J B Hunt Transport Services Inc (JBHT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Krista, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the J.B. Hunt Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

午安.我叫克里斯塔，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。此時此刻，我歡迎大家參加 J.B. Hunt 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Delco, Senior Vice President of Finance. Brad, you may begin your conference.

（操作員指示）我現在想將會議轉交給財務資深副總裁 Brad Delco。布拉德，你可以開始你的會議了。

Good afternoon. Before I introduce the speakers, I would like to provide some disclosures regarding forward-looking statements. This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on J.B. Hunt's current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results to be materially different from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

午安.在介紹演講者之前，我想先揭露一些有關前瞻性陳述的資訊。本次電話會議可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。諸如期望、預計、打算、估計或類似表達等詞語旨在識別這些前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是基於 J.B. Hunt 目前的計劃和預期，涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致未來的活動和結果與前瞻性陳述中所述的存在重大差異。

For more information regarding risk factors, please refer to J.B. Hunt's annual report on Form 10-K and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

有關風險因素的更多信息，請參閱 J.B. Hunt 的 10-K 表年度報告以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他報告和文件。

Now I would like to introduce the speakers on today's call. This afternoon, I'm joined by our CEO, John Roberts; our President, Shelley Simpson; our CFO, John Kuhlow; Nick Hobbs, our COO and President of Contract Services; Darren Field, President of Intermodal; and Brad Hicks, President of Highway Services and EVP of People. I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. John Roberts, for some opening comments. John?

現在我想介紹一下今天電話會議的講者。今天下午，我們的執行長約翰羅伯茨 (John Roberts) 也加入了我的行列。我們的雪萊辛普森總統；我們的財務長約翰·庫洛； Nick Hobbs，我們的營運長兼合約服務總裁；達倫‧菲爾德 (Darren Field)，聯運總裁；布拉德希克斯（Brad Hicks），公路服務總裁兼人力執行副總裁。現在我想將電話轉給我們的執行長約翰·羅伯茨先生，請他發表一些開場白。約翰？

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon. I would like to hit on a couple of topics before I turn it over to our team to discuss our results and how we are investing and managing the business. We remain long-term focused, and we'll continue to do so while being disciplined in our approach. I'm a believer in taking the bag with the good and the good with the bad, so let's start with the bad as well as the obvious. On the topic of insurance, we have been routinely covering with you the inflationary cost headwinds we faced as a company as well as an industry in the areas of professional driver and non-driver wages, health care benefits and equipment cost. However, as an industry, we are also seeing unprecedented pressure in the area of claims, cost or settlements. As you saw in our release, we incurred $53 million of additional costs in the quarter largely related to higher claims costs and exceeding cover limits in certain insurance layers.

謝謝你，布拉德，下午好。在將其交給我們的團隊討論我們的結果以及我們如何投資和管理業務之前，我想先談幾個主題。我們仍然著眼於長期，並將繼續這樣做，同時嚴格遵守我們的方法。我相信把好的東西都放進袋子裡，把壞的東西放進袋子裡，所以讓我們從壞的和明顯的開始。關於保險主題，我們經常向您介紹我們作為一家公司以及一個行業在專業司機和非司機工資、醫療保健福利和設備成本方面面臨的通貨膨脹成本阻力。然而，作為一個產業，我們在索賠、成本或和解方面也面臨前所未有的壓力。正如您在我們的新聞稿中看到的，我們在本季度產生了 5300 萬美元的額外成本，主要與索賠成本增加和某些保險層的承保限額超出有關。

And this, despite 2023 being the company's best performance in history on safety, measured by having our lowest DOT preventable accidents per million miles. We remain one of the safest carriers in the industry, yet our insurance rates continue to increase as the industry experiences higher verdicts and as a result, higher litigation settlements. Jury verdicts in trucking cases where the verdicts exceeds $1 million have seen an 867% increase in the average size of verdicts from 2010 to 2018. This is according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal reform.

儘管 2023 年是該公司歷史上最好的安全表現（以每百萬英里 DOT 可預防事故數最低來衡量）。我們仍然是業內最安全的承運人之一，但隨著行業判決的增加以及訴訟和解額的增加，我們的保險費率繼續上漲。根據美國商會法律改革研究所的數據，從 2010 年到 2018 年，陪審團對金額超過 100 萬美元的卡車運輸案件的平均判決金額增加了 867%。

Given that the majority of motor carriers in the industry carry only $1 million in coverage just above the legal minimum of $750,000 in coverage. It's the larger carriers who bear the broad or disproportionate share of the escalating insurance and claims cost. And ultimately, these inflationary costs get passed on to customers and consumers. As you've heard from us repeatedly, we are continuously focused on our safety performance, and you've heard updates from Nick on our latest investments in this area. Our intense focus on safety and our investments in the latest safety technology and compliant equipment helps to protect our drivers, the motoring public, the environment, our customers and your investments. We remain steadfast and committed to the safety of our people and the motoring public, and we'll continue to invest in the latest technologies and training to support these efforts.

鑑於該行業大多數汽車承運人的承保額僅為 100 萬美元，略高於法定最低承保額 75 萬美元。較大的承運人承擔了不斷上漲的保險和索賠費用的大部分或不成比例的份額。最終，這些通貨膨脹成本會轉嫁給客戶和消費者。正如您多次從我們那裡聽到的那樣，我們不斷關注我們的安全績效，並且您也從尼克那裡聽到了有關我們在該領域最新投資的最新消息。我們對安全的高度關注以及對最新安全技術和合規設備的投資有助於保護我們的駕駛員、駕駛大眾、環境、我們的客戶和您的投資。我們堅定不移地致力於保護我們的人民和駕駛大眾的安全，我們將繼續投資最新的技術和培訓來支持這些努力。

On the freight environment, we have turned the page on 2023. Goodbye and Good Riddance as you are aware, 2023 presented many challenges, but I am very proud of our team and their perseverance and how they responded to these challenges. The experience of our leaders and the investments made during this downturn, I am confident will drive long-term value for the company. While the new year has begun and the calendar has flipped to another pace, not much has changed in regard to the freight environment. While we see opportunities across all of our business, it's good work is needed in the areas of revenue quality, controlling cost and execution to earn an appropriate return while delivering value to our customers. We remain committed to our focus on return on invested capital and managing for the long term, but the freight environment remains in a challenged state.

在貨運環境方面，我們已經在2023 年翻開了新的一頁。再見，再見，如您所知，2023 年帶來了許多挑戰，但我為我們的團隊、他們的毅力以及他們如何應對這些挑戰感到非常自豪。我相信，我們領導人的經驗以及在這次低迷時期所做的投資將推動公司的長期價值。儘管新的一年已經開始，日曆也轉向另一個節奏，但貨運環境並沒有太大變化。雖然我們在所有業務中都看到了機遇，但在收入品質、控製成本和執行方面還需要做好工作，以便在為客戶提供價值的同時獲得適當的回報。我們仍然致力於專注於投資資本回報和長期管理，但貨運環境仍面臨挑戰。

With all of that out of the way, I am truly encouraged by our team's collective efforts and the opportunities presented across all of our businesses, and for our relative performance in this market through 2023. And Intermodal is seeing some momentum on the volume side of the last few quarters in our work with BNSF and our other rail providers presents opportunities for growth in our future. Dedicated continues to be a steady performer in a longer Final Mile, both had record years in segment operating income performance.

完成所有這些後，我對我們團隊的集體努力、我們所有業務中提供的機會以及到 2023 年我們在這個市場上的相對錶現感到由衷的鼓舞。多式聯運在運輸量方面看到了一些勢頭。過去幾季我們與BNSF 和其他鐵路供應商的合作為我們未來的成長提供了機會。 Dedicated 在更長的「最後一哩路」中繼續保持穩定的表現，兩家公司的分部營業收入表現均創歷史新高。

And while ICS and JBT has faced the brunt of the market challenges, we still see great opportunities to scale our investments in technology to drive efficiency in our customer supply chain in both our brokerage and power-only offerings. Now I'd like to turn the call over to our President, Shelley Simpson. Shelley?

儘管 ICS 和 JBT 面臨市場挑戰的衝擊，但我們仍然看到了擴大技術投資的巨大機會，以提高經紀和純電力產品中客戶供應鏈的效率。現在我想將電話轉給我們的總統雪萊辛普森。雪萊？

Thank you, John, and good afternoon. As we've navigated through 2023, we remain committed to our strategic areas of focus, including investing in our people, technology and capacity. Our people have and always will come first, and I am proud of the commitment to our people while continuing to invest in capacity for our network, as we prepare to grow with our customers to meet their demands over the years ahead. The experience and talents of our people and our capacity to deliver are connected and enhance biotechnology investments, which combined together are what allow us to deliver exceptional value for our customers.

謝謝你，約翰，下午好。展望 2023 年，我們仍然致力於我們的策略重點領域，包括對人員、技術和能力的投資。我們的員工始終是第一位的，我為我們對員工的承諾感到自豪，同時繼續投資於我們的網路容量，因為我們準備與客戶一起成長，以滿足他們在未來幾年的需求。我們員工的經驗和才能以及我們的交付能力相互關聯並增強了生物技術投資，這些投資結合在一起使我們能夠為客戶提供卓越的價值。

As we have discussed the past couple of quarters, and as John discussed, we remain in a challenging environment, but we continue to see some signs of improvement, especially related to intermodal volumes. Having said that, I think it's important to reiterate that volume is historically a leading indicator, while price is typically a lagging indicator with uncertainty around the timing of any potential inflection. Going forward, our focus remains on how we deliver value for and grow with our customers over the long term by finding ways to improve efficiency and drive waste out of the supply chain. As we look to 2024 and the uncertain market dynamics, our focus as an organization has not changed. We continue to manage our business to put us in the best position for long-term growth. While we are long-term focused we are not satisfied with the current results in our business, especially the return performance across our business segments.

正如我們在過去幾個季度所討論的，以及約翰所討論的，我們仍然處於一個充滿挑戰的環境中，但我們繼續看到一些改善的跡象，特別是與多式聯運量相關的跡象。話雖如此，我認為有必要重申，成交量歷來是領先指標，而價格通常是滯後指標，任何潛在拐點的時間都存在不確定性。展望未來，我們的重點仍然是如何透過尋找提高效率和消除供應鏈浪費的方法，為客戶提供長期價值並與客戶共同成長。當我們展望 2024 年和不確定的市場動態時，我們作為一個組織的重點並沒有改變。我們繼續管理我們的業務，使我們處於長期成長的最佳位置。雖然我們著眼於長期，但我們對目前的業務成果並不滿意，尤其是各個業務部門的回報表現。

Intermodal has seen positive volume growth, but the impact of pricing during the last bid season will be with us through at least the first half of this year. Dedicated margins were resilient in 2023, but the impact of truck count losses and lack of fleet growth will make top and bottom line growth more challenging this year. Final Mile is holding up well despite tepid demand in our end markets. Our brokerage and power-only businesses are under significant pressure on both volume and price and continue to fill the brunt of the freight market as evidenced by the performance.

