Welcome to the Kirby Corporation Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Joe Pyne. Please go ahead.
Virtual annual meeting, so it's a little awkward, I think, for everybody, but it should work. The 2020 annual meeting of stockholders of the Kirby Corporation will please come to order. I'm Joe Pyne, Chairman of the Board of Kirby. In the response to COVID-19, today's meeting is being conducted in the virtual format in lieu of an in-person meeting. I'd like to welcome employees, stockholders, guests who are joining us today. As a reminder, statements made today, in today's meeting with respect to the future or forward-looking statements, these statements reflect management's reasonable judgment with respect to future events and involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ from those anticipated as a result of various factors.
A list of these risk factors can be found in our most recent Form 10-K, with any updates in our quarterly or current reports. I have been informed by the inspector of elections that approximately 94.8% of the outstanding shares are represented at the meeting, at this meeting. Therefore, we have a quorum, and the meeting is duly convened. I'd like to recognize the other directors of Kirby who are in attendance today. Anne-Marie Ainsworth, Dick Alario, Tanya Beder, Barry Davis, Sean Day, Monte Miller, Rick Stewart, and Bill Waterman, and of course, David Grzebinski, who will give some remarks later. Now, I'd like to recognize the executive team and the corporate officers of Kirby, who again, are on the call today. David Grzebinski, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director.
Bill Harvey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Christian O’Neil, President, Kirby Inland Marine and Kirby Offshore Marine. Joe Reniers, President, Kirby's Distribution and Services. Lynn Strahan, President of Kirby Engine Systems. Kim Clark, Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer. Amy Husted, Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary. Ron Dragg, Vice President, Controller, and Assistant Secretary. Eric Holcomb, Vice President, Investor Relations. Scott Miller, Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Kurt Niemietz, Vice President and Treasurer, and Matt Woodruff, Vice President, Public and Government Affairs. In addition, I'd like to also recognize Tony Campbell and Matt Glenn of KPMG, Kirby's independent public accounting firm. Tony Campbell will be available to respond to appropriate questions during the question and answer period.
Rhonda Carroll, with Governance Resources, LLC, as a representative of Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Kirby's proxy service provider, has been appointed to serve as the inspector of elections for this meeting. Today's meeting is virtual-only, a virtual-only stockholders meeting. We will record this meeting, and you will be able to replay the recording for one year at Kirby's website, www.kirbycorp.com. Under the events page in the investor relations section, that's where this will be. Please wait 24 hours for the recording to be uploaded. If you are a stockholder as of the record date, you may vote at any time during this meeting today by online ballot until we close the polls. If you have already voted, there is no need to vote during the meeting unless you would like to change your vote.
There will be a question and answer session following our prepared remarks. You can use the question box on your screen to submit questions at any time during the meeting. We cannot guarantee that we will answer all questions, and we may combine similar questions. If we don't get to your questions today, we will post answers to appropriate unanswered questions on Kirby's website, www.kirbycorp.com, in the investor relations section within 30 days of today's call, or you're welcome to reach us directly at 713-435-1545. As set forth in the proxy statement for this meeting, the purposes of this meeting are: to elect three Class One directors to serve until the annual meeting of stockholders in 2023; to elect one Class Two director to serve until the annual meeting of stockholders in 2021.
to ratify the audit, Audit Committee selection of KPMG LLP as Kirby's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020, and to cast an advisory vote on the approval of compensation of Kirby's named executive officers. Each matter will be presented and discussed. The three Class One directors named in the proxy statement have been duly nominated. They are Dick Alario, David Grzebinski, and Richard Stewart. The one Class Two director named in the proxy statement for election, Tanya Beder, has also been duly nominated. No other nominations have been received in accordance with the procedures established by the corporate bylaws. The third item of business is the ratification of the Audit Committee's selection of KPMG as Kirby's independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.
The fourth item of business is the approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the compensation of Kirby's named executive officers, as disclosed and discussed in Kirby's proxy statement. Under the advanced notice requirements of the corporation's bylaws, there are no other matters to be voted on at this meeting. The polls are now closed. Based on the preliminary results provided by the inspector of election, each of the Class One directors and the Class Two directors nominated by the board have received at least 98% of the votes cast in the election of directors, and therefore, have been duly elected. The appointment of KPMG LLP as Kirby's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 has been approved by 98.5% of the shares represented at this meeting for this proposal and has therefore been ratified.
