Descartes Systems Group Inc (DSGX) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Descartes Systems Group's quarterly results conference call. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Pagan. Please go ahead.

下午好，女士們先生們，歡迎參加笛卡爾系統集團的季度業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）此電話於 2023 年 12 月 5 日星期二進行錄音。我現在想將會議轉交給 Scott Pagan。請繼續。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Joining me remotely on the call today are Ed Ryan, CEO; and Allan Brett, CFO. I trust that everyone has received a copy of our financial results press release that was issued earlier. Portions of today's call other than historical performance include statements of forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws, and these statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of those laws.

謝謝大家，大家下午好。今天遠端加入我的電話會議的是執行長 Ed Ryan；和財務長艾倫·布雷特。我相信每個人都已經收到了我們之前發布的財務業績新聞稿。今天的電話會議中除歷史業績外的部分包括適用證券法含義內的前瞻性資訊聲明，這些聲明是根據這些法律的安全港條款做出的。

These forward-looking statements include statements relating to our assessment of the current and future impact of geopolitical and economic uncertainty on our business and financial condition; Descartes' operating performance, financial results and conditions; Descartes' gross margins and any growth in those gross margins; cash flow and use of cash; business outlook; baseline revenues, baseline operating expenses and baseline calibration; anticipated and potential revenue losses and gains; anticipated recognition and expensing of specific revenues and expenses; potential acquisitions and acquisition strategy; cost reduction and integration initiatives; and other matters that may constitute forward-looking statements.

這些前瞻性陳述包括與我們評估地緣政治和經濟不確定性對我們業務和財務狀況的當前和未來影響有關的陳述；笛卡兒的經營業績、財務業績及狀況；笛卡爾的毛利率以及這些毛利率的任何增長；現金流量及現金使用；業務前景；基線收入、基線營運支出和基線校準；預期和潛在的收入損失和收益；具體收入和費用的預期確認和支出；潛在收購和收購策略；降低成本和整合措施；以及其他可能構成前瞻性陳述的事項。

These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Descartes to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors are outlined in the press release and in the section entitled Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results in documents filed and furnished with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada, including our management's discussion and analysis filed today.

這些前瞻性陳述涉及已知和未知的風險、不確定性、假設和其他因素，可能導致笛卡爾的實際結果、業績或成就與此類前瞻性陳述所暗示的預期結果、業績或成就有重大差異。這些因素在新聞稿和向美國證券交易委員會、安大略省證券委員會和加拿大其他證券委員會提交和提供的文件中標題為「可能影響未來結果的某些因素」的部分中進行了概述，包括我們管理層提交的討論和分析今天。

We provide forward-looking statements solely for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. You're cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. We don't undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statement is based except as required by law. And with that, let me turn the call over to Ed.

我們提供前瞻性陳述的目的只是為了提供有關管理層當前預期和未來計劃的資訊。請注意，此類資訊可能不適用於其他目的。我們不承擔或接受任何義務或承諾公開發布任何前瞻性陳述的任何更新或修訂，以反映我們的期望的任何變化或任何此類陳述所依據的事件、條件、假設或情況的任何變化，除非根據法律要求。接下來，讓我把電話轉給艾德。

Thanks, Scott, and welcome, everyone, to the call. We're coming off a great third quarter with record financial results, good organic growth and strong operating margins. We're excited to go over those with you and give you some perspective about the business environment we see right now. But first, let me give you a road map for the call.

謝謝斯科特，歡迎大家參加電話會議。我們第三季業績出色，財務業績創歷史新高，有機成長良好，營業利益率強勁。我們很高興能與您一起回顧這些內容，並向您提供有關我們目前所看到的商業環境的一些看法。但首先，讓我先給你一個通話路線圖。

I'll start by hitting some highlights of last quarter and some aspects of how our business performed. I'll then hand it over to Allan, who will go over our Q3 financial results in more detail. I'll then come back and provide an update on how we see the current business environment and how our business is calibrated as we enter Q4. And finally, we'll open it up to the operator to coordinate the Q&A portion of the call.

我將首先介紹上季度的一些亮點以及我們業務表現的一些方面。然後我會將其交給艾倫，他將更詳細地審查我們第三季的財務表現。然後，我將回來提供有關我們如何看待當前業務環境以及進入第四季度時如何調整我們的業務的最新資訊。最後，我們將向接線員開放，以協調通話的問答部分。

So let's start with the quarter that ended on October 31. Key metrics we monitor include revenue, profits, cash flow from operations, operating margins, and returns on our investments. For this past quarter, we again had outstanding performance in each of those areas. Total revenues were up 19% from a year ago, with service revenues up 18%. Adjusted EBITDA was up 17% from a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA margin was at 44%, back up to the levels before we bought GroundCloud, and we generated $56 million in cash from operations, representing 86% of adjusted EBITDA.

讓我們從 10 月 31 日結束的季度開始。我們監控的關鍵指標包括收入、利潤、營運現金流、營運利潤率和投資回報。在過去的這個季度，我們在這些領域再次取得了出色的表現。總營收較去年同期成長 19%，其中服務收入成長 18%。調整後 EBITDA 較上年同期成長 17%。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 44%，回到了我們收購 GroundCloud 之前的水平，我們從營運中產生了 5,600 萬美元的現金，佔調整後 EBITDA 的 86%。

At the end of the quarter, we had almost $280 million in cash, and we were debt-free, with an undrawn $350 million line of credit. We remain well capitalized, cash-generating. We have strong organic growth and remain ready to continue to invest in our business. We had a good quarter of organic growth in our core services revenues. Many of the drivers are similar to past periods. The biggest growth areas were in real-time visibility, global trade intelligence and routing and scheduling solutions, so let me touch on each of those here for a minute.

截至本季末，我們擁有近 2.8 億美元現金，且沒有債務，還有 3.5 億美元未動用的信貸額度。我們仍然資本充足，能夠產生現金。我們擁有強勁的有機成長，並準備繼續投資我們的業務。我們的核心服務收入在本季實現了良好的有機成長。許多驅動因素與過去的時期相似。最大的成長領域是即時可見性、全球貿易情報以及路線和調度解決方案，所以讓我在這裡逐一介紹一下這些領域。

First is real-time visibility. When you're moving goods on other people's assets of ships, planes and trucks, it's a challenge to know where your goods are. This is even more difficult if you're not the one who's arranged the shipments, if instead you book through an intermediary like a broker or freight forwarder or third-party logistics provider. To get this visibility, we need a network that sources information from all these assets and parties and presents it in a way that makes business sense. Knowing the location of a shipment and when it's going to arrive is critical to serving your customers and running your business.

首先是即時可見性。當您使用他人的船舶、飛機和卡車等資產運輸貨物時，了解您的貨物在哪裡是一項挑戰。如果您不是安排發貨的人，而是透過經紀人、貨運代理或第三方物流提供者等中介機構預訂，情況會更加困難。為了獲得這種可見性，我們需要一個網路來從所有這些資產和各方獲取訊息，並以具有商業意義的方式呈現這些資訊。了解貨物的位置以及貨物何時到達對於服務您的客戶和經營您的業務至關重要。

Our visibility and transportation management solutions, which include MacroPoint, provide critical help to customers. We're winning more time visibility deals and seeing strong demand from our customers, and I think there's 3 key reasons for this. The first reason is our solutions are better at tracking loads. Simply put, we track a greater percentage of loads than our competitors can.