多式聯運的運量出現了積極增長，但上一個投標季節定價的影響將至少持續到今年上半年。 2023 年專用利潤率具有彈性，但卡車數量損失和車隊成長不足的影響將使今年的營收和利潤成長更具挑戰性。儘管終端市場需求不溫不火，「最後一哩路」仍保持良好動能。我們的經紀和純電力業務在數量和價格上都面臨著巨大的壓力，並繼續佔據貨運市場的主導地位，這一點從業績就可以看出。

We are focused on controlling well reaching control and remaining flexible to deliver the best value for our customers. This is where our go-to-market strategy and mode in different service offerings can help customers lower costs. We can save customers money by converting over-the-road shipments to intermodal, which is cheaper and less carbon intensive. We can create the most efficient dedicated fleets or leverage our technology through our J.B. Hunt 360 platform to source the most efficient capacity to drive value and differentiate the end experience for our customers' customer in our Final Mile network.

我們專注於控制並保持靈活性，為客戶提供最佳價值。這就是我們在不同服務產品中的進入市場策略和模式可以幫助客戶降低成本的地方。我們可以透過將陸路運輸轉變為聯運方式來為客戶節省資金，這種方式更便宜且碳密集度較低。我們可以創建最高效的專用車隊，或透過我們的J.B. Hunt 360 平台利用我們的技術來獲取最高效的運力，以推動價值並在我們的「最後一哩路」網路中為客戶的客戶提供差異化的最終體驗。

In closing, I'd like to highlight our areas of strategic focus for 2024. First, we are focused on operational excellence to deliver exceptional value to our customers. While service levels are strong, we believe consistent and quality service will further differentiate us to peers and support our ability to win market share at acceptable returns. Second, we will continue to scale our long-term investments in our people, technology and capacity. Business is something new for us, and our commitment to investment in these 3 areas further position us for long-term growth with our customers as the market recovers. And third, we want to remain focused on driving long-term compounding returns for our shareholders. We operate in a cyclical market with ups and downs, but over the long term, we believe our mode in different approach offers customers the most options to deliver the greatest value and solve for their needs, ultimately supporting our vision to create the most efficient transportation network in North America. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, John Kuhlow. John?

最後，我想強調我們 2024 年的策略重點領域。首先，我們專注於卓越運營，為客戶提供卓越的價值。雖然服務水準很高，但我們相信一致和優質的服務將進一步使我們在同行中脫穎而出，並支持我們以可接受的回報贏得市場份額的能力。其次，我們將持續擴大對人員、技術和產能的長期投資。業務對我們來說是新事物，我們對這三個領域的投資承諾進一步使我們能夠隨著市場復甦與客戶一起實現長期成長。第三，我們希望繼續專注於為股東帶來長期複合回報。我們在一個有起有落的周期性市場中運營，但從長遠來看，我們相信我們不同方法的模式為客戶提供了最多的選擇，以提供最大的價值並解決他們的需求，最終支持我們創造最高效的運輸的願景網絡遍布北美。說到這裡，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長約翰·庫洛 (John Kuhlow)。約翰？

Thank you, Shelley, and good afternoon, everyone. My comments will cover a high-level review of the quarter and fiscal year, and will include more color on the insurance expense impact on the quarter, as well as provide an update on our capital plan for 2024. As a general overview, outside of intermodal and to a lesser extent, Final Mile, we didn't see many signs of the peak season in the quarter. Starting with our fourth quarter results.

謝謝你，雪萊，大家午安。我的評論將涵蓋對本季度和財年的高層審查，並將包括更多關於本季度保險費用影響的內容，以及提供我們 2024 年資本計劃的最新信息。在多式聯運和最後一英里方面，我們在本季度沒有看到太多旺季的跡象。從我們第四季的業績開始。

On a consolidated GAAP basis compared to last year, revenue declined 9%. Operating income declined 28% and diluted earnings per share decreased 23%. The the declines were primarily driven by lower freight volumes in ore yields combined with inflationary cost pressures. Fourth quarter results include a $53 million charge or $0.38 per diluted share related to higher insurance and claims expense primarily related to negative developments of claims and exceeding coverage limits in certain insurance layers. This charge is similar to a charge we incurred in the fourth quarter last year as certain claims from prior year incidents continue to settle at much higher amounts than we have historically experienced.

與去年相比，根據綜合公認會計準則計算，收入下降了 9%。營業收入下降 28%，稀釋後每股收益下降 23%。下降的主要原因是礦石產量貨運量下降以及通膨成本壓力。第四季業績包括與較高的保險和索賠費用相關的 5,300 萬美元費用或稀釋後每股 0.38 美元，這主要與索賠的負面發展和超出某些保險層的承保限額有關。該費用與我們去年第四季產生的費用類似，因為上一年事件的某些索賠金額繼續以遠高於我們歷史經驗的金額結算。

For the full year 2023, on a consolidated GAAP basis, revenue declined 13%, operating income declined 25% and diluted earnings per share decreased 24%. These full year results include the impact of the insurance charge I outlined previously. Looking to 2024, we expect inflationary cost pressures to continue in the areas of insurance premiums, capital and people costs. Part of the increase in insurance relates to increases in underlying premiums, largely due to market conditions, but also to provide greater coverage across the businesses. We are focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet to provide us with ample liquidity to deploy capital as needed to drive long-term value for our shareholders. We have navigated this challenging freight environment while remaining conservatively leveraged below our target of 1x debt to trailing 12 months EBITDA and maintain flexibility with our credit facility that has ample borrowing capacity if needed.

2023 年全年，以綜合公認會計準則計算，收入下降 13%，營業收入下降 25%，攤薄每股收益下降 24%。這些全年業績包括我之前概述的保險費用的影響。展望2024年，我們預期保費、資本和人力成本領域的通膨成本壓力將持續。保險費用的增加部分與基礎保費的增加有關，這主要是由於市場狀況，但也是為了提供更大的覆蓋範圍。我們致力於維持強勁的資產負債表，為我們提供充足的流動性，以便根據需要部署資本，從而為股東帶來長期價值。我們在應對這一充滿挑戰的貨運環境的同時，保持保守的槓桿水平，低於過去12 個月EBITDA 1 倍債務的目標，並透過我們的信貸安排保持靈活性，在需要時擁有充足的借貸能力。

Looking to 2024, we are planning for net capital expenditures between $800 million and $1 billion. Going a level deeper, our 2024 capital plan assumes $250 million to $300 million for new power equipment, primarily in Intermodal and Dedicated and $250 million to $300 million for new trailing equipment, which includes containers, chassis and trailers.

展望 2024 年，我們計劃淨資本支出在 8 億至 10 億美元之間。更深入地說，我們的2024 年資本計畫假設為新動力設備投入2.5 億至3 億美元，主要用於多式聯運和專用設備，為新拖運設備（包括貨櫃、底盤和拖車）投入2.5 億至3 億美元。

We also expect to deploy $300 million to $350 million for real estate and other investments, including technology. In addition, our capital allocation plan in 2024 contemplates the continued support of our dividend, and we expect to take advantage of opportunities in the market to repurchase shares when they present themselves, all while maintaining our leverage ratio around 1x EBITDA. This concludes my remarks, and I'll now turn it over to Nick.

我們也預計部署 3 億至 3.5 億美元用於房地產和其他投資，包括科技。此外，我們2024年的資本配置計畫考慮了股利的持續支持，我們預計將利用市場機會回購股票，同時將槓桿率維持在1倍EBITDA左右。我的演講到此結束，現在我將其交給尼克。

Thanks, John, and good afternoon. I'll provide an update on our Dedicated and Final Mile businesses and give an update on our areas of focus across our operations. I'll start with Dedicated. During the fourth quarter, I am pleased with the strength and resiliency of our results despite the approximately $20 million of insurance-related expense incurred in the segment. Even with the challenging freight environment in 2023, our Dedicated business had a record year in both revenue and operating income. Demand for professional outsourced private fleet solutions has held up well, and we sold approximately 300 trucks of new deals during the fourth quarter, bringing our full year sales number to approximately 1,150 trucks. Our pipeline remains strong, but we do have some visibility into fleet losses and/or downsizes throughout '24, and are working hard to backfill these by executing on that pipeline. Importantly, we are remaining disciplined in pricing new opportunities to ensure we maintain our required rates of return. While 2023 was a challenging year, from a fleet growth perspective, I want to put some context around the work we have done to improve the overall strength and durability of our business. While we have experienced downsizing in a lot of our fleet, we even lost a handful of accounts over the last year, the percent of portfolio that churned in 2023 was about half of what we saw in 2009 during the Great Recession.

謝謝，約翰，下午好。我將提供有關我們的專用和最後一英里業務的最新信息，以及我們整個運營重點領域的最新信息。我將從專用開始。在第四季度，儘管該部門產生了約 2000 萬美元的保險相關費用，但我對我們業績的強勁和彈性感到滿意。儘管 2023 年貨運環境充滿挑戰，我們的專用業務在收入和營業收入方面仍創下了創紀錄的成績。對專業外包私人車隊解決方案的需求保持良好，我們在第四季度銷售了約 300 輛新交易卡車，使我們的全年銷售量達到約 1,150 輛卡車。我們的管道仍然強勁，但我們確實對整個 24 年的機隊損失和/或規模縮小有一定的了解，並且正在努力透過在該管道上執行來填補這些問題。重要的是，我們在為新機會定價時保持紀律，以確保維持所需的回報率。雖然 2023 年是充滿挑戰的一年，但從機隊成長的角度來看，我想介紹一下我們為提高業務的整體實力和耐用性所做的工作。雖然我們的許多機隊都經歷了裁員，甚至在去年失去了一些帳戶，但 2023 年投資組合的流失百分比約為 2009 年大衰退期間的一半。

Our focus on private fleets and our customer value delivery process, CVD that was established from our experience during that time, put us up for better performance during this downturn. As we look to 2024, our strategic focus includes continuing to scale the business, create value for customers and to leverage our density to help offset inflationary cost pressures all while executing on behalf of our customers in the safest manner possible. Moving to Final Mile. We have made good progress on improving the revenue quality of our portfolio and our strong service metrics highlight the value we create for and on behalf of our customers. Our year-over-year change in profitability continues to outpace the change in revenue despite incurring $3 million and additional insurance related expense in the quarter. Demand for big and bulky products overall remains muted, particularly in furniture, but we did see a seasonal lift in demand for exercise equipment around the holidays. Our focus in this business remains on providing the highest quality service for the delivery of big and bulky items into the homes of our customers' customer.

我們對私人車隊的關注以及我們的客戶價值交付流程（CVD）是根據我們在那段時間的經驗而建立的，使我們能夠在這次經濟低迷時期取得更好的業績。展望 2024 年，我們的策略重點包括持續擴大業務規模、為客戶創造價值，並利用我們的密度來幫助抵銷通膨成本壓力，同時以盡可能安全的方式代表客戶執行任務。轉向最後一英里。我們在提高投資組合的收入品質方面取得了良好進展，我們強大的服務指標凸顯了我們為客戶和代表客戶創造的價值。儘管本季度產生了 300 萬美元和額外的保險相關費用，但我們的盈利能力同比變化繼續超過收入變化。總體而言，對大型產品的需求仍然疲軟，尤其是家具，但我們確實看到假期前後對運動器材的需求出現季節性增長。我們在這項業務中的重點仍然是提供最優質的服務，將大型物品運送到客戶的客戶家中。

This service-oriented focus resonates well in the market, and we are seeing new brands engaging in discussions with our team. As we move into 2024, we're focused on growing and scaling the business and building on the solid foundation that we have. We will also remain disciplined on revenue quality while focusing on operational excellence and execution for our customers and their customers in a safe, secure manner. Similar to last quarter, I will close with some comments on safety and our equipment, aligning with our company foundation of taking care of our people, but also the motoring public, we want to continue to invest in employee training and new equipment and technologies to enhance our safety performance. We are over 60% complete with rolling out inward-facing cameras in our fleet with the goal of being 100% complete by the end of the third quarter.