The advisory vote on executive compensation, 79.7% of the votes cast for this proposal have been voted to approve Kirby's executive compensation and has therefore been approved on a non-binding advisory basis. David Grzebinski, the President and Chief Executive Officer, will now give his report on the company's operations.
Thank you, Joe. Good morning, and welcome to our 2020 annual meeting. I would like to welcome everyone who joined us online today, our shareholders, our board of directors, Kirby's executive team, and our employees. These are interesting and challenging times for Kirby and many around the world, and I hope all of you and your loved ones are in good health. In my remarks today, I will begin with a report on 2019, and will conclude with some comments on COVID-19 and 2020. Our 2019 financial results included revenues of $2.8 billion, net earnings of $142 million, and earnings per share of $2.37 per share. Excluding several one-time items, our net earnings were $174 million, and earnings per share were $2.90.
These results reflect a modest increase year-over-year, as a significant improvement in our marine transportation business was mostly offset by the impact of reduced oil and gas activity in our distribution and services segment. In marine transportation, despite challenging operating conditions and historic flooding on the Mississippi River system, segment revenues grew 7% year-over-year, with inland reporting record revenues. This improvement can be attributed to our acquisitions and the continued recovery in the inland and coastal markets. Transportation operating income increased 46% compared to 2018. During the year, we continued to make strategic investments in our marine fleet, most notably through our $244 million acquisition of Cenac Marine Services' marine transportation fleet. We also made significant investments to modernize our horsepower with 7 new inland towboats and 3 new offshore tugboats.
Earlier this month, we finalized the acquisition of Savage Inland Marine's inland fleet. This is another excellent addition to the Kirby i nland fleet, with 90 tank barges and 46 towboats, improving our capabilities along the Gulf Coast and expanding our bunker operations. In distribution and services, significant reductions in oil field activity and lower customer spending in North America resulted in a challenging year for this segment and a 16% year-over-year decline in revenue. In response, we took thoughtful actions to lower costs, reduce working capital, and to reorganize our oil and gas businesses. In commercial and industrial, we had a strong year, with growth in power generation, marine, and in the on-highway sector. Looking forward, in these uncertain times, it is very tough to predict the full impact of COVID-19 and a global and US recession.
In early March, we implemented our pandemic response plan, which included moving to a virtual format for this annual meeting, and I'm pleased to report that all of our operations have continued to operate seamlessly. In distribution and services, our oil and gas businesses have seen a sharp decline in activity. We have taken significant additional actions to reduce costs. In marine transportation, our inland and coastal businesses have seen some declines in activity, but are in a strong position to weather depressed market conditions. Although we anticipate that our volumes will decline further, we believe, as in past cycles, that our marine customer contracts, our variable cost structure, will help minimize the impact on our margins. When the ongoing crisis ends and the economy rebounds, we believe we'll be well-positioned to grow earnings in the future years.
With respect to liquidity, we currently have in excess of $425 million available, including our credit line and cash on hand, and we have a very substantial cushion in our bank's facilities covenants. We expect to generate significant free cash flow in 2020, even in a poor economic climate, and we intend to direct the cash flow to reducing debt, increasing liquidity, and positioning the company to grow again as opportunities arise. Lastly, I'd like to take a moment to discuss ESG or environmental, social, and governance. Kirby has a long history of promoting sustainability into our corporate culture, and in 2019, we took concrete steps to advance our disclosures. We also expanded the oversight of our program to include the board of directors. In 2020, a key focus is to provide new disclosures on Kirby's greenhouse gas emissions.
We will also be working to align our ESG disclosures with the SASB framework and the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures. Before I close, I would like to thank the Kirby executive team for their hard work and dedication. 2019 presented many challenges, but together, we overcame and had many successes. I would also like to thank our board of directors for their continued dedication, wise advice, and strong support. And to all the employees of Kirby, your dedication to our success, world-class customer service, and our no-harm safety culture is greatly appreciated. And finally, I would like to thank each of you for your interest in Kirby. In these challenging times, my best wishes go out to you and everyone dealing with the coronavirus and the effects it is having on all of our lives.
I wish you and your families good health and pray for a speedy end to this crisis. Thank you for joining us online, and I hope everyone has a good day.
Thank you, David. Are there any questions or comments, including questions for our auditors?
At this time, Joe, we don't, we don't have any questions.
Yeah, Eric, how come you don't have any?
Yeah, at this time, David or Joe, we don't have any questions.
I'm sorry, Eric, what did you say?
There are no questions, Joe.
Okay, great. Thank you. Well, thank you for your participation in our virtual annual meeting, and everybody have a good day.