我們的可視性和運輸管理解決方案（包括 MacroPoint）為客戶提供了重要協助。我們贏得了更多時間可見性交易，並看到客戶的強烈需求，我認為這有 3 個關鍵原因。第一個原因是我們的解決方案更擅長追蹤負載。簡而言之，我們追蹤的負載​​百分比比競爭對手更高。

Customers pay us based on the number of loads that we track, so we're motivated to have as many carriers and intermediaries as possible to source location information from. If they're not already connected, we've got self-connect tools that help our customers get even more location coverage across their network of carriers. We also have customer success personnel who help expand the network in more complex cases. The outcome has been a greater percentage of loads tracked, better data, happier customers and strong growth in our business.

客戶根據我們追蹤的負載​​數量向我們付費，因此我們有動力擁有盡可能多的營運商和中介機構來獲取位置資訊。如果他們尚未連接，我們有自連接工具，可以幫助我們的客戶在其運營商網路中獲得更多的位置覆蓋範圍。我們還有客戶成功人員，可以幫助在更複雜的情況下擴展網路。結果是追蹤的負載​​百分比更高、數據更好、客戶更滿意以及我們業務的強勁成長。

Visibility is embedded -- the second reason is visibility is embedded in many Descartes' solutions. Some customers come to us just for visibility, but visibility is also embedded into many of our Descartes' solutions. Our customers can make transportation management decisions, including planning who they tender to, consolidations and otherwise and ensure they have visibility while those shipments are executed. We believe we offer a more comprehensive solution than our competitors in this regard.

可見性是嵌入的——第二個原因是可見性嵌入在許多笛卡爾的解決方案中。有些客戶來找我們只是為了獲得可見性，但可見性也嵌入到我們的許多笛卡爾解決方案中。我們的客戶可以做出運輸管理決策，包括規劃他們的投標對象、整合等，並確保他們在執行這些運輸時具有可見性。我們相信我們在這方面提供了比競爭對手更全面的解決方案。

The third reason is we're a reliable, stable and growing partner. Our customers take a lot of comfort from working with Descartes as a larger public company with a long track record of financial stability. Also, our customers value our lengthy experience operating secure cloud services across the globe. This makes us a service provider of choice in the real-time visibility market.

第三個原因是我們是可靠、穩定且不斷成長的合作夥伴。 Descartes 是一家擁有長期財務穩定記錄的大型上市公司，與我們的客戶合作讓我們感到非常安心。此外，我們的客戶也看重我們在全球營運安全雲端服務的豐富經驗。這使我們成為即時可見性市場的首選服務提供者。

The second area where we're seeing strong growth is in global trade intelligence solutions. There's a lot of geopolitical conflict in the world right now. When that happens, it has an impact on supply chain and logistics. Goods move on new routes away from conflict areas, sanctions are put in place, restricting who you do business with and what types of goods can be shipped. The duties and tariffs are adjusted to incentivize certain trading relationships. We've continued to see strong demand from our customers for help with these challenges.

我們看到強勁成長的第二個領域是全球貿易情報解決方案。目前世界上存在著許多地緣政治衝突。當這種情況發生時，會對供應鏈和物流產生影響。貨物沿著新路線遠離衝突地區，實施制裁，限制與誰做生意以及可以運輸哪種類型的貨物。調整關稅和關稅以激勵某些貿易關係。我們不斷看到客戶對幫助應對這些挑戰的強烈需求。

Our solutions help them in 3 principal areas. The first is competitive intelligence. Our data mine solutions provide information on trade flows, historical classification of goods and other logistics and supply chain intelligence. This information can be used to help make decisions about your own supply chain but also to see how competitive you are with other companies' supply chains.

我們的解決方案在 3 個主要領域為他們提供協助。首先是競爭情報。我們的資料探勘解決方案提供有關貿易流、貨物歷史分類以及其他物流和供應鏈情報的資訊。這些資訊可用於幫助您做出有關您自己的供應鏈的決策，還可以了解您與其他公司的供應鏈相比的競爭力。

Second area is tariff and duty data to make intelligent shipping decisions. We provide up-to-date data about tariff and duty rates and rules around the world, which can be used by leading global trade management systems to help run international supply chains. And the third area is compliance. These solutions help our customers make sure they're not shipping things to people they should not be shipping them to. And this may be to specific people, to specific companies, to specific geographies or, in some cases, specific goods being shipped.

第二個領域是關稅和關稅數據，以做出明智的運輸決策。我們提供有關世界各地關稅和稅率以及規則的最新數據，領先的全球貿易管理系統可以使用這些數據來幫助運營國際供應鏈。第三個領域是合規性。這些解決方案可幫助我們的客戶確保他們不會將物品運送給不應該運送給的人。這可能針對特定的人、特定的公司、特定的地區，或在某些情況下，針對正在運輸的特定貨物。

And the final area we're seeing high growth at the moment that I outlined at the beginning is in our routing and scheduling solutions. These solutions help you manage your own fleet of vehicles rather than hiring space on other people's vehicles. We believe we have the premier routing and scheduling solutions in the market. Our customers have faced pressure to use their vehicles efficiently, whether it's due to cost pressures, limited labor or environmental concerns, so we've seen continued good demand.

我在開頭概述的目前我們看到的高成長的最後一個領域是我們的路由和調度解決方案。這些解決方案可協助您管理自己的車隊，而不是在其他人的車輛上租用空間。我們相信我們擁有市場上一流的路線和調度解決方案。無論是由於成本壓力、勞動力有限還是環境問題，我們的客戶都面臨著高效使用車輛的壓力，因此我們看到了持續良好的需求。

Also, our customers recognize that the delivery experience is a key part of the consumer's purchase experience, so they're very interested in being able to provide delivery recipients with time-definite delivery windows and an Uber-like delivery visibility experience in the final miles. Our innovations in this area continue to drive customers with complex delivery challenges to us for our solutions.

此外，我們的客戶認識到送貨體驗是消費者購買體驗的關鍵部分，因此他們非常有興趣為送貨收件人提供限時送貨窗口以及最後一英里類似 Uber 的送貨可見性體驗。我們在這一領域的創新不斷推動客戶向我們的解決方案提出複雜的交付挑戰。

We were able to show good organic growth in the quarter even with some broader macroeconomic challenges in the supply chain and logistics market. As we went into the quarter, the market was bracing for reduced transportation volumes. In the quarter, we did see lower volumes, but not as bad as may have been initially expected. Our supply chain messaging and customs filing businesses saw some impact with lower transaction volumes, but not inconsistent with our plans.

即使供應鏈和物流市場面臨一些更廣泛的宏觀經濟挑戰，我們仍能在本季實現良好的有機成長。當我們進入本季時，市場正在準備迎接運輸量的減少。在本季度，我們確實看到銷量下降，但沒有最初預期的那麼糟糕。我們的供應鏈訊息傳遞和海關備案業務受到交易量下降的一些影響，但與我們的計劃並不矛盾。

Overall, our business is designed to grow through fluctuations in transportation volumes. And the superior performance of the parts of our business that are less volume-sensitive, combined with the addition of new customers, continued to drive our organic growth. Our organic growth was complemented by the contribution of recently completed acquisitions. Several of the acquisitions are performing better than we originally planned for, resulting in more earn-out being accrued in the quarter.

總體而言，我們的業務旨在透過運輸量的波動實現成長。我們業務量不太敏感的部分的卓越表現，加上新客戶的增加，繼續推動我們的有機成長。最近完成的收購的貢獻補充了我們的有機成長。其中幾項收購的表現比我們最初的計劃要好，導致本季產生更多的利潤。

Allan will get into that in more detail in his section, but let me touch on the 2 most recent acquisitions. The first is GroundCloud. We've got about 8 months' experience with GroundCloud's safety and compliance solutions. GroundCloud helps us identify safety incidents faced by drivers and provides responsive and targeted video training on the challenges that drivers face. They also help companies manage delivery obligations as they have -- as subcontractors to other delivery brands such as FedEx.