這種以服務為導向的重點在市場上引起了良好的反響，我們看到新品牌正在與我們的團隊進行討論。進入 2024 年，我們將專注於發展和擴大業務，並在現有的堅實基礎上繼續發展。我們也將繼續嚴格遵守收入質量，同時專注於以安全可靠的方式為我們的客戶及其客戶提供卓越的營運和執行。與上個季度類似，我將以一些關於安全和我們的設備的評論作為結束語，這與我們公司照顧員工以及駕駛大眾的基礎相一致，我們希望繼續投資於員工培訓以及新設備和技術，以提高我們的安全績效。我們在機群中推出內向攝影機的工作已完成 60% 以上，目標是在第三季末完成 100%。

As a company, we had our best safety performance in our history in 2023, measured by having our lowest DOT preventable accidents per million miles. As you have heard, the cost of claims continues to move up exponentially. So we continue our efforts to find new innovative ways to enhance our safety performance and further mitigate risk where possible. Lastly, on equipment, we have cleaned out our older equipment and feel our fleet is refreshed and in good position heading into 2024. You heard John Kuhlow give you a range on CapEx, which reflects our better position on equipment age. This concludes my remarks I would like to now turn it over to Darren.

作為一家公司，我們在 2023 年取得了歷史上最好的安全績效，衡量標準是每百萬英里 DOT 可預防事故數量最低。正如您所聽說的，索賠成本繼續呈指數級上升。因此，我們繼續努力尋找新的創新方法來提高我們的安全績效並盡可能進一步降低風險。最後，在設備方面，我們已經清理了舊設備，感覺我們的機隊已煥然一新，並且在進入2024 年時處於良好狀態。您聽說John Kuhlow 給了您一個資本支出範圍，這反映了我們在設備年齡方面的較好地位。我的演講到此結束，我現在想將其交給達倫。

Thank you, Nick, and thank you to everyone for joining us this afternoon on the call. I'll review the performance of the Intermodal business during the quarter, give an update on the market and service performance and highlight the continued opportunity we have to deliver value for our customers and all our stakeholders. I'll start with Intermodal's preference. As you heard, we remain in a challenging freight environment but we have been seeing improving trends in Intermodal since the spring, which continued as evidenced by our 6% increase in volume for the quarter. In fact, we have seen an improvement in our year-over-year monthly volume trends since April or for 9 consecutive months. By month, in the fourth quarter, our volumes were up 6% in October, 6% in November and up 8% in December. During the quarter, we saw a peak season in Intermodal That neither we or our customers nor our rail providers were expecting, yet we were able to solve for our customers' capacity needs while maintaining high service levels, highlighting the strength and flexibility of our network.

謝謝尼克，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們的電話會議。我將回顧本季多式聯運業務的業績，提供市場和服務績效的最新情況，並強調我們為客戶和所有利害關係人提供價值的持續機會。我將從聯運的偏好開始。正如您所聽到的，我們仍然處於充滿挑戰的貨運環境中，但自春季以來，我們一直看到多式聯運的趨勢有所改善，本季度貨運量增長6% 就證明了這一趨勢的持續。事實上，自 4 月以來，我們已經連續 9 個月看到每月成交量同比趨勢有所改善。按月計算，第四季度，我們的銷量在 10 月份增長了 6%，在 11 月份增長了 6%，在 12 月份增長了 8%。本季度，我們看到了多式聯運的旺季，這是我們、我們的客戶和我們的鐵路提供商都沒有預料到的，但我們能夠在保持高服務水平的同時解決客戶的運力需求，凸顯了我們網絡的實力和靈活性。

While we are encouraged by the volume trends we are seeing, it is worth reiterating that volume is historically a leading indicator, while price is typically a lagging indicator. We continue to see a large amount of freight that we believe should be converted from over the road to Intermodal, and we have the capacity and people in place to grow with our customers and recapture share from the highway. During the quarter, we saw margin pressure, both year-over-year and sequentially, largely related to the impact of bids priced in prior periods and also our results in the fourth quarter included approximately $16 million of higher insurance-related expense. We are currently in the early innings of bid season for 2024 and believe it is too early to comment on our expectations or the success of bid so far. Given our strong service levels and the unique value our Intermodal network can provide, we are working with customers to ensure this value is realized, and that we earn an acceptable return on our investments to meet and serve their capacity needs.

雖然我們對所看到的成交量趨勢感到鼓舞，但值得重申的是，成交量歷來是領先指標，而價格通常是落後指標。我們繼續看到大量貨運，我們認為應該將其從公路轉向多式聯運，並且我們有能力和人員與客戶一起成長，並重新奪回高速公路的份額。在本季度，我們看到了同比和環比的利潤率壓力，這在很大程度上與前期定價的投標的影響有關，而且我們第四季度的業績包括約 1600 萬美元的較高保險相關費用。我們目前正處於 2024 年申辦季的早期階段，認為現在評論我們的期望或迄今為止申辦的成功還為時過早。鑑於我們強大的服務水準和我們的多式聯運網路所能提供的獨特價值，我們正在與客戶合作，確保實現這一價值，並確保我們獲得可接受的投資回報，以滿足和滿足他們的運力需求。

With regard to our rail service providers, we have been pleased with the service from each of our providers their commitment to the Intermodal offering and growing the overall market. We remain encouraged by the work we are doing with BNSF in the West and the collaboration between our companies. We announced our new quantum offering during the quarter. We are very excited about this service and the potential to expand the Intermodal market by working with customers that have service-sensitive freight. During the quarter, we also announced our new Intermodal service out of Mexico with GMXT through the Eagle Pass Gateway connecting with BNSF. This gives our customers more options to solve their cross-border capacity needs, leveraging the networks of both GMXT and BNSF.

對於我們的鐵路服務提供者，我們對每個提供者提供的服務感到滿意，他們致力於聯運服務和發展整體市場。我們與 BNSF 在西方所做的工作以及我們公司之間的合作仍然令人鼓舞。我們在本季宣布了新的量子產品。我們對這項服務以及透過與對服務敏感的貨運客戶合作來擴大多式聯運市場的潛力感到非常興奮。在本季度，我們也宣布了從墨西哥出發的新多式聯運服務，透過 Eagle Pass Gateway 與 BNSF 連接，透過 GMXT 進行服務。這為我們的客戶提供了更多選擇，利用 GMXT 和 BNSF 的網路來解決其跨境容量需求。

In closing, our focus for 2024 will be on regaining share from the over-the-road market scaling our business to better leverage our assets and investments and delivering excellent operational execution for and on behalf of our customers. We strongly believe in the strength of our Intermodal franchise, our customers trust us, and we continue to find new and improved ways to better serve their transportation needs. We have the people, technology and capacity in the network to handle significantly more volume than what we are handling today and remain excited to work with our customers to meet their growing demand with an efficient cost competitive and more environmentally friendly solution. That concludes my prepared remarks, and I'll turn it over to Brad Hicks.

最後，我們 2024 年的重點將是從公路市場重新獲得份額，擴大我們的業務，以更好地利用我們的資產和投資，並為客戶和代表客戶提供卓越的營運執行力。我們堅信我們多式聯運專營權的實力，我們的客戶信任我們，我們不斷尋找新的和改進的方法來更好地滿足他們的運輸需求。我們的網路擁有足夠的人員、技術和能力，可以處理比目前更多的處理量，我們仍然很高興與客戶合作，透過高效的成本競爭和更環保的解決方案來滿足他們不斷增長的需求。我準備好的發言就到此結束，我將把它交給布拉德·希克斯。

Thank you, Darren, and good afternoon. I'll review the performance of our Integrated Capacity Solutions and Truckload segments as well as provide an update on J.B. Hunt 360. Starting with ICS, the overall brokerage environment remains very competitive, from both a volume and rate perspective. Segment gross revenue was down 25% year-over-year in the quarter, driven by a 12% decline in volume and a 15% decline in revenue per load. These figures include the contribution from the acquisition of the brokerage assets of BNSF Logistics. The acquisition contributed a little over $90 million of revenue to our performance in the quarter. Similar to prior quarters, overall truckload demand, particularly in the spot market remains depressed versus the same period last year. While we aren't pleased with the current results in ICS, we are taking steps that will position us for better success in the future. We have focused our efforts on improving the revenue quality of our portfolio and calling some unprofitable freight, which contributed to the lower volume in the quarter. We believe we are out in front of the market with some of our work on rates, but it is too early in the bid season process to fully gauge our performance.

謝謝你，達倫，下午好。我將回顧我們的綜合容量解決方案和卡車裝載細分市場的表現，並提供 J.B. Hunt 360 的最新資訊。從 ICS 開始，從數量和費率的角度來看，整體經紀環境仍然非常有競爭力。本季該部門的總營收年減 25%，原因是銷量下降 12%，每負載收入下降 15%。這些數字包括收購 BNSF Logistics 經紀資產的貢獻。此次收購為我們本季的業績貢獻了略高於 9,000 萬美元的收入。與前幾季類似，整體卡車需求，特別是現貨市場的需求與去年同期相比仍然低迷。雖然我們對 ICS 目前的結果並不滿意，但我們正在採取措施，以便我們在未來取得更好的成功。我們的重點是提高投資組合的收入質量，並調用一些無利可圖的貨運，這導致了本季銷量下降。我們相信，我們在費率方面的一些工作走在了市場的前面，但在投標季節過程中全面評估我們的表現還為時過早。

We are investing in areas to mitigate strategic test and enhanced capability in our platform while rightsizing resources with our current demand through attrition. Overall, we do believe these changes will position us for better long-term growth and success. Looking at 2024. In ICS, we are focused on quality volume growth that recognizes the value and quality service we provide in the market and rightsizing our cost structure further to align with activity levels either through scaling or attrition. We're also focused on premier execution across the business through reliable, excellent service, high on-time performance and further strategic theft mitigation. Moving over to JBT or Truckload. Segment gross revenue was down 19% year-over-year, driven by a 13% decline in revenue per load and a 7% decrease in volumes. Overall, demand for our J.B. Hunt 360 box service offering is outperforming the market as volumes in the quarter were up once again versus the prior year. The flexibility that we can provide customers by combining drop trailer capacity with the ability to source the carrier to move the load on the J.B. Hunt 360 platform is key and resonates well with our customers.

