Old Dominion Freight Line announced high fourth quarter earnings, as the trucking company benefitted from a strong domestic market and continued to refine its less than truckload shipping methods.

The Thomasville, North Carolina-based freight company reported total revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, up 15.2 percent from revenue of $891 million in the quarter a year earlier.

The company also reported net income of $159.4 million, or $1.95 per share, down 18 percent from net income of $197.2 million, or $2.39 per share the previous year.

The decline in earnings is largely due to a $104.9 million tax benefit from recent government changes as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The results beat analyst expectations of revenue of $1.02 billion and earnings of $1.75 per share.

The company cited its use of less-than-truckload shipping as its main margin for this quarter’s success.

LTL shipping allows for companies to rent partial truckloads from freight companies, allowing their products to be shipped along-side other companies products in the same unit. This allows for shipping companies to be more efficient with their deliveries, and offer lower travel costs for their customers.

“Our LTL revenue per hundredweight benefited from the decrease in weight per shipment as well as the 1.0% increase in average length of haul, as the changes to each of these metrics generally result in an increased yield,” said CEO Greg C. Gantt in a statement.

“The improvement in our revenue per hundredweight also reflects our continued focus on individual account profitability, which requires a consistent and long-term improvement in yield to offset our cost inflation while also supporting the continued investment in our business.”

Old Dominion’s stocks closed on Friday at $141.75, down $1.24, or 0.87 percent.

The filing can be found here.