艾倫將在他的部分中更詳細地討論這一點，但讓我談談最近的兩筆收購。第一個是地面雲。我們在 GroundCloud 安全與合規解決方案方面擁有約 8 個月的經驗。 GroundCloud 協助我們識別駕駛者面臨的安全事件，並為駕駛者面臨的挑戰提供快速反應且有針對性的視訊訓練。他們也幫助公司管理交付義務，就像聯邦快遞等其他交付品牌的分包商一樣。

When we first combined with GroundCloud, we indicated we anticipated some impact on our overall adjusted EBITDA margin, which we did, in fact, see in Q1 and Q2. We've made good progress on integration, and our aggregate adjusted EBITDA margin is back up to 44% for Q3. We're also seeing good opportunity for cross-sell of the safety solutions into our existing routing customer base, and we're monitoring the impact of FedEx's increasing the number of shipments it moves through the independent contractor network as that may increase demand from customers looking for -- to help FedEx.

當我們第一次與 GroundCloud 合併時，我們表示預計會對整體調整後 EBITDA 利潤率產生一些影響，事實上，我們在第一季和第二季確實看到了這一點。我們在整合方面取得了良好進展，第三季調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率總額回升至 44%。我們也看到了向我們現有的路由客戶群交叉銷售安全解決方案的好機會，並且我們正在監控聯邦快遞增加透過獨立承包商網路運送的貨物數量的影響，因為這可能會增加客戶的需求尋找— —幫助聯邦快遞。

The second acquisition was Localz. I spoke to this a bit earlier as Localz helps with the Uber-like delivery experience for the final mile. If you're receiving a delivery, you can track the vehicle in real-time on a map as the goods arrive. Localz has been immediately incorporated into our routing solutions, and we saw good demand for combined Localz-Descartes solutions. We're very happy with the technical capabilities and initial performance and hope to be able to share more on progress in the upcoming quarters.

第二次收購是 Localz。我早些時候談到這一點，因為 Localz 幫助提供最後一英里類似 Uber 的交付體驗。如果您正在接收貨物，則可以在貨物到達時在地圖上即時追蹤車輛。 Localz 已立即納入我們的路由解決方案中，我們看到了對 Localz-笛卡爾組合解決方案的良好需求。我們對技術能力和初始表現非常滿意，並希望能夠在接下來的幾季分享更多進展。

With that, let me just summarize as I hand it over to Allan to give the full financial details in the quarter. We had record financial results. The business performed well, and we believe that's a good reflection of the value that our customers continue to get from our solutions and the hard work that our team continues to put in for our customers. We ended the quarter with almost $280 million in cash, $350 million in available credit and a market opportunity where we can continue to grow the business for our customers, both organically and through acquisition.

說到這裡，讓我簡單總結一下，然後將其交給艾倫，以提供本季度的完整財務細節。我們取得了創紀錄的財務表現。業務表現良好，我們相信這很好地反映了我們的客戶繼續從我們的解決方案中獲得的價值以及我們的團隊繼續為客戶付出的辛勤工作。本季結束時，我們擁有近 2.8 億美元的現金、3.5 億美元的可用信貸以及市場機會，我們可以透過有機方式和收購繼續為客戶發展業務。

We remain focused on profitable growth so that we can continue to ensure that our customers have a secure, stable and growing technology partner that can help them with their challenges well into the future. Many thanks to all Descartes' team members for everything they've done to contribute to a great quarter and continuing to have our business in an enviable position for future success. With that, I'll turn the call over to Allan to go through our Q3 financial results in more detail. Allan?

我們仍然專注於獲利成長，以便能夠繼續確保我們的客戶擁有一個安全、穩定且不斷發展的技術合作夥伴，幫助他們應對未來的挑戰。非常感謝笛卡爾的所有團隊成員所做的一切，為這個季度的出色貢獻做出了貢獻，並繼續使我們的業務處於令人羨慕的位置，以實現未來的成功。接下來，我會將電話轉給艾倫，以便更詳細地了解我們第三季的財務表現。艾倫？

Thanks, Ed. As indicated, I'm going to take you through our financial highlights for our third quarter, which ended on October 31. We are pleased to report record quarterly revenue of $144.7 million this quarter, an increase of 19% from revenue of $121.5 million in Q3 last year. While revenue from acquisitions completed in the past 12 months contributed nicely to this growth. Similar to the past several quarters, our growth in revenue from new and existing customers from our existing solutions was the main driver in growth again this quarter when compared to last year.

謝謝，艾德。如前所述，我將向您介紹我們截至10 月31 日的第三季度的財務亮點。我們很高興地報告本季創紀錄的季度收入1.447 億美元，比上年1.215 億美元的收入增長了19%。去年第三季。過去 12 個月完成的收購收入對這一成長做出了很好的貢獻。與過去幾季類似，與去年相比，我們現有解決方案的新客戶和現有客戶帶來的營收成長再次成為本季成長的主要推動力。

Looking at our revenue details further. Our revenue mix in the quarter continued to be very strong, with services revenue increasing 18% to $130.4 million compared to $110.1 million in the same quarter last year, representing approximately 90% of total revenues in the third quarter. Removing the impact of both the recent acquisitions as well as the impacts from foreign exchange, on a like-for-like basis, we would estimate that our growth in services revenue from new and existing customers would have been just over 9% this quarter when compared to the same quarter last year and fairly consistent with the first half this year.

進一步查看我們的收入詳細資訊。本季我們的營收組合仍然非常強勁，服務收入成長了 18%，達到 1.304 億美元，而去年同期為 1.101 億美元，約佔第三季總營收的 90%。剔除最近收購的影響以及外匯的影響，在同類基礎上，我們估計本季來自新客戶和現有客戶的服務收入增長將略高於 9%與去年同期相比，與今年上半年相當一致。

License revenue came in at $1.5 million or 1% of revenue in the quarter, up slightly from last year, while professional services and other revenue came in at $12.8 million, up 24% to 9% of total revenue compared to $10.3 million or 8% of total revenue in the third quarter last year as both professional service hours and hardware revenues were higher this quarter.

本季授權收入為150 萬美元，佔總收入的1%，比去年略有成長，而專業服務和其他收入為1,280 萬美元，佔總收入的1,030 萬美元，佔總收入的8%，成長24 % 至9%。佔去年第三季總收入的比重，因為本季的專業服務時間和硬體收入都較高。

For the 9 months this year, revenue came in at $425 million, an increase of 18% from revenue of $361 million in the first 9 months last year. Gross margin came in at 76% of revenue for the third quarter, down slightly from gross margin of 77% in the third quarter last year, but very consistent with the gross margins we've experienced since the completion of the GroundCloud acquisition earlier this year.

今年前 9 個月的營收為 4.25 億美元，比去年前 9 個月的營收 3.61 億美元成長了 18%。第三季毛利率佔營收的 76%，比去年第三季 77% 的毛利率略有下降，但與今年稍早完成 GroundCloud 收購以來我們所經歷的毛利率非常一致。

Operating expenses increased by approximately 19.5% in the third quarter over the same period last year, and this was heavily related to the cost impact from recent acquisitions, primarily the GroundCloud business, but also operating costs increased from some additional investments we made in labor and nonlabor costs as we managed the organic growth that we continue to see in our business. So as a result of both revenue growth and solid cost control balanced with targeted investments in our business to manage growth, we continue to see strong adjusted EBITDA growth of 16.5% to a record $63.5 million or 43.9% of revenue, up from $54.5 million or 44.9% of revenue in the third quarter last year.

