The Company anticipates that earnings for the quarter ending September 30, 2005 will be between $.11 and $.14 per share, including the non-cash expense for acceleration of stock options and the charge for the asset impairment noted below. The Company estimates the earnings range will be between $.30 and $.33 per share before the impact of the option acceleration and asset impairment, which compares to results of $.32 per share in the quarter ended September 30, 2004. This estimate of third quarter earnings is less than the range of $0.33 to $0.46 per share and the consensus of $0.41 per share which are the estimates of the analysts currently following the Company.
The Company's expectation of the operational results for the quarter has been negatively impacted by continued softness in freight demand in July and August and higher fuel costs. Demand has been more robust in September. The Company's fuel surcharge program lags rising fuel prices and could not adequately recover the dramatic spikes in fuel cost the Company experienced in this quarter. The Company estimates the increase in fuel costs for the quarter will have a negative impact of between $.04 and $.06 per share on its previous expectation of earnings.