approximately 8,700 trucks. Average Landstar revenue per truck increased to $124,000 per truck. The Company’s independent sales agent base continued to develop as 362 agents each generated revenue in excess of $1 million and average revenue per million dollar agent increased 6 percent to $3,449,000.
Increased fuel costs made 2000 a more difficult year for the Landstar BCOs. Landstar helped mitigate the increased fuel cost by the 100 percent pass through of over $36 million in fuel surcharges to its BCOs. The Landstar Contractors’ Advantage Purchasing Program (LCAPP®) also provided some fuel cost relief to Landstar BCOs through negotiated discounts at various truck stops across the United States. In 2000, LCAPP also provided Landstar BCOs with other discounts on the purchase of batteries, tires, new and used trucks and trailers, among other items. Landstar continued its intense, year-after-year commitment to safety. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation recordable accident frequency of .61 accidents per million miles driven remains among the lowest in the industry. The commitment to safety at Landstar is unyielding and continues to be an integral part of the corporate culture.
Landstar is always searching for effective technological applications to expand its offerings to both customers and capacity providers throughout the transportation industry. During 2000, Landstar developed and launched the first business-to-business wireless Internet phone service in the North American transportation industry whereby BCOs can access available load information. The Company has developed applications whereby certain select customers can input load specifications directly into the available load database. During 2000, Landstar also developed a customer secured tracking and tracing system that provides shippers with critical information about the location of their freight. The Information Services department at Landstar continues to test, analyze and obtain feedback on the latest applications in order to improve the Company’s distributive network. Timely and accurate information flow among our BCOs, agents and customers is critical at Landstar.