我們正在投資於減輕策略測試和增強平台能力的領域，同時透過消耗來根據我們當前的需求調整資源規模。總的來說，我們確實相信這些變化將使我們能夠實現更好的長期成長和成功。展望 2024 年。在 ICS 中，我們專注於品質數量成長，承認我們在市場上提供的價值和優質服務，並透過擴展或消耗進一步調整我們的成本結構，以與活動水準保持一致。我們也致力於透過可靠、優質的服務、高準時率和進一步的策略性防盜措施來實現整個業務的一流執行。轉向 JBT 或卡車裝載。由於每次裝載收入下降 13% 和運輸量下降 7%，該部門總收入較去年同期下降 19%。整體而言，我們的 J.B. Hunt 360 盒子服務產品的需求表現優於市場，本季的銷售量較前一年再次成長。我們透過將拖車容量與尋找承運商在 J.B. Hunt 360 平台上移動負載的能力相結合，為客戶提供靈活性，這一點非常關鍵，並且與我們的客戶產生了良好的共鳴。

Going into 2024, we are focused on improving the efficiency of our network through increased trailer turns, essentially creating additional capacity on our network without having to add a significant amount of assets. We are also focused on maintaining balance across the trailer network to ensure our assets are in the correct place to meet customer demand and continuing to grow while making sure the overall revenue quality of our portfolio remains healthy.

進入 2024 年，我們的重點是透過增加拖車轉彎來提高網路效率，本質上是在我們的網路上創造額外的容量，而無需添加大量資產。我們也致力於維持整個拖車網路的平衡，以確保我們的資產位於正確的位置，以滿足客戶需求並持續成長，同時確保我們的投資組合的整體收入品質保持健康。

I'll close with some comments on 360. Our investments in our company foundations, our people, technology and capacity remain a focus for us. Technology enables our people, helps drive productivity and also drive efficiency in how we source and serve customers with our available capacity. Despite the challenging freight environment and depressed demand, we continue to see improved productivity in our people driven by 360 platform. It is just masked to some degree by the current market conditions. That said, as our cost structure is becoming more aligned with current demand, we continue to believe our technology will drive productivity and efficiency gains as the market recovers, allowing us to meet higher customer demand levels without having to add as many resources while providing high levels of service for our customers. We know that investing in our people, technology and capacity is key to our success and remain confident that these investments better position us for long-term growth with our customers and allow us to create greater value for our stakeholders. That concludes my comments. So I'll turn it over to Brad Delco to provide instructions before the operator opens the call for Q&A.

最後我將對 360 發表一些評論。我們對公司基礎、人員、技術和能力的投資仍然是我們的重點。科技為我們的員工提供支持，幫助提高生產力，並提高我們利用可用能力尋找和服務客戶的效率。儘管貨運環境充滿挑戰且需求低迷，但我們仍看到 360 平台推動員工的生產力不斷提高。它只是在某種程度上被當前的市場狀況所掩蓋。也就是說，隨著我們的成本結構越來越符合當前的需求，我們仍然相信，隨著市場的復甦，我們的技術將推動生產力和效率的提高，使我們能夠滿足更高的客戶需求水平，而無需添加盡可能多的資源，同時提供高為我們的客戶提供的服務水準。我們知道，對人員、技術和能力的投資是我們成功的關鍵，並堅信這些投資能更好地幫助我們與客戶實現長期成長，並為利害關係人創造更大的價值。我的評論到此結束。因此，我會將其轉交給 Brad Delco，以便在接線員打開問答電話之前提供說明。

Thanks, Brad. Hey, Krista, let's open the call for just one question without follow-ups given the time.

謝謝，布拉德。嘿，克里斯塔，鑑於時間有限，讓我們開始只回答一個問題，不進行後續討論。

Your first question comes from the line of Brandon Oglenski from Barclays Capital.

你的第一個問題來自巴克萊資本的布蘭登‧奧格倫斯基。

I guess, Darren or Shelley, you guys mentioned a couple of times about how pricing is just a lagged indicator and volume being the lead here. I know your volumes did accelerate in the Intermodal business this quarter. I guess how can you help us think about the progression on operating profitability through 2024? Are you going to have the ability to get that value and greater yield from your customers as the year progresses?

我想，達倫或雪萊，你們曾多次提到定價只是一個落後指標，而成交量卻是這裡的領先指標。我知道本季你們的多式聯運業務量確實有所增加。我想您能如何幫助我們思考 2024 年營運獲利能力的進展？隨著時間的推移，您是否有能力從客戶那裡獲得這種價值和更高的利益？

So Brandon, I'll start. This is Darren. Certainly, I'm not going to guide you into 2024. What I will say is pricing will forever be worth more than volume in terms of margin performance and return performance. We are under immense cost pressure. And certainly, we believe the value proposition we represent to our customers should equate to a return position that justifies our investments. There's a lot yet to be determined as we go through the bid cycle. And so the answer to your question is will play itself out in 2024, and we're all going to have to wait and see what the environment is like.

布蘭登，我開始。這是達倫。當然，我不會引導您進入 2024 年。我要說的是，就利潤表現和回報表現而言，定價永遠比銷量更有價值。我們面臨著巨大的成本壓力。當然，我們相信我們向客戶呈現的價值主張應該等同於證明我們投資合理的回報狀況。在我們進行投標週期時，還有很多事情有待確定。所以你的問題的答案將在 2024 年顯現出來，我們都將不得不等待，看看環境是什麼樣的。

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter from Bank of America.

您的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Ken Hoexter。

Darren, just a follow-up on kind of the cost pressures, just to understand kind of margin impacts. You talked about pulling containers out as you get growth. Maybe walk us through how we should think about the cost implications of bringing those containers back in the business when that should slow down, when we could see the -- I guess, then the margin, I guess, benefit as you slow down bringing those costs out. And then to understand the insurance impact, if that's not an ongoing cost, are you raising that part? I'm trying to understand the cost inflation that we should expect in the business.

達倫，只是對成本壓力的跟進，只是為了了解利潤率的影響。您談到了隨著業務成長而將容器撤出。也許可以帶我們了解一下，當這種速度應該放緩時，當我們可以看到——我想，然後，當你放慢這些容器的速度時，我想，利潤率會受益，我們應該如何考慮將這些容器帶回業務中的成本影響。成本。然後為了了解保險的影響，如果這不是持續的成本，您是否會提高這部分費用？我試圖了解我們在業務中應該預期的成本通膨。

Sure. Well, I don't know that when I highlight cost pressures, I wasn't intending to just highlight taking containers in and out of storage. I mean, just inflationary cost pressures from wages for our drivers are higher, rates with our railroads are higher. Certainly, just all employment costs maintenance -- the equipment itself cost more, just across the board, we have cost increases, and that inflationary cost lives across our enterprise, not just Intermodal, certainly. So those are challenges that we're all faced with. It's certainly the same thing that our customers are faced with. And that's why, we're working with our customers to deliver more value and look for how do we partner together and take cost out of each other system as we move forward. And in terms of when you get to see that. Just like the last question, we're just going to have to wait and see until we can get the volume growing on a steady base and get the pricing cycle behind us. We don't know exactly what to expect in that. We know that the service quality we built in 2023 has earned us the right to really dialogue with our customers around these cost challenges we're faced with.

當然。好吧，我不知道當我強調成本壓力時，我並不打算只強調將容器放入和取出存放。我的意思是，我們司機的薪資帶來的通膨成本壓力更高，我們鐵路的費率更高。當然，所有的僱用成本都需要維護——設備本身的成本更高，而且是全面的，我們的成本增加了，而且通膨成本存在於我們的整個企業，而不僅僅是聯運，當然。這些都是我們都面臨的挑戰。這當然是我們的客戶所面臨的同樣的事情。這就是為什麼，我們正在與客戶合作，以提供更多價值，並尋找我們如何合作，並在我們前進的過程中降低彼此系統的成本。就你何時看到這一點而言。就像最後一個問題一樣，我們只能拭目以待，直到銷售穩定成長並擺脫定價週期。我們不知道具體會發生什麼事。我們知道，我們在 2023 年建立的服務品質使我們有權圍繞我們面臨的這些成本挑戰與客戶進行真正的對話。

And Ken, this is John Kuhlow. I'll just add. On the insurance cost pressure that we're seeing, our general approach to risk management is to maintain coverage and insurance policies for our exposures. And as we reset the premiums going into '24, we saw upwards of 50% to 60% increases in those premiums. And so when we talk about the inflationary pressures that we're seeing in '24, it's mostly around our premiums. We've done a great job this year in working and focusing on safety to try to bring those incidents down, but the claims cost of the individual claims is what's driving a lot of the inflationary pressures.

肯，這是約翰·庫洛。我就補充一下。就我們所看到的保險成本壓力而言，我們風險管理的一般方法是維持我們的風險敞口的承保範圍和保險政策。當我們重置 24 年的保費時，我們發現這些保費增加了 50% 至 60%。因此，當我們談論 24 年的通膨壓力時，主要是圍繞我們的保費。今年，我們在工作和關注安全方面做得很好，試圖減少這些事件，但個人索賠的索賠成本是造成很大通膨壓力的原因。

Your next question comes from the line of Bascome Majors.

你的下一個問題來自巴斯科姆專業隊。

So if you add back the charges for insurance and the losses on equipment sales, you actually saw a pretty nice seasonal lift in operating income versus your history for the fourth quarter. And I know you don't want to give guidance as we think about just level setting expectations for next year, is the typical 4Q to 1Q seasonal decline, a decent place to start. Maybe if you could just sort of talk about puts or takes to that, from that adjusted $270 million or so operating income, adding back those charges in the fourth quarter.

因此，如果您將保險費用和設備銷售損失加回去，您實際上會看到營業收入與第四季度的歷史記錄相比出現了相當不錯的季節性增長。我知道您不想提供指導，因為我們只考慮為明年設定預期水平，這是典型的第四季度到第一季的季節性下降，這是一個不錯的起點。也許你可以談談看漲期權或看跌期權，從調整後的 2.7 億美元左右的營業收入中，再加上第四季度的這些費用。

Bascome. This is Brad. I'll give a shot at this. First, I mean, you guys treat insurance how you want. I think the intent of sharing the $15 million change in net loss on sale of equipment was more of a year-over-year comment versus sequential. And I don't have that in front of me to share. In terms of what you should expect from 4Q to 1Q, while there's still a lot of 1Q left, we don't typically provide guidance. So I'm sure over the course of the quarter, you and the market will inform itself on kind of what's happening. But as you've heard from our executive team, there's a lot of things that we're working on, making sure we're delivering value for customers and making sure we're focused on getting ourselves to earning the right return on our investments. And that will be the focus going forward, and we'll just have to compete in the market that's given to us.

巴斯科姆。這是布拉德.我會嘗試一下。首先，我的意思是，你們按照自己的意願對待保險。我認為分享設備銷售淨虧損 1500 萬美元變化的目的更多的是逐年評論而不是連續評論。我面前沒有可以分享的東西。就第四季到第一季的預期而言，雖然第一季還剩很多時間，但我們通常不會提供指引。因此，我確信在本季度中，您和市場將會了解正在發生的事情。但正如您從我們的執行團隊那裡聽到的那樣，我們正在做很多事情，確保我們為客戶提供價值，並確保我們專注於讓自己獲得適當的投資回報。這將是未來的重點，我們只需在提供給我們的市場中競爭。

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。

Darren, I heard you talk about taking share from trucks. I didn't hear you talk much about West Coast port share gains? I guess, I'm wondering how you think you may or may not benefit from that. And then on the Intermodal pricing side, I'm guessing -- I mean, I hear you're not saying much. So maybe I'll ask it this way. Do you think we need to wait for Truckload pricing to start going higher for Intermodal pricing to go higher to or just given this improved Intermodal demand environment, can we see a decoupling where Intermodal pricing goes up without -- before Truckload pricing starts to go up.

