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Note 10 - Commitments and Contingent Liabilities
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]
Note 10. Commitments and Contingencies

From time-to-time, we are a party to routine litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, most of which involves claims for personal injury and property damage incurred in connection with the transportation of freight.  We maintain insurance to cover liabilities arising from the transportation of freight for amounts in excess of certain self-insured retentions.  In management's opinion, our potential exposure under pending legal proceedings is adequately provided for in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements.

We had $40.2 million and $39.6 million of outstanding and undrawn letters of credit as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. The letters of credit are maintained primarily to support our insurance programs.

In addition to estimates within our self-insured retention layers, we also must make judgments concerning claims where we have third party insurance and for claims outside our coverage limits. Our previous auto liability policy included a policy release premium refund of up to $4.0 million per year, if certain losses were not met and we were to commute the policy for that policy year.  In the second quarter of 2012, we commuted the policy for the April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012 policy year and as such are responsible for all claims that occurred during that policy year, excluding any claims between $10.0 million  and $20.0 million, should such a claim develop. As a result of a few large accidents during the policy year that runs from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, management believes the possibility of commuting the related policy for that year to be remote.

Additionally, effective April 1, 2013, we entered into a new auto liability policy with a three-year term. The policy retains the $1.0 million per claim limit for the primary excess layer of our auto liability program, with no changes to the excess policies. Similar to the prior policy, the current policy contains a commutation option; however, this option is only available after the completion of the three-year policy term, rather than on an annual basis.

During the first quarter of 2013, we finalized our 2013 equipment plan, which includes an increase in the number of disposals of used tractors and delivery of new tractors to approximately 975 and 900, respectively, from 650 and 600, respectively, at December 31, 2012. We had commitments outstanding at March 31, 2013 to acquire revenue equipment totaling approximately $83.6 million for the remainder of 2013. These commitments are cancelable, subject to certain adjustments in the underlying obligations and benefits. These purchase commitments are expected to be financed by operating leases, capital leases, long-term debt, proceeds from sales of existing equipment, and/or cash flows from operations.