Saia, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a transportation company in North America. The company provides less-than-truckload services for shipments between 100 and 10,000 pounds. It also offers other value-added services, including brokered truckload, expedited transportation, and other logistics services. As of December 31, 2025, it operated 213 owned and leased terminals; and owned approximately 7,700 tractors and 26,500 …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 16.0% (top 7%) and operating margin at 10.9% (top 7%) indicate strong pricing power.
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.86), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Saia, Inc. ranks #2 of 17
scored companies in Trucking by moat score — the top 12%.
The widest moat in the group is Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (ODFL)
at 91/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near SAIA in Trucking
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 89
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 83
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 86
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 80
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 89
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Saia, Inc. (SAIA) scores 86 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #2 of 17 scored companies in Trucking, the top 12%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 16 companies in Trucking. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (89/100) and its weakest is Resilience (80/100).
How does Saia, Inc. compare with other Trucking companies?
Saia, Inc. ranks #2 of 17 scored companies in Trucking by moat score. The widest moat in Trucking is Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (ODFL) at 91/100. The companies ranked closest are Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (ODFL) at 91 just above it and XPO, Inc. (XPO) at 75 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 16 companies in Trucking. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Saia, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Saia, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and SAIA scores: Pricing Power (89), Cost Advantage (89), Customer Stickiness (83), Capital Efficiency (86), Resilience (80), Scale & Market Position (89). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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