[ODFL – Old Dominion Freight Line] Superb Logistics Company

I don’t think there’s anything to do here given the lofty valuation (30x on what feel like peak earnings), but I like this company and thought it was worth a quick shout out.  Old Dominion is an incredibly well-run business staffed with high-caliber folks who care deeply about their work.  The first thing to understand about this company is that that while trucks and trailers are critical assets, Old Dominion is not a trucking company.  Trucking is a highly competitive, no-moat, cyclical, price-taking business.  A shipper who wants to transport wares from point A to point B has tens of thousands of carriers from which to choose.  Entry is open to anyone with a clean driving record, a commercial driver’s license and a modest amount of capital to invest in a tractor/trailer.

But now imagine a shipper who has 100 parcels for delivery to 10 different customers dispersed throughout region B; or 100 parcels, half of which need to be delivered to 5 customers in region B and half to another 5 in region C; or 2 shippers in region A who collectively have 200 parcels for delivery under tight time constraints to dozens of different customers in several different regions, with multiple shippers at each of those regions needing to transport goods to region A.