第三季營運費用比去年同期成長了約19.5%，這與最近收購（主要是GroundCloud業務）的成本影響有很大關係，但營運成本也因我們在勞動力和技術方面進行的一些額外投資而增加。非勞動力成本，因為我們管理著我們業務中持續看到的有機增長。因此，由於營收成長和穩健的成本控制與我們的業務有針對性的投資來管理成長相平衡，我們繼續看到調整後的EBITDA 強勁成長16.5%，達到創紀錄的6,350 萬美元，佔營收的43.9 %，高於5,450 萬美元或占去年第三季營收的44.9%。

We should mention, as a reminder, that while adjusted EBITDA margins are down slightly from Q3 last year to the dilutive impact of recent acquisitions, we did see a sharp increase in our adjusted EBITDA ratio in Q3 over Q2 of this year, increasing from 42.3% of revenue in Q2 to 43.9% of revenue in Q3. This increase is a direct result of the continued operating leverage from organic growth as well as a steady improvement in the margins from our recent acquisitions. For the first 3 quarters of the year, adjusted EBITDA has increased 14% to $182 million from $160 million in the same 9-month period last year.

值得一提的是，雖然由於最近收購的攤薄影響，調整後的EBITDA 利潤率比去年第三季略有下降，但我們確實看到第三季調整後的EBITDA 比率較今年第二季大幅增加，從42.3 增加到佔第二季營收的百分比升至第三季營收的 43.9%。這一成長是有機成長帶來的持續營運槓桿以及我們最近收購的利潤率穩定提高的直接結果。今年前 3 季度，調整後 EBITDA 成長了 14%，從去年同期的 1.6 億美元增至 1.82 億美元。

Looking at the other GAAP line items on our income statement this quarter. Other charges increased to $9.7 million, up from only $200,000 in Q3 last year, and this increase was a result of 2 unique items. First, we accrued an additional $7.8 million in anticipated earn-out payments related to recent acquisitions as these businesses have performed better than our original expectations, and therefore, better than the estimates that were made at the time of the acquisitions. In addition, as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain an effective cost structure, we initiated a restructuring plan early in Q3 at a point of heightened macro uncertainty.

查看本季損益表中的其他 GAAP 項目。其他費用從去年第三季的 20 萬美元增加到 970 萬美元，這一增長是由於 2 個獨特項目造成的。首先，我們額外提列了 780 萬美元與最近收購相關的預期獲利付款，因為這些業務的表現優於我們最初的預期，因此也好於收購時的估計。此外，作為我們維持有效成本結構的持續努力的一部分，我們在第三季初在宏觀不確定性加劇時啟動了重組計劃。

The restructuring involved a reduction of just under 2% of our labor force and the closing in whole or in part of 4 of our offices as we continue to adopt a flexible work model for our employees and realize that we had certain facilities that were not going to be actively used by our employees going forward. We would estimate that the cost savings from these completed restructuring efforts would be in the area of $4 million annually, and the resulting charge to P&L in the third quarter was approximately $1 million.

此次重組涉及減少近 2% 的勞動力，並關閉全部或部分 4 個辦事處，因為我們繼續為員工採用靈活的工作模式，並意識到我們的某些設施無法使用。供我們的員工今後積極使用。我們估計，這些已完成的重組工作每年可節省 400 萬美元的成本，而第三季損益表的費用約為 100 萬美元。

As a result of the increased profits from the growth in the business offset by this increase in other charges, from a GAAP earnings perspective, net income came in at $26.6 million or $0.31 per diluted common share in the third quarter, very consistent with net income of $26.5 million or $0.31 per diluted common share in the third quarter last year. We should also note that the income tax expense for the third quarter came in at $8.2 million or 23.5% of pretax income, which is slightly lower than our blended statutory tax rate of 26.5%, mainly as a result of recognizing certain unrecorded tax benefits from past periods.

由於業務成長帶來的利潤增加被其他費用的增加所抵消，從 GAAP 收益的角度來看，第三季淨利潤為 2,660 萬美元，即每股稀釋普通股 0.31 美元，與淨利潤非常一致去年第三季每股稀釋普通股價值2,650 萬美元，即每股0.31 美元。我們還應該注意到，第三季的所得稅費用為 820 萬美元，佔稅前收入的 23.5%，略低於我們 26.5% 的混合法定稅率，主要是由於確認了某些未記錄的稅收優惠過去的時期。

Net income for the 9-month period year-to-date was $84.1 million or $0.97 per diluted common share compared to $72.5 million or $0.82 per diluted common share in the first 9 months last year, again, with the higher operating profits from our growing business being partially offset with the higher amount of other charges from the earn-out adjustments and the FY '24 restructuring plan.

今年迄今9 個月期間的淨利潤為8,410 萬美元，即每股稀釋普通股0.97 美元，而去年前9 個月的淨利潤為7,250 萬美元，即每股稀釋普通股0.82 美元，營業利潤因我們不斷增長而提高。盈利調整和 24 財年重組計劃產生的其他費用較高，部分抵消了該業務的影響。

With these solid operating results, strong AR collections and offset partially by the higher cash tax payments we incurred, cash flow generated from operations remain at $56.1 million or 88% of adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter, an increase of 10% compared to $50.9 million of cash flow from operations in the third quarter of last year. For the 9 months year-to-date, operating cash flow has been $157 million or 86% of adjusted EBITDA, up 11% from $142 million in the same 9-month period last year.

憑藉這些穩健的經營業績、強勁的應收帳款收款以及我們產生的較高現金稅款部分抵消，營運產生的現金流保持在5,610 萬美元，佔第三季度調整後EBITDA 的88%，與5,090 萬美元相比增加了10%去年第三季經營活動產生的現金流量。今年迄今的 9 個月中，營運現金流為 1.57 億美元，佔調整後 EBITDA 的 86%，比去年同期 9 個月的 1.42 億美元成長了 11%。

And we should mention that subject to unusual events and quarterly fluctuations, we expect to continue to see strong cash flow conversion and generally expect cash flow from operations to be between 80% and 90% of our adjusted EBITDA in the quarters ahead. As a reminder, the additional earn-out payments that we've expensed in other charges in the income statement these past few quarters will be one of those types of unusual events, as these amounts will show as a reduction to cash flow from operations in future quarters when these higher earn-out payments are made.

我們應該提到，受到異常事件和季度波動的影響，我們預計將繼續看到強勁的現金流轉換，並普遍預計未來幾季來自營運的現金流將佔調整後 EBITDA 的 80% 至 90%。提醒一下，過去幾季我們在損益表中計入其他費用的額外獲利付款將是此類異常事件之一，因為這些金額將顯示為營運現金流的減少未來幾季支付這些更高的收益付款時。

Overall, as Ed said, we are once again very pleased with our quarterly operating results in the quarter as strong organic growth and solid performance from our recent acquisitions resulted in strong growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. If we turn our attention to the balance sheet, our cash balances totaled $280 million at the end of October, up from approximately $227 million at the end of the second quarter in July.

總體而言，正如埃德所說，我們再次對本季度的季度營運業績感到非常滿意，因為強勁的有機增長和我們最近收購的穩健業績導致本季度收入和調整後 EBITDA 的強勁增長。如果我們將注意力轉向資產負債表，我們的現金餘額截至 10 月底總計為 2.8 億美元，高於 7 月第二季末的約 2.27 億美元。

This increase in cash is primarily related to the $56 million in cash flow from operations that we generated in the quarter. As a result, as Ed mentioned, we have $280 million in cash available to us as of October 31 as well as our unused $350 million credit facility available to deploy towards future acquisitions, consistent with our business plan.