達倫，我聽說你談到從卡車上奪取份額。我沒聽到你談論西海岸港口份額的增長？我想，我想知道你認為你可能會或可能不會從中受益。然後在多式聯運定價方面，我猜——我的意思是，我聽說你沒有說太多。所以也許我會這樣問。您認為我們是否需要等待卡車裝載價格開始走高才能使多式聯運價格走高，或者只是考慮到這種改善的多式聯運需求環境，我們是否可以在卡車裝載價格開始上漲之前看到多式聯運價格上漲的脫鉤。

Okay. Well, thanks for the 2 questions, Scott. So when it comes to volume and looking to regain share from the highway, certainly, that feels like some of the lowest fruit for us given the loss of share over, I'm going to call it, several years back into PSR time window even through certainly in pandemic. I think Intermodal lost some share due to weakness in velocity. And as we gained velocity in 2023, we feel like we can better compete for our customers on consistency in the transit model that the customers need. So that's why we largely highlight highway conversion. Certainly, growth of import traffic through the West Coast ports is an absolute benefit to J.B. Hunt. Certainly, I think we highlighted in the earnings release that we grew Transcon 13% in the fourth quarter. So that, I would think, highlights at least some advantage of that effort from growth of imports. As it relates to decoupling highway pricing to Intermodal pricing I think that between our Transcon networks and our Eastern networks, there is already some decoupling, not 100%. Certainly, the influence of the Intermodal market out West is a bigger factor in pricing there than highway rates. But in the Eastern network, I can't imagine a world where intermodal pricing would ever decouple from highway pricing in the Eastern network that really will be tied together.

好的。好吧，謝謝你提出兩個問題，斯科特。因此，當涉及銷售並希望從高速公路重新獲得份額時，當然，考慮到份額的損失，這對我們來說感覺是最低的成果，我將稱之為，甚至在PSR 時間窗口的幾年前當然是在大流行中。我認為聯運由於速度疲軟而失去了一些份額。隨著 2023 年速度的提高，我們覺得我們可以在客戶所需的交通模型的一致性方面更好地為客戶競爭。這就是我們大力強調高速公路改造的原因。當然，透過西海岸港口進口運輸量的成長對 J.B. Hunt 來說絕對是有利的。當然，我認為我們在財報中強調了 Transcon 在第四季度增長了 13%。因此，我認為，這至少凸顯了進口成長這項努力的一些優勢。由於它涉及高速公路定價與多式聯運定價的脫鉤，我認為我們的 Transcon 網路和東部網路之間已經存在一定程度的脫鉤，而不是 100%。當然，西部多式聯運市場的影響力是影響定價的一個比高速公路費率更大的因素。但在東部網路中，我無法想像一個多式聯運定價將與東部網路中的高速公路定價真正脫鉤的世界。

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Chappell from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead, your line is open.

您的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Jon Chappell。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

Darren, I'm going to stick with you. You mentioned that the fourth quarter volume number surprised everybody. Yourselves, your rail partners sounds like even your shippers. Maybe the most surprising part is the fact that December accelerated more, up 8%, which kind of goes contrary to what we've heard from all the others in the segment. What kind of happened in December that you think was kind of unique to J.B. Hunt on that last question. Was it more kind of your new services, your new services with BN or just an easier comp? Just trying to figure out why the acceleration would have done like December was soft for everyone else.

達倫，我會和你在一起。您提到第四季的銷售數字令所有人感到驚訝。你們自己，你們的鐵路合作夥伴聽起來甚至就像你們的托運人。也許最令人驚訝的部分是 12 月加速了更多，成長了 8%，這與我們從該領域所有其他人那裡聽到的情況相反。在最後一個問題上，你認為 12 月發生的事情對 J.B. Hunt 來說是獨一無二的。是你們的新服務比較好，還是你們與 BN 的新服務比較好，還是只是更簡單的補償？只是想弄清楚為什麼加速會像 12 月那樣對其他人來說是軟弱的。

Yes. Okay. Appreciate the question. I think that certainly, the new services we're excited about. I don't want to -- the Mexico service announcement was a conversion from business we were handling through a different method. So I don't want that to be portrayed as an immediate growth movement. But as we move forward, it solidifies our capacity plans for Mexico to allow us to grow further in the long term over the long-term future. And when I think about December, the comp was certainly easier. I think that is a factor. I also believe that our mix of customers and the particular group of shippers we serve had a more significant peak season than they even predicted. And that's really why we've highlighted that the peak season was a surprise. And I'll even go as far as to say our capacity, what I call the coiled spring for many quarters, so for us this fourth quarter in that peak season. It really allowed us to execute for our customers at a very high level and we're really, really proud of that. I'm extremely proud of my team, and I want to make sure and say that.

是的。好的。感謝這個問題。我認為當然，我們對新服務感到興奮。我不想——墨西哥服務公告是我們透過不同方法處理的業務的轉變。所以我不希望這被描述為一場直接的成長運動。但隨著我們的前進，它鞏固了我們在墨西哥的產能計劃，使我們能夠在長遠的未來進一步發展。當我想到 12 月時，比賽肯定更容易。我認為這是一個因素。我還相信，我們的客戶群和我們服務的特定托運人群體的旺季比他們預測的更為重要。這就是為什麼我們強調旺季是一個驚喜。我甚至會說我們的產能，我稱之為多個季度的螺旋彈簧，所以對我們來說是旺季的第四季度。它確實使我們能夠以非常高的水平為客戶執行任務，我們對此感到非常非常自豪。我為我的團隊感到非常自豪，我想確認並這麼說。

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

您的下一個問題來自 Stephens Inc. 的 Justin Long。

And maybe I'll pivot and ask a Dedicated question for Nick. I know there are a lot of moving pieces with some fleet losses and downsizes in the last year or so. But Dedicated has been pretty resilient, as well. When you put it all together, any initial expectations on the level of fleet growth for Dedicated this year? And anything outside of insurance that we should be aware of as it relates to swing factors on costs with depreciation, startup costs or anything else?

也許我會向尼克提出一個專門的問題。我知道在過去一年左右的時間裡，有很多移動部件出現了一些機隊損失和規模縮小。但 Dedicated 也非常有彈性。綜合考慮，您對今年 Dedicated 機隊成長水準有什麼初步預期嗎？除了保險之外，還有什麼我們應該注意的，因為它與折舊、啟動成本或其他成本的波動因素有關？

Yes. I would say, just as I was thinking about and collecting back on this year that I think we performed much better than we did in '08 and '09. I talked about that, just the structure of our deals, CVD. And we lost 18% of our fleet in '09 and we're going to lose 9% or we did lose 9%. And so I think through that, we've got a better base of business, better diversified. So I feel we've come out of that pretty good and sets up well. I would say though that when I think about our sales, I'm just going to give you our standard line of we're going to sell 1,000 to 1,200 trucks just like we did last year and a really tough year. We're going to plan on doing that again. And as I said, we've got some visibility to some fleet losses coming up. And so there's a lot of moving parts in there. But when I look at the market and what we're after the private fleet market, it's really pretty stable. We -- some of these losses have been in our more, what I would call our business that we've had legacy business for quite some time. And so I think our base will get more solid as we move forward with more private fleets.

是的。我想說，就像我在思考和回顧今年一樣，我認為我們的表現比08年和09年要好得多。我談到了我們的交易結構，CVD。 09 年我們損失了 18% 的機隊，我們將會損失 9%，或者我們確實損失了 9%。因此，我認為透過這一點，我們擁有了更好的業務基礎，更加多元化。所以我覺得我們已經很好地擺脫了困境並且準備得很好。不過，我想說的是，當我考慮我們的銷售時，我只會向您提供我們的標準線，即我們將銷售1,000 至1,200 輛卡車，就像我們去年所做的那樣，這是非常艱難的一年。我們打算再做一次。正如我所說，我們對即將發生的一些機隊損失有所了解。所以裡面有很多活動部件。但當我觀察市場以及我們對私人車隊市場的追求時，它確實非常穩定。我們——其中一些損失發生在我們的業務中，我稱之為我們的業務，我們已經擁有遺留業務相當長一段時間了。因此，我認為隨著我們擁有更多私人車隊，我們的基礎將會變得更加堅實。

Your next question comes from the line of Amit Mehrotra from Deutsche Bank.

您的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Amit Mehrotra。

Darren, I just wanted to understand that volume momentum question. You're talking about volume momentum. Obviously, Intermodal loads were up 3% sequentially, 3Q to 4Q. Usually, they go down 4Q to 1Q, but obviously, there is momentum you're adding the Quantum Service. Do we think that, that momentum can continue where you can build volume sequentially as we move through this year? And I'm really talking about the first quarter because obviously, it's a seasonally tough quarter. And then just related to that, I assume your customers are talking about expectations for March and the spring selling season, there's a lot of disruption in the Red Sea and maybe customers are rethinking their supply chains, Panama Canal, Suez Canal are down, basically. So just talk to us about that momentum building as you move over the next 3 months from where you are today? And then what are your customers telling you from expectations on March and the disruption that's happening right now in the red sea?

達倫，我只是想了解成交量動量問題。你說的是成交量動量。顯然，從第三季到第四季，多式聯運負載連續成長了 3%。通常，它們會從第四季度下降到第一季度，但顯然，您添加量子服務的勢頭強勁。我們是否認為，隨著今年的進展，這種勢頭可以持續下去，並且可以連續增加銷量？我真正談論的是第一季度，因為顯然，這是一個季節性艱難的季度。與此相關的是，我假設您的客戶正在談論對三月和春季銷售季節的期望，紅海有很多幹擾，也許客戶正在重新考慮他們的供應鏈，巴拿馬運河、蘇伊士運河基本上都停駛了。那麼，請與我們談談您在未來 3 個月從現在的位置發展起來的動力嗎？那麼，您的客戶對三月的預期以及紅海目前正在發生的破壞有何看法？

That was impressive, Amit. I think that -- look, as volumes came at us in the fourth quarter and like we've highlighted many times, our customers were even surprised by that. So I think that the volume momentum that built during that quarter was largely related to activities that those customers had going on in the fourth quarter. And again, because they were surprised by it, I think that's why we feel a little bit more unclear right now about what the early part of this year holds. Certainly, traditionally, the first quarter is a drop down from the fourth quarter. I would say that for my entire career, that's been the case. And so I don't know that I'm going to guide you on what will happen. But certainly, our customers' inability to tell us about the peak season continues to be a challenge for us to get good solid information about what to expect.

