USA Truck announced that it has closed a $125 million revolving credit agreement with Wells Fargo Capital Finance, as administrative agent and PNC Bank, as syndication agent.

The revolver has a five-ear term, is secured by substantially all of the company’s assets, and can be expanded up to $175 million subject to customary conditions and lender participation.

Cliff Beckham, USA Truck’s president and chief executive officer, said: “We are pleased by this strong show of support from Wells Fargo and PNC Bank, two of the most knowledgeable and experienced senior lenders to the trucking industry. The structure of the new revolver affords us significant advantages over our prior credit facility by dramatically increasing our operating flexibility, improving our liquidity, and lowering our ongoing interest rate margin. The access to more stable capital is expected to better support our efforts to improve operating results in future periods.”

The company said the revolver’s structure capitalizes on the company’s strong balance sheet and asset base to provide time and flexibility to execute management’s operational improvement plans. Rather than quarterly financial covenants, the revolver contains a minimum excess availability requirement equal to 15% of the maximum revolver amount (currently $18.75 million) and an annual capital expenditure limit ($53.8 million for calendar year 2012, increasing to $71.0 million in 2013 and with further increases thereafter) that was established with the intent of affording us adequate capacity for maintaining a modern fleet.

From a liquidity perspective, availability under the Revolver is approximately $28.3 million after repaying the approximately $75.9 million outstanding under the prior credit facility and giving effect to the minimum availability requirement, reflecting a meaningful increase in liquidity compared with the prior facility. On an ongoing basis, the new borrowing base consists of customary advance rates against accounts receivable, tractors, and trailers. A collateral cushion above the maximum facility size is required, and current collateral is well in excess of that requirement.

The revolver bears interest at rates typically based on the Wells Fargo prime rate or LIBOR, in each case plus an applicable margin. Most borrowings are expected to be based on the LIBOR rate option. The applicable margin ranges from 2.25% to 2.75% based on average excess availability and is currently 2.50%. The applicable LIBOR margin reflects a savings of 1.25% compared with the rate charged under our prior credit facility.

USA Truck is a dry van truckload carrier transporting general commodities via our general freight and dedicated freight service offerings.