現金的增加主要與我們本季產生的 5,600 萬美元營運現金流有關。因此，正如艾德所提到的，截至 10 月 31 日，我們擁有 2.8 億美元的可用現金，以及未使用的 3.5 億美元信貸額度，可用於未來的收購，這與我們的業務計劃一致。

As we look to the final quarter of fiscal 2024, we should note the following: after incurring approximately $4.8 million in capital additions for the first 9 months of the year, we expect to incur approximately $1 million to $2 million in additional capital expenditures in the fourth quarter of this year. At this point, we currently expect that in the fourth quarter, we'll use approximately $23.3 million of our cash to pay additional contingent consideration on 2 past acquisitions.

在展望2024 財年最後一個季度時，我們應該注意以下事項：在今年前9 個月增加了約480 萬美元的資本後，我們預計在2024 財年的最後一個季度將增加約100 萬至200 萬美元的額外資本支出。今年第四季。目前，我們預計在第四季度，我們將使用約 2,330 萬美元的現金來支付過去兩次收購的額外或有對價。

While this entire $23.3 million estimated contingent consideration to be paid is accrued for in our balance sheet, approximately $12.7 million of this balance relates to the portion of the earn-out arrangements accrued for at the time of the acquisition and will be reflected in cash flow from financing activities, while the remaining $10.6 million expected to be paid will be reflected in cash flow from operating activities as the financial results from these acquisitions have both been better than our initial expectations, and therefore, the earn-out payments are higher than our original estimates made at the time of the acquisitions.

雖然預計要支付的 2,330 萬美元或有對價已計入我們的資產負債表中，但該餘額中約 1,270 萬美元涉及收購時應計的盈利安排部分，並將反映在現金流量中預計支付的剩餘1,060 萬美元將反映在經營活動現金流量中，因為這些收購的財務業績都優於我們最初的預期，因此，獲利支付高於我們的預期。收購時做出的原始估計。

After incurring amortization costs of $45.4 million in the first 9 months of the year, we expect amortization expense will be approximately $14.7 million in the fourth quarter, with this figure being subject to adjustment for foreign exchange and future acquisitions. Our income tax rate for the first 9 months of the year came in at approximately 24.5% of pretax income. Looking ahead into the fourth quarter, we currently expect our overall tax rate will again come in below our blended statutory tax rate of 26.5%. And as a result, we'll experience a tax rate in the range of 23% to 25% of pretax income for the year.

在今年前 9 個月產生 4,540 萬美元的攤銷費用後，我們預計第四季度的攤銷費用約為 1,470 萬美元，這一數字可能會因外匯和未來收購而進行調整。今年前 9 個月我們的所得稅稅率約為稅前收入的 24.5%。展望第四季度，我們目前預計整體稅率將再次低於 26.5% 的混合法定稅率。因此，我們將面臨當年稅前收入 23% 至 25% 的稅率。

After incurring stock-based compensation of expense of $12.4 million in the first 9 months of the year, we currently expect stock compensation to be approximately $4.4 million in the fourth quarter, subject to any forfeitures of stock options or share units. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Ed, who will give you some closing comments as well as our baseline calibration for Q4.

在今年前 9 個月產生了 1,240 萬美元的基於股票的補償費用後，我們目前預計第四季度的股票補償約為 440 萬美元，前提是股票選擇權或股票單位被沒收。然後，我會將其轉回給 Ed，他將為您提供一些結束語以及我們對第四季度的基線校準。

Great. Thanks, Allan. So we're a month into Q4 and the end of our fiscal year. General areas of our business that benefit from end-of-year holiday sales such as e-commerce and truck deliveries will see an uptick in volumes, and other areas such as ocean transportation are at a seasonal low point as the inventories are already in store. Our forecasting and plans remain relatively cautious, given the general malaise in shipment volumes seen in the previous quarters this year, however, we're also mindful of the press reports with initial positive statistics on Black Friday sales volumes.

偉大的。謝謝，艾倫。第四季已經過去一個月，我們的財年也即將結束。我們受益於年末假期銷售的一般業務領域（例如電子商務和卡車運輸）的銷量將有所增加，而海運等其他領域則處於季節性低點，因為庫存已在庫中。鑑於今年前幾季的出貨量普遍低迷，我們的預測和計劃仍然相對謹慎，但是，我們也注意到媒體報道中黑色星期五銷量的初步積極統計數據。

We keep these things in mind as we set our calibration for the quarter. Our business is designed to be predictable and consistent. We believe that stability and reliability are valuable to our customers, employees and our broader stakeholders. To deliver this consistency, we continue to operate from the following principles. Our long-term plan is for our business to grow adjusted EBITDA 10% to 15% annually. We grow through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.

當我們設定季度校準時，我們會牢記這些事情。我們的業務旨在實現可預測且一致。我們相信穩定性和可靠性對於我們的客戶、員工和更廣泛的利害關係人來說很有價值。為了實現這種一致性，我們繼續遵循以下原則進行營運。我們的長期計劃是讓我們的業務調整後 EBITDA 每年成長 10% 至 15%。我們透過有機成長和收購相結合來實現成長。

We take a neutral party approach to building and operating solutions on our Global Logistics Network. We don't favor any particular party. We run our business for all supply chain participants, connecting shippers, carriers, logistics service providers and customs authorities. When we overperform, we try to reinvest that overperformance back into our business. We focus on recurring revenues and establish relationships with customers for life, and we thrive on operating a predictable business that allows us to forward visibility to our revenues and investment paybacks.

我們採取中立方的方式在我們的全球物流網路上建立和營運解決方案。我們不偏袒任何特定政黨。我們為所有供應鏈參與者開展業務，連接托運人、承運人、物流服務提供者和海關當局。當我們表現出色時，我們會嘗試將這種表現重新投資到我們的業務中。我們專注於經常性收入並與客戶建立終身關係，我們透過經營可預測的業務而蓬勃發展，這使我們能夠提高收入和投資回報的可見性。

In our Q3 report, we provided a comprehensive description of baseline revenues, baseline calibration and their limitations. As of November 1, 2023, using foreign exchange rates of $0.72 to the Canadian dollar, $1.06 to the euro and $1.21 to the pound, we estimate that our baseline revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 are approximately $127 million, and our baseline operating expenses are approximately $79 million. We consider this to be our baseline adjusted EBITDA calibration of approximately $48 million for the fourth quarter of 2024 or approximately 38% of our baseline revenues as at November 1, 2023.

在我們的第三季報告中，我們全面描述了基準收入、基準校準及其局限性。截至2023 年11 月1 日，使用加幣兌換0.72 美元、歐元兌換1.06 美元、英鎊兌換1.21 美元的匯率，我們估計2024 年第四季的基準收入約為1.27 億美元，我們的基準營運費用約為1.27 億美元。約 7,900 萬美元。我們認為這是我們 2024 年第四季約 4,800 萬美元的基準調整後 EBITDA 校準，約占我們截至 2023 年 11 月 1 日基準收入的 38%。

We continue to expect that we'll operate an adjusted EBITDA operating margin range of 40% to 45%. Our margin can vary in that range, given such things as foreign exchange movements and the impact of acquisitions as we integrate them into our business. We've got lots of exciting things planned for our business. It remains an uncertain broader economic and supply chain environment, but we believe our proven track record of execution, solid capital structure and customer focus will serve us well.

我們仍預期調整後的 EBITDA 營業利潤率將在 40% 至 45% 之間。考慮到外匯波動以及我們將收購整合到我們的業務中時的影響等因素，我們的利潤率可能會在這個範圍內變化。我們為我們的業務計劃了許多令人興奮的事情。更廣泛的經濟和供應鏈環境仍然充滿不確定性，但我們相信，我們良好的執行記錄、穩固的資本結構和以客戶為中心將為我們帶來良好的服務。

Thanks to everyone for joining us on the call today. As always, we're available to talk to you about our business in whatever manner is most convenient for you. And with that, operator, I'll now turn it over to you to manage the Q&A portion of the call. Thank you.