這令人印象深刻，阿米特。我認為——看，隨著第四季度我們的銷售成長，就像我們多次強調的那樣，我們的客戶甚至對此感到驚訝。因此，我認為該季度建立的銷售勢頭很大程度上與這些客戶在第四季度進行的活動有關。再說一次，因為他們對此感到驚訝，我認為這就是為什麼我們現在對今年年初的情況感到更加不清楚。當然，從傳統上看，第一季是比第四季下降的。我想說，在我的整個職業生涯中，情況都是如此。所以我不知道我會指導你將會發生什麼。但可以肯定的是，我們的客戶無法告訴我們旺季的情況，這對我們獲取有關預期的可靠資訊仍然是一個挑戰。

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Wetherbee from Citigroup.

您的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Chris Wetherbee。

I guess I wanted to ask about cost inflation and maybe tie it into the insurance. And so I guess I'm just trying to understand, we've had 2 years with fourth quarter hits from the insurance side. And I guess I'm trying to figure out what that means for the go-forward period. So does the charge that you take in this fourth quarter mean that there is some degree of incremental accruals that are required for 2024? And then maybe if we could just tie that into broader cost inflation, if you look at the portfolio of the businesses, what do we think cost inflation is kind of running as we're getting into 2024?

我想我想問一下成本通膨的問題，也許可以將其與保險聯繫起來。所以我想我只是想了解一下，保險的第四季業績已經有兩年了。我想我正在努力弄清楚這對未來意味著什麼。那麼，您在第四季度收取的費用是否意味著 2024 年需要一定程度的增量應計費用？然後，也許我們可以將其與更廣泛的成本通膨聯繫起來，如果你看看企業的投資組合，我們認為進入 2024 年時，成本通膨會是什麼樣的情況？

Well, Chris, I'll take that again. It's John Kuhlow. With respect to the insurance, we did have a charge last year in the fourth quarter. This really relates to continuing to see what we refer to as unprecedented settlements in our prior year claims. We had a situation where we ran out of our coverage limits in those periods, and so we're effectively self-insured. Each quarter, we go through and we assess our reserves. And working with our actuaries, we needed to determine that we need to take up our reserves. I can't say that this will never happen again, but we do believe that the charge that we took for our reserves that makes them properly valued now.

好吧，克里斯，我再說一次。我是約翰·庫洛。關於保險，我們去年第四季確實有收費。這確實與我們在上一年的索賠中繼續看到我們所說的史無前例的和解有關。我們遇到過這樣的情況：在這些時期我們超出了承保限額，因此我們實際上是自我保險。每個季度，我們都會檢查並評估我們的儲備。我們需要與精算師合作，確定是否需要動用準備金。我不能說這種情況永遠不會再發生，但我們確實相信，我們對儲備金的收費使它們現在得到了適當的估值。

As I mentioned before, we do -- our approach is to maintain coverage for all of our businesses, and we are taking that up and we did a little bit in '23 and taking that up in '24 and going forward. Just to give -- with respect to the current environment and how we're seeing the settlement claims. So -- or how do we see these claims settle. So that's really where we're seeing the most pressure. We are, again, continuing to look at our reserves on a quarterly basis. But I feel like most of the inflation that we're seeing is through the cost premiums that we have from our underwriters.

正如我之前提到的，我們確實 - 我們的方法是維持對所有業務的覆蓋，我們正在採取這一點，我們在 23 年做了一點，並在 24 年採取了這一點並繼續前進。只是針對當前環境以及我們如何看待和解索賠。那麼——或者說我們如何看待這些索賠的解決。所以這確實是我們壓力最大的地方。我們再次繼續按季度查看我們的儲備。但我覺得我們看到的大部分通貨膨脹是透過我們從承銷商獲得的成本溢價所造成的。

Your next question comes from the line of Allison Poliniak from Wells Fargo.

您的下一個問題來自富國銀行的艾莉森·波利尼亞克 (Allison Poliniak)。

Just want to go back, Nick, to the Dedicated, the sleep downsizing, I know it was less than sort of 2009. But what's your visibility on being able to reallocate that capacity fairly quickly? And then you also talked along about the pipeline of opportunities. Anything specific about the verticals of those opportunities that may be more defensible? Or is it people just sort of preparing for whatever inflection might come here? Just any thoughts.

尼克，我只想回到專用床，睡眠規模的縮減，我知道這比 2009 年要少。但是您對能夠相當快地重新分配該容量的看法如何？然後您也談到了機會的管道。關於這些可能更具防禦性的垂直機會，有什麼具體的資訊嗎？或者人們只是在為這裡可能出現的任何變化做準備？只是任何想法。

Yes. First of all, I would say, on our ability to replace them. Clearly, the way our business works is we usually have waves when we get start-up, so we incur the cost. And so with us losing some of our trucks in '23, we don't have the momentum we normally have gone into '24. And so we replace them quickly, but it just takes a little time to kind of get the momentum and get the revenue and the profitability up and going.

是的。首先，我要說的是我們替換它們的能力。顯然，我們的業務運作方式是，我們在啟動時通常會遇到波折，因此我們會承擔成本。因此，隨著我們在 23 年失去了一些卡車，我們沒有了 24 年通常擁有的動力。因此，我們很快就取代了它們，但只需要一點時間就能獲得動力並提高收入和盈利能力。

So that's the reason that we're talking about '24 the way we are. Now as far as any vertical, we look through our book, I would say on the furniture side, we had a little bit of that in Dedicated. It's impacted some. But I would say that one that's probably been the strongest been the grocery side of things have just been consistent throughout. And then the others, it's kind of just as the economy is going, they're kind of going up and really sticks out anywhere else.

這就是我們現在這樣談論「24」的原因。現在，就任何垂直方向而言，我們翻閱了我們的書，我想說在家具方面，我們在《Dedicated》中有一點這樣的內容。已經影響一些了但我想說的是，雜貨方面可能是最強大的，自始至終都是一致的。然後其他的，就像經濟發展一樣，它們也在上升，並且在其他任何地方都很突出。

And Allison, this is Brad Delco. I'm sorry, I just want to add a touch to that on your question about kind of the churn that Nick shared before, we share each quarter the success the team had in selling new fleets. And so Nick kind of shared a churn number of 9% on the base of the fleet in 2023. The team was very successful in backfilling some of those losses by selling that equipment into new deals. And so I think that what mixed messaging is effectively, hey, we have some foresight into some downsizing of some fleets in 2024. And I think in his prepared remarks, he said, hey, the strategic focus is going to be out there selling to backfill some of those losses.

艾莉森，這是布萊德‧德爾科。抱歉，我只是想補充一下您關於尼克之前分享的客戶流失情況的問題，我們每個季度都會分享團隊在銷售新機隊方面取得的成功。因此，尼克在 2023 年的機隊基礎上分享了 9% 的流失率。該團隊透過將設備出售給新交易，非常成功地彌補了部分損失。因此，我認為混合訊息實際上是，嘿，我們對 2024 年縮小一些機隊規模有一些遠見。我認為，在他準備好的講話中，他說，嘿，戰略重點將是向彌補其中一些損失。

Your next question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker from Morgan Stanley.

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Ravi Shanker。

Just regarding this insurance situation, obviously, it seems a little bit frustrating given how much it's outside of your control. Is legislation in Congress, the only answer to this? Do you think some of the technology you're putting in place is going to have a tangible impact on reducing some of these claims. And is there anything you guys can do as a large carrier to maybe avoid some of the disproportionate impact on large carrier versus small ones?

顯然，就這種保險情況而言，考慮到它在您的控制範圍之外，這似乎有點令人沮喪。國會立法是解決這個問題的唯一答案嗎？您認為您正在採用的某些技術會對減少其中一些索賠產生切實的影響嗎？作為一家大型承運商，你們可以做些什麼來避免大型承運商與小型承運商之間不成比例的影響？

Yes, I'll jump in and -- this is Nick. Clearly, we think we had record safety year when we look at DOT preventables for the entire organization. And we're very pleased with that. We're doing things like inward-facing cameras. We're about 65% complete on that rollout. We will have all those other trucks retro by the end of Q3. So we clearly think that will help us with our accidents. And then if you think we're also -- we got 65% of our fleet that's got Sideguard Assist that helped us on the right side. Those we can't retros, so it's going to take us another couple of years. So we think we're out leading well on the safety side. But the fact is that the individual claims are just going through the roof and the cost of those. And quite honestly, those are in state courts. And so it's a state by state that's got to be addressed. We're working with the American Trucking Association and trying to go state by state to get tort reform. So it's going to be a long battle there unless there is some federal legislation that would kind of help us interstate truckers out there. So John, I don't know if you...

是的，我會加入——這是尼克。顯然，當我們考慮整個組織的 DOT 可預防因素時，我們認為我們的安全年創了記錄。我們對此非常滿意。我們正在做諸如內向攝影機之類的事情。我們的部署已完成約 65%。我們將在第三季末之前對所有其他卡車進行改造。所以我們顯然認為這將有助於我們解決事故。然後，如果您認為我們也是——我們 65% 的機隊配備了 Sideguard Assist，可以在右側為我們提供幫助。那些我們無法回顧，所以我們還需要幾年的時間。因此，我們認為我們在安全方面處於領先地位。但事實是，個人索賠和索賠成本都已經達到頂峰。老實說，這些都是在州法院審理的。因此，這是一個需要逐州解決的問題。我們正在與美國卡車運輸協會合作，並試圖逐州進行侵權法改革。因此，除非有一些聯邦立法能夠幫助我們州際卡車司機，否則這將是一場漫長的戰鬥。所以約翰，我不知道你是否...

Ravi, I'd just add, it is frustrating, but we are focused on the areas that we can control. And as Nick said, we're working to do everything we can to improve our safety to make sure that the incidents themselves are down, and then there needs to be something done with respect to the settlement charges.

拉維，我想補充一點，這令人沮喪，但我們專注於我們可以控制的領域。正如尼克所說，我們正在盡一切努力提高我們的安全，以確保事件本身減少，然後需要對和解費用採取一些措施。

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Alliger from Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的 Jordan Alliger。

Maybe sort of switch it up a little bit on the brokerage side of the equation. Obviously, still a lot of pressure there profit-wise. I mean what do you think needs to happen to get back in black? Is it purely a cycle thing, price and volume? Or is there some things you need to do structurally to whether it be cost or technology? I know you've made a lot of investments in the past, but maybe talk a little bit to truck brokerage and your thinking on return to profitability.

或許可以在經紀業務方面稍微調整一下。顯然，盈利方面的壓力仍然很大。我的意思是你認為需要做什麼才能恢復黑色？價格和數量純粹是一個週期的事情嗎？或者您需要在結構上做一些事情，無論是成本還是技術？我知道您過去進行了大量投資，但也許可以談談卡車經紀業務以及您對盈利回報的想法。

Yes, Jordan, thank you. This is Brad Hicks. Incredibly difficult brokerage environment as we will know throughout the entire year. We did spend a tremendous amount of time focused on our cost as we saw volume decline and revenue quality back up significantly, made it extremely difficult through the bid season to really pick your spots in an ever so declining rate environment. And I do feel like the last quarter or 1.5 quarters, we just kind of tried along that bottom. As Darren mentioned in his opening question around we're taking this wait-and-see approach through bid season, but we do feel like things need to inflect. The one thing I would mention that if you really look at the growth that we experienced through the pandemic, we were there for our customers in their greatest time of need and really felt like we were strategic. And really what we saw from a behavior standpoint from several of our customers throughout '23 is that they really acted more transactional on the back end of that pandemic, multiple round bids, driving down to that lowest price. And so we do have to recalibrate how we think about how we step forward. What I can tell you is we're focused on growing but we're focused on growing at the right rate where we can add value to our customers' networks.

