Uber Freight Posts Continued Revenue Gain, Higher EBITDA Than 2Q '20

The portion of Uber Technologies' earnings report that is devoted to Uber Freight is for a three-month period that immediately preceded the electronic brokerage's biggest acquisition.

That would be the purchase of Transplace, announced July 22, acquired for approximately $2.25 billion. While the acquisition was mentioned in the company's UBER prepared earnings statement, little was added to what already has been disclosed.

But the rest of the disclosures about Uber Freight in the earnings statement continued the positive trends that the company has been posting virtually every quarter for the last few years. 

Revenue at Uber Freight rose 65% year-on-year, to $348 million from $211 million in 2020's second quarter. Revenue in the first quarter was $301 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at Uber Freight remained negative, but did rise to negative $41 million from negative $49 million in the second quarter of last year. But the performance was a reversal of a $29 million EBITDA loss in the first quarter of 2021. 

In other references to Uber Freight in the earnings statement and conference call, the company said the segment had improved its cost per load by 7% from the second quarter of last year. It cited "technology-driven improvements across load tracking automation, digital billing capture and streamlined load scheduling" as the reasons for the improvement.  

In his comments on the earnings call with analysts, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said about 50% of Uber Freight's business is from grocery and consumer-staple shippers.

 "We believe there is a large opportunity to be the preferred end-to-end logistics partner for shippers," he said on the earnings call, according to a transcript supplied by SeekingAlpha. "Eighty percent of shipper decision-makers manage both full truckloads as well as last-mile shipping, and almost 60% of surveyed customers have last-mile needs."

The Transplace acquisition was not the only Uber Freight news that took place after the close of the second quarter. It also said it had teamed up with BlueGrace Logistics to provide LTL freight through its platform. The prepared earnings statement had a brief mention of the deal, noting that it "furthers our journey to supporting shippers from first to final mile."

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