感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議。一如既往，我們可以以您最方便的方式與您討論我們的業務。話務員，我現在將把它交給您來管理通話的問答部分。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Matt Pfau from William Blair.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 William Blair 的 Matt Pfau。

Wanted to ask a question on competition and on the macro. So one of your public competitors had some notable struggles this past quarter, and there's another private competitor that went out of business. Just wondering if you're seeing some of the same headwinds that they're seeing and some of their struggles is having any impact on you competitively.

想問一個有關競爭和宏觀的問題。因此，您的一個公開競爭對手在上個季度遇到了一些顯著的困境，而另一個私人競爭對手則倒閉了。只是想知道您是否也遇到了與他們相同的逆風，以及他們的一些掙扎是否對您的競爭產生了影響。

Thanks, Matt. I mean, I think we saw some of the things that impacted them. We obviously fought our way through it and ended up with pretty good results. The 2 companies you're talking about may have been in a different position in that things went bad maybe with transaction volumes, and when the customers suffered as a result, and they didn't have any other products or services to make up for it.

謝謝，馬特。我的意思是，我認為我們看到了一些影響他們的事情。顯然，我們透過努力克服了困難，最終取得了不錯的成績。您所談論的兩家公司可能處於不同的境地，交易量可能會變得很糟糕，當客戶因此遭受損失時，他們沒有任何其他產品或服務來彌補。

We obviously were in a different situation and we're able to take advantage of that. And sometimes, competitors struggling end up being good news for you because customers turn elsewhere, and it also makes them potentially concerned about who they're doing business with and when you're a strong company like Descartes, that ends up playing in our favor.

顯然我們處於不同的情況，我們能夠利用這一點。有時，競爭對手的掙扎最終對您來說是個好消息，因為客戶轉向其他地方，這也使他們可能擔心與誰做生意，而當您是像笛卡爾這樣的強大公司時，這最終會對我們有利。

Got it. And then just on the services revenue that did tick down sequentially, was that driven by some of the headwinds on the transaction side that you cited?

知道了。然後，服務收入確實連續下降，這是由您提到的交易方面的一些不利因素推動的嗎？

I think so, yes. I mean, we had a very strong quarter but it probably would have been better if some of our customers' volumes were doing even better. The -- it wasn't a horrible quarter. I think people predicted it was going to be a lot worse than it was in terms of our customers' transportation volumes. And we have the benefit of continuing to sign up new customers in the face of that.

我想是的，是的。我的意思是，我們有一個非常強勁的季度，但如果我們的一些客戶的銷售做得更好，情況可能會更好。這並不是一個糟糕的季度。我認為人們預測客戶的運輸量會比實際情況糟糕得多。面對這種情況，我們的優勢是繼續吸引新客戶。

So we did all right in that period. Probably would have done even better if that part had gone well. And we had a bunch of other parts of our business that I mentioned on the call that were really doing well, so that kind of more than made up for it. So we're happy with the result under the circumstances, for sure.

所以我們在那段時間做得很好。如果那部分進展順利的話，可能會做得更好。我在電話中提到的我們業務的許多其他部分確實做得很好，所以這足以彌補這一點。因此，我們當然對這種情況下的結果感到滿意。

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Long from Stephens.

你的下一個問題來自史蒂芬斯的賈斯汀朗。

Ed, maybe building on that last question, could you share what your -- how your transportation volumes performed on a year-over-year basis in the quarter? And Allan, I heard your commentary around organic growth for the services revenue line, but do you have the estimate for all-in organic growth as well?

艾德，也許在最後一個問題的基礎上，您能否分享一下本季度您的運輸量同比表現如何？艾倫，我聽到了您對服務收入線有機增長的評論，但是您是否也有對整體有機增長的估計？

I don't know that I have the exact numbers, Allan, year-over-year, but if you could jump in.

艾倫，我不知道我是否有每年的確切數字，但如果你能插話的話。

Yes. So if we want to talk about organic growth numbers, we're just over 9% on the services side and just very, very similar to that overall in the business. There was certainly some slight negative impacts on FX that would have affected the question Matt just had with respect to our services revenue being down slightly quarter-on-quarter. That was -- they were up actually neutral with FX, but roughly 9% in both services revenue and total revenue for the quarter.

是的。因此，如果我們想談論有機成長數字，我們在服務方面的成長率剛剛超過 9%，並且與整個業務的成長非常非常相似。外匯肯定會受到一些輕微的負面影響，這可能會影響馬特剛剛提出的關於我們的服務收入季度環比略有下降的問題。也就是說，他們對外匯的成長實際上是中性的，但本季的服務收入和總收入大約增加了 9%。

Okay. And any sense on transactional volumes on a year-over-year basis, even if it's just kind of directionally? It sounds like maybe there was pressure year-over-year. Or any additional color you can share there?

好的。同比交易量有什麼意義，即使它只是某種方向性的？聽起來可能年復一年都有壓力。或者您可以在那裡分享任何其他顏色嗎？

Yes, there was definitely some pressure year-on-year. We certainly did better with our subscription services for software and databases. But as I've said a couple of times in the prepared comments, we kind of expected that. Our business is built to deal with those types of fluctuations.

是的，同比確實存在一些壓力。我們的軟體和資料庫訂閱服務確實做得更好。但正如我在準備好的評論中多次說過的那樣，我們有點預料到了這一點。我們的業務就是為了應對這些類型的波動而建立的。

Those are not new for us. We'll see those types of things happen from time to time. Quite honestly, we've probably seen weaker transactions in the last 12 months. But overall, what matters for us is the overall blended growth rate, and the business is built to grow, and the 9% overall is more of our focus.

這些對我們來說並不新鮮。我們會時不時地看到這類事情發生。老實說，過去 12 個月我們可能看到交易疲軟。但總的來說，對我們來說重要的是整體混合成長率，業務是為了成長而建立的，9%的整體成長是我們更關注的重點。

Got it. And I guess lastly, Ed, could you just talk about the acquisition pipeline? Curious what you're seeing today versus a quarter ago and your level of confidence that we can see capital deployment pick up the next couple of quarters or so.

知道了。我想最後，Ed，您能談談收購管道嗎？很好奇您今天所看到的情況與一個季度前相比，以及您對我們可以看到資本部署在未來幾季左右回升的信心程度。

Yes. Without getting into too much detail on it, we like the environment we're in right now. A couple of years ago, there were not many companies for sale and the ones that were, in our estimation, were oftentimes trying to charge too much. It made a difficult acquisition environment for us. Things are certainly softening from that perspective when creating opportunities for us to get more deals done in price ranges that we think are good value.

是的。無需過多討論，我們喜歡現在所處的環境。幾年前，可供出售的公司並不多，而且據我們估計，那些公司常常試圖收取過高的費用。這給我們帶來了一個困難的採購環境。從這個角度來看，當我們創造機會以我們認為物有所值的價格範圍完成更多交易時，情況肯定會有所緩和。

More companies are coming up for sale, and as a result and maybe in addition to, companies are coming up for sale with a more reasonable expectation on valuation, and that's creating an environment where we think we're in a very good position to get more deals done in the future.

越來越多的公司即將出售，因此，也許除此之外，即將出售的公司對估值有更合理的預期，這正在創造一個我們認為我們處於非常有利的位置的環境未來會達成更多交易。

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Chan from TD Cowen.

您的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Daniel Chan。

Maybe to follow on that last question. The cash balance continues to grow. You're now at about $280 million, and you do about $200 million of free cash flow a year, which is more than you've typically spent on acquisitions in prior years. So any other considerations for that capital, just given the strong cash balance and the strong cash flows? Or do you think you'll be able to deploy that towards acquisitions over the next few years?