是的，喬丹，謝謝你。這是布拉德·希克斯。正如我們全年所知，經紀業務環境極為困難。我們確實花費了大量的時間關注我們的成本，因為我們看到數量下降和收入品質顯著回升，這使得在競標季節在價格不斷下降的環境中真正選擇自己的位置變得極其困難。我確實覺得上個季度或 1.5 個季度，我們只是沿著這個底部進行了嘗試。正如達倫在他的開場問題中提到的那樣，我們在申辦季採取這種觀望態度，但我們確實覺得事情需要改變。我要提到的一件事是，如果你真正看看我們在大流行期間經歷的成長，你會發現我們在客戶最需要的時候為他們服務，並且真的感覺我們具有戰略意義。事實上，從整個 23 年的一些客戶的行為角度來看，我們看到的是，他們在疫情爆發後確實表現得更具交易性，進行了多輪投標，壓低了最低價格。因此，我們確實必須重新調整我們對如何前進的看法。我可以告訴你的是，我們專注於成長，但我們專注於以適當的速度成長，從而為客戶網路增加價值。

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl from TD Cowen.

您的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Jason Seidl。

Can we focus a little bit on reported yields in terms of the outlook? It seems like there's going to be more mix changes coming with the move back to the West Coast ports. How should we look at that as it flows through the model for '24.

就前景而言，我們可以稍微關註一下報告的收益率嗎？隨著遷回西海岸港口，似乎將會有更多的混合變化。當它在 24 世紀的模型中流動時，我們應該如何看待它。

Well, certainly, I mean, the pricing environment just has too many unknowns today, really to highlight anything there, Jason. What I would say is certainly the longer length of haul loads that the West Coast represents can represent higher revenue per load, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there's pricing increases there. And so I'm not going to be able to fill out sort of the mix for you. I mean we don't even know what that mix will be just yet. Certainly, there is an opportunity for growth on the West Coast that we're hearing about as more and more customers are talking about a shift of their imports to the West Coast.

嗯，當然，我的意思是，今天的定價環境有太多未知因素，真的無法突出任何東西，傑森。我想說的是，西海岸所代表的較長運輸載荷當然可以代表較高的每次載荷收入，但這並不一定意味著那裡的價格會上漲。所以我無法為你填寫某種組合。我的意思是我們還不知道這種組合會是什麼。當然，隨著越來越多的客戶談論將進口產品轉移到西海岸，我們聽說西海岸存在成長機會。

Your next question comes from the line of Tom Wadewitz from UBS Financial.

您的下一個問題來自瑞銀金融集團 (UBS Financial) 的湯姆·瓦德維茨 (Tom Wadewitz)。

I wanted to ask you a little bit about Intermodal margin in the fourth quarter. If we take out the insurance, you saw about 80 basis points of sequential improvement in Intermodal margin. And I just wanted to see if you could give a sense of what drove that. Was that less repositioning expense? Was that something helpful on the revenue side. It didn't sound like there was a change on price. And then I guess related to that, when you have a longer length of haul and some favorable mix, does that affect you like price? Does that help the margin a bit? So really just a couple of things on Intermodal margins.

我想問你一些關於第四季多式聯運利潤率的問題。如果我們購買保險，您會發現多式聯運利潤率連續改善約 80 個基點。我只是想看看你是否能解釋一下是什麼推動了這一點。重新定位費用是否減少了？這對收入方面有幫助嗎？聽起來價格沒有變動。然後我想與此相關的是，當你有更長的運輸距離和一些有利的組合時，這會影響你的價格嗎？這對利潤有一點幫助嗎？因此，關於多式聯運的利潤率，實際上只有幾件事。

Well, I think that certainly, the fixed cost that we're carrying is material, and we highlighted that at least for the fourth quarter, the coiled spring unlocked a little bit, and we were able to spread growth volume over more loads, and that certainly was a contributing factor behind that. No, there certainly was not a price improvement during the quarter. Pricing will continue to be and forever will be the fastest way to repair margin. But certainly, volume in our current state is worth more to us than it ever has been in our past, given the asset count that we currently own. And so volume is worth more than it used to be. and certainly, the fourth quarter was able to show that.

好吧，我認為當然，我們承擔的固定成本是物質性的，我們強調，至少在第四季度，螺旋彈簧釋放了一點，我們能夠將增長量分散到更多的負載上，並且這無疑是其背後的促成因素。不，本季價格肯定沒有改善。定價將繼續並且永遠是修復利潤的最快方法。但可以肯定的是，考慮到我們目前擁有的資產數量，當前狀態的交易量對我們來說比過去任何時候都更有價值。因此，成交量比以前更有價值。當然，第四季度已經證明了這一點。

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Ossenbeck from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Brian Ossenbeck。

I know you don't want to talk about rates, given all the uncertainty at this point, but maybe you can talk more about just the conversations with the shippers and some of that momentum and a surprise upside in the fourth quarter, is that really carried into the conversations that they unfold here. Are they looking for longer durations? Are they looking for back half locking in some capacity? Darren love to hear if there's actual Truckload conversion that's happening? And then maybe, Brad, you can just give us a sense in terms of what you see in the truck market itself from a capacity spot rate improvement. What do you expect here standing at the first part of the year looking to the rest of it?

我知道你不想談論費率，考慮到目前的所有不確定性，但也許你可以更多地談論與托運人的對話以及第四季度的一些勢頭和令人驚訝的上行空間，這真的是嗎？帶到他們在這裡展開的對話。他們是否正在尋找更長的持續時間？他們是否正在尋找某種能力的後半鎖定？達倫很想知道是否有真正的卡車裝載轉換正在發生？然後，布拉德，您也許可以讓我們了解您在卡車市場本身從產能現貨率改善中看到的情況。展望今年上半年，您對今年剩下的時間有何期望？

Okay. This is Darren. I'll start and just -- and then hand it off to Brad. I think that from a pricing conversation perspective, it's really a wide variety of results there in terms of -- I think there is universal acknowledgment for our service performance, and we feel good about that. There is universal hesitancy to offer rate increases and competition is real. There is competition out there, and that will always be a factor. Our customers are under tremendous pressure not to have their costs go up. And so that's going to be a factor as we -- but at the same time, we really -- we're not far enough into these conversations to be able to make heads or tails of it. There's a lot of work to be done. I think that I'm proud of the way the customers are responding to the quality of our service, and we're going to lean in on that.

好的。這是達倫。我將開始，然後將其交給布拉德。我認為，從定價對話的角度來看，結果確實多種多樣——我認為我們的服務表現得到了普遍認可，我們對此感覺良好。人們普遍對升息猶豫不決，而且競爭是真實存在的。那裡存在著競爭，這永遠是個因素。我們的客戶面臨著成本上升的巨大壓力。因此，這將成為一個因素，因為我們——但同時，我們真的——我們對這些對話的深入程度還不夠深入，無法搞清其中的情況。還有很多工作要做。我認為我為客戶對我們服務品質的反應感到自豪，我們將依靠這一點。

Yes. Brian, I would just add, this is Brad Hicks. Similar to where Darren said is really way too early in the bid cycle to see what's ahead of us there. But at least from our perspective, from a trucker standpoint, rates have to go up. And I can't tell you exactly when that's going to happen, but the cost, the inflation, when we look at the operating cost of not just our own fleet, that fleets in general and where rates plummeted in the truckload space, which are down more than 2x what they were in terms of a percent reduction than we see in Intermodal over the last 12 or 14 months something is going to have to give there. We obviously pay real close attention on what's going on with truckload capacity, and we do start to see exits in the marketplace there. And at some point, that's going to have to inflect. We'd like that to be sooner than later. As Darren mentioned, customers are still under tremendous pressure. They're just not going to give it to you. But I do feel like something will turn at some point. It's a matter of if, not when, and so that's how I would respond.

是的。布萊恩，我想補充一下，這是布萊德希克斯。與達倫所說的類似，在投標週期中，要了解我們前面的情況確實還為時過早。但至少從我們的角度來看，從卡車司機的角度來看，費率必須上漲。我無法確切地告訴你這種情況何時會發生，但是成本，通貨膨脹，當我們不僅考慮我們自己的車隊的運營成本，而且考慮整個車隊的運營成本，以及卡車裝載空間中費率直線下降的情況時，與我們在過去 12 或 14 個月中在多式聯運中看到的減少百分比相比，下降了 2 倍以上。顯然，我們非常密切關注卡車裝載能力的變化，我們確實開始看到那裡的市場退出。在某些時候，這將不得不改變。我們希望這件事早點發生。正如達倫所說，客戶仍然承受著巨大的壓力。他們只是不會把它給你。但我確實覺得某些事情會在某個時候發生轉變。這只是是否的問題，而不是何時的問題，所以這就是我的回應。

Your next question comes from the line of Bruce Chan from Stifel.

您的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Bruce Chan。

Brad Hicks, maybe just sticking with you here on the ICS side. I noticed that sequential gap down in the contractual business percentage. I was just wondering that's due to maybe capturing some seasonal spot opportunity. Was that more a function of the mix from BNSF or was that a function of the culling that you're talking about? And then maybe just thinking through potability in the segment, do you expect the acquisition and integration cost to kind of moderate this quarter? Or are we still working through some of those.

Brad Hicks，也許只是在 ICS 方面繼續支持您。我注意到合約業務百分比的連續差距下降。我只是想知道這可能是因為抓住了一些季節性的現貨機會。這更多的是 BNSF 混合的作用還是你所說的剔除的作用？然後，也許只是考慮一下該領域的可行性，您是否預計本季的收購和整合成本會有所下降？或者我們仍在解決其中的一些問題。

Can you repeat the very first part of your question, if you don't mind?

如果您不介意的話，可以重複您問題的第一部分嗎？

No, not at all. Just looking at that ICS move down in the contractual business percentage, so I think it was 59%. Is that seasonal spot opportunity? Was that BNSF mix? Or was that some of the culling that you've been doing?

一點都不。只要看看 ICS 在合約業務百分比中的下降，我認為是 59%。這是季節性現貨機會嗎？那是 BNSF 的混合物嗎？或者這是你一直在進行的一些剔除？

Great. Okay. Thank you. Well, first, let me correct when I ended the last question, I said if not when it's when not yes. Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself there. But we feel that coming in right around 59% contract. A little bit lower than what we had been. Certainly, the mix of business that we saw come through in the over-the-road assets of the BNSF acquisition that did play a factor. I think that as we move forward, as you look at our history, largely, we like to be in that 50%. There's times where that swings higher on contract or published. We got overweighted during the pandemic, if you recall, on spot where we were greater than 50% spot. So the sweet spot would be for us to live in that 50% to 60%. So I'd like to think that that's going to maintain. But we're also going to need to see the spot market overall demand and spot market pickup. It still is relatively soft in that category. Compliance is very high amongst shipper tenders in terms of carriers accepting tender acceptance. And so we're going to pay real close attention as we move deeper in the year. do believe that you're likely to see when we do see the flip, you will start to see spot opportunities grow, and we'll be poised to take advantage of that.