也許可以繼續回答最後一個問題。現金餘額持續成長。您現在的資產約為 2.8 億美元，每年的自由現金流約為 2 億美元，這比您前幾年通常用於收購的支出還要多。那麼，考慮到強勁的現金餘額和強勁的現金流，該資本還有其他考慮因素嗎？或者您認為您能夠在未來幾年內將其用於收購嗎？

Listen, I mean, we're making more and more money every year and that's great. We only buy companies when we think it's a good deal. And if that means we have extra cash, then that means we have extra cash. We're not going to apologize for that. We absolutely think that the winner in our space is going to continue to be acquisitive, and we absolutely believe that there are many more companies that are acquisition candidates for us.

聽著，我的意思是，我們每年賺的錢越來越多，這很棒。我們只會在我們認為划算的時候購買公司。如果這意味著我們有額外的現金，那就意味著我們有額外的現金。我們不會為此道歉。我們絕對認為我們領域的贏家將繼續進行收購，我們絕對相信還有更多的公司是我們的收購候選人。

So while we talk about it at our Board level, we'll discuss every quarter, should we have a dividend? Should we somewhat give this money back to shareholders, share buyback, whatever? But at the moment and I think for the foreseeable future, we believe that, that money should go towards acquisitions. And it's not really going to harm us at the moment to have more cash sitting in the bank. It's actually a good thing.

因此，當我們在董事會層級討論這個問題時，我們每個季度都會討論，我們應該有股息嗎？我們是否應該將這筆錢還給股東，回購股票，等等？但目前，我認為在可預見的未來，我們認為這筆錢應該用於收購。目前在銀行存有更多現金並不會對我們造成真正的傷害。這其實是一件好事。

Our company continues to make more money. And as we look forward and say, "Hey, we think we're going to like this future acquisition environment." Go ahead, I think we'd be smart to hang on to it and be ready to act if a bunch of stuff comes up for sale at the same time. We certainly think we have the team to negotiate, purchase and integrate those types of companies when they come in, and we want to be ready when that happens. So that's why you see us holding on to our cash.

我們公司繼續賺更多的錢。當我們展望未來時說：“嘿，我們認為我們會喜歡這種未來的收購環境。”繼續吧，我認為我們應該明智地堅持下去，並準備好在一堆東西同時出售時採取行動。我們當然認為我們有團隊在這些類型的公司進來時進行談判、購買和整合，我們希望在這種情況發生時做好準備。這就是為什麼我們會持有現金。

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe another question on the macro environment. You talked about weaker volumes last quarter. Just wondering whether you saw that extend into the peak holiday shopping season over the last month. We've seen headlines at Black Friday, Cyber Monday volumes.

這很有意義。也許還有一個關於宏觀環境的問題。您談到上季銷售疲軟。只是想知道您是否看到這種情況延續到了上個月的假日購物旺季。我們已經看到了黑色星期五和網路星期一的頭條新聞。

Well, listen, we're not reporting on this month, but I have seen some of the transportation statistics unrelated to our transaction volumes, and I'd say they look good. And you can probably see some of that as you read the paper right now. Black Friday was a pretty good Black Friday is the reports I'm reading right now.

好吧，聽著，我們不會報告本月的情況，但我看到了一些與我們的交易量無關的交通統計數據，我想說它們看起來不錯。當您現在閱讀本文時，您可能會看到其中的一些內容。黑色星期五是一個相當不錯的黑色星期五，這是我現在正在閱讀的報告。

And when I look at -- and again, independent of our transaction lines, when I look at the transportation statistics that we would normally look at over the last month, they look at starting -- things certainly were starting to pick up in anticipation of Black Friday. So that's good news.

當我看時 - 再次，獨立於我們的交易線，當我看我們通常在上個月看的交通統計數據時，他們看開始 - 事情肯定開始好轉，預計黑色星期五。這是個好消息。

Your next question comes from the line of Scott Group from Wolfe Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Scott Group。

Ed, I just want to follow up on that last point, because I think we're seeing a little bit of better import activity, better air freight rates. You're saying you're not reporting on that. But is that sort of -- to the extent that you are seeing that, is that -- would that be reflected in your calibration?

艾德，我只想跟進最後一點，因為我認為我們看到進口活動有所改善，空運價格有所改善。你是說你沒有報道此事。但是，就你所看到的程度而言，這是否會反映在你的校準中？

Calibration was done at the first day of the quarter, so technically, no. And my comment about not reporting on it is just saying, "Hey, I'm reporting on through the end of the quarter, not the first month of the first quarter." And specifically to your question, our calibration this quarter was done as of the first day of the quarter.

校準是在季度的第一天完成的，所以從技術上講，沒有。我對不報告的評論只是說，“嘿，我要報告到季度末，而不是第一季的第一個月。”具體到你的問題，我們本季的校準是在本季的第一天完成的。

Okay, that makes sense. Okay. I wanted to get your perspective. A year ago, we were talking about just-in-time is becoming just-in-case. I'm wondering is, with much higher rates, are we just -- is that sort of done or are we back to just-in-time? And how does that -- is that a good thing or a bad thing?

好吧，這是有道理的。好的。我想聽聽你的觀點。一年前，我們談論的「及時生產」正在變成「以防萬一」。我想知道的是，隨著利率的提高，我們是不是已經完成了，還是回到了準時？這是好事還是壞事？

We'll probably -- I mean, it's a bit of a guess on my part. We're just getting some comments from customers about this, but I don't know this perfectly. But we always believe that just-in-time, now just-in-case, we always believe it would end up gravitating towards back just-in-time.

我們可能會——我的意思是，這只是我的猜測。我們剛剛收到客戶對此的一些評論，但我對此並不完全了解。但我們始終相信，及時，現在以防萬一，我們始終相信它最終會回到及時。

People forget about how bad it was 3 years ago when the ports were all backed up and then they start going, "Boy, I'm losing a lot of money and inventory carry costs have had all this extra stuff and now interest rates just went up significantly. And so now that's a lot of money and I should be more careful." And we always believed that it was going to drift towards back that.

人們忘記了三年前的情況有多糟糕，當時港口都被備份了，然後他們開始說：「天哪，我損失了很多錢，庫存持有成本已經有了所有這些額外的東西，現在利率就這樣了。”大幅上漲。所以現在這是很多錢，我應該更加小心。”我們一直相信它會回到那個方向。

And I'd say -- if I had to venture to guess, we're probably somewhere approaching back to just-in-time in a lot of cases because high interest rates and the warehouses are only so big and you can only hold so much inventory, and you've got to make good approximations about what customers are going to buy in stores and companies are always going to try and do that. And I think we're drifting back towards just-in-time for sure, in most cases.

我想說 - 如果我必須冒險猜測，在很多情況下我們可能正在接近準時制，因為高利率和倉庫只有這麼大，你只能持有這麼大庫存量很大，你必須對顧客將在商店購買什麼做出很好的估計，而公司總是會嘗試這樣做。我認為，在大多數情況下，我們肯定會回歸準時制。

Makes sense. And then just lastly, a nice step-up in the EBITDA margin. Did we see the full impact of some of the cost actions this quarter? Or do we see more of that show up in Q4, and so maybe we see another further step-up in the margin?

說得通。最後，EBITDA 利潤率也有了不錯的提升。我們是否看到本季一些成本行動的全面影響？或者我們是否會在第四季度看到更多這樣的情況，因此我們可能會看到利潤率進一步上升？

Yes, let me let Allan answer that more specifically.

是的，讓我讓艾倫更具體地回答這個問題。

Yes, sure. So we did initiate our restructuring plan earlier in the quarter. So for the most part, we've completed it, and the results are in the quarter. There will be a little bit of an impact coming through Q4, given that there will be a full quarter impact for all the changes. But for the most part, Q3 had most of it baked in, if that helps.