偉大的。好的。謝謝。好吧，首先，讓我糾正一下我結束最後一個問題時，我說的是“如果不是”，“當不是”時。抱歉，我有點超前了。但我們認為 59% 左右的合約。比我們之前的水準低一點。當然，我們在 BNSF 收購的非公路資產中看到的業務組合確實發揮了作用。我認為，隨著我們前進，當你回顧我們的歷史時，很大程度上，我們希望成為那 50% 的人。有時合約或公佈的價格會波動得更高。如果你還記得的話，我們在疫情期間增加了超過 50% 的股票。因此，我們生活在 50% 到 60% 的人口中才是最佳選擇。所以我認為這種情況將會持續下去。但我們也需要看到現貨市場的整體需求和現貨市場的回升。在該類別中它仍然相對較軟。在承運人接受投標方面，托運人投標的合規性非常高。因此，隨著今年的深入，我們將密切關注。請相信，當我們確實看到翻轉時，您可能會看到，您將開始看到現貨機會的成長，而我們將準備好利用這一點。

Your next question comes from the line of David Vernon from Bernstein.

你的下一個問題來自伯恩斯坦的大衛‧弗農。

Quick clarification and then a question on the insurance stuff. So Shelley, I think you talked about growing dedicated EBIT maybe being challenging. Were you referring to like the GAAP EBIT number or the adjusted EBIT number. And then the real question I have for you is, John, I appreciate your comments on insurance being a recurring thing. But John Kuhlow, if we would look at what we did in terms of the $53 million going into reserves, however you change the premiums and the limits on the pulses. If 2023 happened exactly as it happened this year in terms of incidents and payouts, flashforward to 2024, if that just repeats, in 2024, are we taking another charge? Or are we not taking another charge.

快速澄清，然後詢問有關保險的問題。雪萊，我認為您談到了增加專用息稅前利潤可能具有挑戰性。您指的是 GAAP EBIT 數字還是調整後的 EBIT 數字。然後我要問你的真正問題是，約翰，我很欣賞你對保險這一反覆出現的問題的評論。但是約翰·庫洛（John Kuhlow），如果我們看看我們在 5300 萬美元的儲備金方面做了什麼，無論你如何改變保費和豆類的限制。如果 2023 年的事故和賠償情況與今年完全相同，那麼快轉到 2024 年，如果這種情況在 2024 年重演，我們是否會再次承擔責任？或者我們不再承擔其他責任。

So were you talking about the GAAP? Could you repeat that first question again? For Dedicated, Vernon?

那麼您是在談論公認會計準則嗎？你能再重複一次第一個問題嗎？為了奉獻，佛農？

First Question on Dedicated was, I think Shelley mentioned that it's going to be challenging to grow Dedicated from an EBIT perspective in this market. What you're referring to the GAAP number or the non-GAAP number?

關於 Dedicated 的第一個問題是，我認為 Shelley 提到，從息稅前利潤的角度來看，在這個市場上發展 Dedicated 將具有挑戰性。您指的是 GAAP 數字還是非 GAAP 數字？

Yes. I think, David, I don't want to answer that. This is Brad Delco, but I don't want to answer that question because it sounds like if we answer that, provides a little bit too much in guidance. I think Nick's intended purpose there and Shelley's intended purpose there was we had visibility and some fleet losses. And as a result, it's going to be hard to grow revenue and operating income in the quarter. I don't necessarily want to try to distinguish between whether that's on a GAAP or non-GAAP basis as we report, and we speak to everything in our financials on a GAAP basis.

是的。我想，大衛，我不想回答這個問題。我是布拉德·德爾科，但我不想回答這個問題，因為聽起來如果我們回答這個問題，就會提供太多的指導。我認為尼克和雪萊在那裡的預期目的是我們有可見性和一些艦隊損失。因此，本季的營收和營業收入將難以成長。正如我們所報告的那樣，我不一定想區分這是基於公認會計原則還是非公認會計原則，而且我們在財務方面的所有內容都是基於公認會計原則的。

And David, just a final point on insurance. If '23 were -- or '24 plays out like '23, as I mentioned, we look at our reserves quarterly. We feel like the reserves are properly valued these values were placed on prior period claims. So it is not our expectation that we have these charges going forward.

大衛，這是關於保險的最後一點。正如我所提到的，如果“23”是——或者“24”像“23”一樣，我們會每季查看我們的儲備金。我們認為準備金的估值是正確的，這些價值已計入前期索賠中。因此，我們預計未來不會有這些費用。

And we have no further questions in our queue at this time. I will now turn the conference over to John Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

目前我們的隊列中沒有其他問題。我現在將把會議交給執行長約翰·羅伯茨 (John Roberts) 致閉幕詞。

Great. Thank you, and I appreciate the interest in the call today. I would reiterate Goodbye and Good Riddance to 2023. With a couple of exceptions, we think about the performance in our Dedicated and Final Mile business, again, revealing what we believe is a very complementary portfolio of services built very intentionally and look at our performance and safety. We feel like there's a disconnect between our actual work and performance and investment and the results we're getting in the claims markets and the insurance markets. I think I look it like JBI Intermodal has kind of been in the gym all year, and we're carrying some extra positioning, but got a glimpse of that, Darren, in the fourth quarter of what that can lead us to then. I don't remember who said it, but I'm a 80s rock fan, and I heard Back in Black and I really like that because that will be something that I can use around here through the rest of our work. I would say that, while 2023 was a tough year. And in fact, we talked about our tenure a lot, but we've discussed here, none of us have really seen much in the lag of 2023. In many years, we're looking at decades of leadership here. And so I think on the toughest, I see it is also a very strengthening year. We had to lean in harder to get ready for '24. We had to ask ourselves a different type of question than we normally do. And through that work in prepping for '24 and dealing with '23, I do believe we're better prepared as we come out of. And I guess, I'll say when, not if, but when we come out of this freight recession, I'm totally and completely believe we are ready to respond to the needs of our customers. We are have extraordinarily strong alignment and commitment to our top priorities, our people, our technology and our capacity. And I would just say, let's watch for improvements while we continue to take care of our people who take care of our customers. And when that presents, I think we'll be very ready to serve and take it take advantage of that change in climate. So good riddance. Thanks for the memories, and I'll turn it over to Shelley to wrap this up.

偉大的。謝謝您，我很感謝您對今天的電話感興趣。我想重申2023 年的再見和擺脫。除了一些例外，我們再次考慮了我們的專用和最後一英里業務的表現，揭示了我們認為是非常有意構建的一個非常互補的服務組合，並審視了我們的表現和安全。我們覺得我們的實際工作、績效和投資與我們在索賠市場和保險市場獲得的結果之間存在脫節。我想我看起來 JBI Intermodal 一整年都在健身房裡，我們正在進行一些額外的定位，但達倫，在第四季度我們看到了這一點，這可以引導我們走向未來。我不記得是誰說的，但我是一個 80 年代的搖滾迷，我聽過《Back in Black》，我真的很喜歡它，因為我可以在接下來的工作中使用它。我想說的是，雖然 2023 年是艱難的一年。事實上，我們經常談論我們的任期，但我們在這裡討論過，沒有人真正看到 2023 年的滯後情況。多年來，我們在這裡關注的是數十年的領導力。因此，我認為在最艱難的一年裡，我認為這也是非常強大的一年。我們必須加倍努力，為 24 週年做好準備。我們必須問自己一個與平常不同類型的問題。透過為 24 世紀做準備和應對 23 世紀的工作，我確實相信我們在走出困境時已經做好了更好的準備。我想，我會說何時，而不是如果，而是當我們走出貨運衰退時，我完全相信我們已經準備好滿足客戶的需求。我們對我們的首要任務、我們的員工、我們的技術和我們的能力有著非常強烈的一致性和承諾。我只想說，讓我們在繼續照顧那些照顧客戶的員工的同時，專注於改進。當這種情況出現時，我認為我們將做好充分準備，利用氣候變遷提供服務並利用它。真好擺脫。謝謝你的回憶，我會把它交給雪萊來總結。

Thank you, John. And there is a saying that John Roberts has said for many years around here, and it is growth is oxygen. And I think that you saw some of that come into play in the fourth quarter in Intermodal. And that's exactly why we are built for scale. We do look at our investments for the long term, and we know that our customers want more of our services and want us to be more comprehensive and solving their supply chain challenges over the long term. And so we have spent 2023 getting prepared and ready for our customers. Now in 2024, we need to grow into our investments in our people, in our technology and our capacity. One of the ways that we will do that and why it's our priority #1, is making sure that we continue our operational excellence to further separate ourselves as the best-in-class in all 5 of our business units. That will allow us to create more value for our customers. They will recognize that value, and then we believe we can earn the right to have a conversation with our customers around cost. That is a key focus for us and that started on January 1.

謝謝你，約翰。約翰·羅伯茨 (John Roberts) 多年來一直在這裡說過一句話，那就是成長就是氧氣。我認為您在第四季度的多式聯運中看到了其中的一些作用。這正是我們追求規模化的原因。我們確實著眼於長期投資，我們知道我們的客戶想要更多我們的服務，並希望我們更加全面，長期解決他們的供應鏈挑戰。因此，我們在 2023 年為客戶做好了準備。到了 2024 年，我們需要加大對員工、技術和能力的投資。我們要做到這一點的方法之一，也是我們的首要任務之一，就是確保我們繼續保持卓越運營，進一步成為我們所有 5 個業務部門中的佼佼者。這將使我們能夠為客戶創造更多價值。他們會認識到這種價值，然後我們相信我們可以獲得與客戶圍繞成本進行對話的權利。這是我們從 1 月 1 日開始關注的重點。

Finally, that will allow us to continue focusing on driving long-term compounding returns for our shareholders. So those 3 key priorities as we march into 2024. And lets us have a happy dance that '23 is over, and we're moving into '24 because we're built for scale and we're ready for growth. But I would be remiss if I did not say we are remaining committed to people being our top priority. Our team of 35,000 people have worked so hard this year. They have been resilient. They have labored harder this year than likely any other year, at least in my 29-year career, and sometimes the fruit of their labor doesn't necessarily show it on paper. But we do believe, over the long term, the fruit of their labor will prove it for our customers, for our people and for our shareholders. For that, I thank you for your time and your interest. Cheers to '24.

最後，這將使我們能夠繼續專注於為股東帶來長期複合回報。因此，當我們邁入2024 年時，這3 個關鍵優先事項。讓我們一起快樂地跳舞，“23 年”已經結束，我們即將進入“24 年”，因為我們是為規模而生，我們已經為增長做好了準備。但如果我不說我們仍然致力於以人為本，那就是我的失職。這一年我們35,000人的團隊辛苦了。他們一直很有彈性。他們今年比任何其他年份都更努力工作，至少在我 29 年的職業生涯中是如此，有時他們的勞動成果並不一定會體現在紙面上。但我們確實相信，從長遠來看，他們的勞動成果將為我們的客戶、我們的員工和我們的股東證明這一點。為此，我感謝您的時間和興趣。為'24乾杯。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。