是的，當然。因此，我們確實在本季早些時候啟動了重組計劃。所以在很大程度上，我們已經完成了，結果將在本季公佈。鑑於所有變化都會對整個季度產生影響，第四季度將會產生一些影響。但在大多數情況下，第三季已經將大部分內容融入其中，如果這有幫助的話。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Robert Young from Canaccord Genuity.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Canaccord Genuity 的 Robert Young。

The first question was asking about the shutdown of a private competitor. Maybe just another question there. A lot of reports in the news suggested that they really struggled to find a strategic buyer, that there is not a lot of activity out there. And so like is there a big sea change or is there a bigger change in the number of buyers or the interest in the space that puts you in a better position competitively or...

第一個問題是關於關閉私人競爭對手的問題。也許只是另一個問題。新聞中的許多報導表明，他們確實很難找到策略買家，而且沒有太多活動。比方說，是否發生了巨大的變化，或者買家數量或對該領域的興趣是否發生了更大的變化，使您在競爭中處於更好的位置，或者...

While I knew who they were talking about when they asked the question a couple of questions ago, and I didn't bother disagreeing with the question, I don't know that we're the technically competitor of the guy that he was talking about going out of the business. They're more of a freight broker. They had a business that was an electronic freight brokerage, and that's not something we would buy. That's a customer of ours. They were a small customer of ours.

雖然我知道他們在幾個問題前問這個問題時在談論誰，而且我也懶得不同意這個問題，但我不知道我們是他所談論的那個人的技術競爭對手退出該行業。他們更像是貨運經紀人。他們有一家電子貨運經紀公司，這不是我們會買的東西。那是我們的一個客戶。他們是我們的一個小客戶。

And furthermore, when I -- this has happened, like -- I've watched this movie like 30 times in my life, where a company comes in that does the same thing as everybody else in an industry and says, "I'm going to be the automated guy that does that." And every time I hear that, I'd go, that's a misnomer. You're trying to pretend like you're a technology company, when in this case, you're a freight broker. And you're saying that the reason that we should invest in your freight brokerage is because you're going to be more automated than everyone else.

此外，當我——這件事發生了，就像——我一生中看過這部電影大約 30 次，一家公司進來，和行業中的其他人做同樣的事情，並說：“我是將成為做到這一點的自動化人員。”每次我聽到這個，我都會說，這是用詞不當。您試圖假裝自己是一家科技公司，但在本例中，您是一名貨運經紀人。您說我們應該投資您的貨運經紀業務的原因是因為您將比其他人更自動化。

And I always think to myself, even if that creates an advantage for you for some period of time, it's not going to last long because your competitors are going to buy automation from people like us that provide automation in this industry. And that advantage will evaporate in short order, and you'll be back to being a freight broker with no significant advantage over anyone else. I think that's what happened here.

我總是對自己說，即使這在一段時間內為你創造了優勢，它也不會持續很長時間，因為你的競爭對手將從像我們這樣在這個行業提供自動化的人那裡購買自動化。這種優勢很快就會消失，你將重新成為貨運經紀人，與其他人相比沒有明顯的優勢。我想這就是這裡發生的事情。

I think in addition to that, because they raised a lot of money, they dumped a lot of money into becoming an automated freight broker. And as a result, they had a big burn that was hard to overcome when things went back to normal. And as a result, they went out of business. And we didn't even look. That's not something we would buy. And that's maybe one of our competitors -- sorry, one of our customers would buy. And they didn't.

我認為除此之外，因為他們籌集了很多錢，所以他們投入了大量資金成為自動化貨運經紀人。結果，當一切恢復正常時，他們感到很難克服。結果，他們倒閉了。我們甚至沒有看。那不是我們會買的東西。那可能是我們的競爭對手之一——抱歉，我們的一位客戶會購買。但他們沒有。

I think the competitors probably thought, "I'll just steal those customers from them, and that will be the end of it." That'd be my guess as to what happened there. But that -- for us, that business, we were just looking at from afar. They were some minor customer of ours. We were aware of what's going on but not particularly interested in any of the assets.

我認為競爭對手可能會想：“我只要從他們那裡搶走這些客戶，事情就到此為止了。”這是我對那裡發生的事情的猜測。但對我們來說，這項業務，我們只是遠遠地看著。他們是我們的一些小客戶。我們知道正在發生的事情，但對任何資產都不是特別感興趣。

Okay. Second question for me would be about, I think on the call, you've been talking about maybe offsetting weaker transaction volumes than you expected with maybe better subscription side. And so I was curious, is that consolidation? Is there any other factor there maybe to call out? Are customers...

好的。對我來說，第二個問題是，我認為在電話會議上，您一直在談論也許可以透過更好的訂閱方面來抵消比您預期的交易量疲軟的情況。所以我很好奇，這是整合嗎？還有其他因素可能需要注意嗎？顧客是否...

No. I mean -- no. Listen, we have a bunch of areas in our business that are booming. We have transaction volumes that are stuffed in like a little over 30% of our business that have always and will always fluctuate up and down a little bit. Every once in a while, you've seen fluctuate down a lot, like in '08. But even that a lot is 8%. That was -- they were down in all of '08, 8%. And I think, geez, why is that? Because most of the stuff that we use still has to ship.

不，我的意思是──不。聽著，我們的業務有很多領域正在蓬勃發展。我們的交易量占我們業務的 30% 多一點，而且始終會略有波動。每隔一段時間，你會看到價格大幅波動，例如 08 年。但即便如此，也有 8%。也就是說，他們在 08 年全年下降了 8%。我想，天啊，這是為什麼呢？因為我們使用的東西大部分仍然需要運送。

And maybe in good times, we're all buying lobster, and in bad times, we're all buying chicken, but it's the same shipping volume. One costs a lot more than the other. And maybe we don't buy both (inaudible) for a couple of years, but most of the stuff that we need to live and run our households still gets shipped, and we get that shipping volume. So even in the worst of times, an 8% down for the worst it's ever going to get is not that much.

也許在好的時候，我們都買龍蝦，在不好的時候，我們都買雞肉，但運送量是一樣的。其中一個的成本比另一個高很多。也許我們在幾年內不會同時購買兩者（聽不清楚），但我們生活和經營家庭所需的大部分東西仍然會被運送，並且我們得到了這樣的運送量。因此，即使在最糟糕的情況下，最壞情況下 8% 的降價也並不算多。

And these variations in our business happen from time to time. Guys like us need to be prepared for it. And fortunately for us, we have a broad enough business where we have a bunch of other things that are really going great so that when the transportation volumes are a little weak like they were in the last 6, 8 months, while they were recovering but not as strong as we'd like to see them, our business continues to perform well through that. And I think that's a great sign of a resilient business, that -- something like volumes go down, and we -- our answer to that is nothing to see here. We continue to do well.

我們業務中的這些變化時常發生。像我們這樣的人需要為此做好準備。對我們來說幸運的是，我們擁有足夠廣泛的業務，我們還有很多其他進展順利的事情，因此，當運輸量像過去 6、8 個月那樣有點疲軟時，雖然它們正在恢復，但雖然沒有我們希望看到的那麼強大，但我們的業務仍然表現良好。我認為這是業務彈性的一個很好的跡象，例如銷量下降，而我們對此的答案在這裡看不到。我們繼續做得很好。

There are no further questions at this time. Please continue.

目前沒有其他問題。請繼續。

All right. Great. Thanks, everyone, for your time. We look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks and months and reporting back to you next quarter with the Q4 results. Have a great day.

好的。偉大的。謝謝大家抽出時間。我們期待在未來幾週和幾個月內見到您，並在下個季度向您報告第四季度的業績。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。