J B Hunt Transport Services Inc (JBHT) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to J.B. Hunt third-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加 J.B. Hunt 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brad Delco, Senior President of Finance. You may begin.

現在我想將會議交給財務高級總裁 Brad Delco 先生。你可以開始了。

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.

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。

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. 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 Exchange Commission.

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。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 we'd like to introduce the speakers on today's call. This afternoon, I'm joined by our President and CEO., Shelley Simpson; our CFO, John Kuhlow; Spencer Frazier, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing; our COO and President of Contract Services, Nick Hobbs; Darren Field, President of Intermodal; and Brad Hicks, President of Highway Services and Executive Vice President of People.

現在我們想介紹一下今天電話會議的發言人。今天下午，我們的總裁兼執行長 Shelley Simpson 也加入了我的行列。我們的財務長約翰·庫洛； Spencer Frazier，銷售和行銷執行副總裁；我們的營運長兼合約服務總裁 Nick Hobbs；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資源執行副總裁。

I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Ms. Shelley Simpson, for some opening comments. Shelley?

現在我想將電話轉給我們的執行長 Shelley Simpson 女士，請其發表一些開場評論。雪萊？

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon to everyone on the call.

謝謝布拉德，祝所有參加電話會議的人下午好。

First, our thoughts with those impacted by the recent hurricanes in the Southeast and Florida. Many of our employees were impacted, and I'm proud of how our company has responded to support them and the recovery relief efforts in these communities. The rebuilding will take time and J.B. Hunt we'll continue to support these efforts.

首先，我們對最近東南部和佛羅裡達州受颶風影響的人們的想法。我們的許多員工都受到了影響，我對我們公司為支持他們以及這些社區的恢復救援工作所做的反應感到自豪。重建需要時間，J.B. Hunt 我們將繼續支持這些努力。

Turning to the quarter, we continue to navigate a challenging freight environment while remaining focused on what we can control around our costs, providing exceptional service to our customers, preparing for their future transportation needs, and maintaining our focus on safety. As discussed last quarter, we have seen a return to more normal seasonal demand patterns as evidenced across our businesses in the third quarter, which the team will highlight in their remarks.

展望本季度，我們繼續應對充滿挑戰的貨運環境，同時繼續專注於我們可以控制的成本，為客戶提供卓越的服務，為他們未來的運輸需求做好準備，並保持對安全的關注。正如上季所討論的，我們看到第三季我們的業務已恢復到更正常的季節性需求模式，團隊將在其演講中強調這一點。

I remain confident in our strategy as we execute on our priorities, which, as a reminder, are: one, to deliver our exceptional value to our customers through operational excellence; two, scale our long-term investments in our company's foundations, which our people, technology, and capacity; and three, drive long-term value and returns for our shareholders.

我對我們的策略充滿信心，因為我們執行我們的優先事項，提醒一下，這些優先事項是：第一，透過卓越的營運為客戶提供卓越的價值；第二，擴大對公司基礎的長期投資，即我們的人員、技術和能力；第三，為股東帶來長期價值與回報。

Our focus remains on how we can deliver value for our customers with excellent service while looking for ways to drive waste out of their supply chain. We do have some more positive signs in the business to support our work in this area, particularly around our volume trends, customer awards, and third-party surveys to highlight J. B. Hunt's performance. I see more evidence today that we can scale our investments in our people, technology, and capacity to capture additional market share at better returns as the freight cycle inflection occurs.

我們的重點仍然是如何透過卓越的服務為客戶創造價值，同時尋找消除供應鏈浪費的方法。我們的業務確實有一些更積極的跡象來支持我們在這一領域的工作，特別是圍繞我們的銷售趨勢、客戶獎勵和第三方調查來突出 J. B. Hunt 的表現。今天我看到更多證據表明，隨著貨運週期轉折點的發生，我們可以擴大對人員、技術和能力的投資，以更好的回報佔領更多的市場份額。

I remain confident in our strategy and maintain our focus on generating appropriate returns on capital to deliver value for our shareholders. As we prepare for an eventual churn in the freight market, we have focused our organization on being operationally excellent and delivering unmatched value for our customers. By controlling what we can right now, we position ourselves to grow with our customers, knowing that these key service components are ingrained in our people.

我對我們的策略仍然充滿信心，並繼續致力於創造適當的資本回報，為股東創造價值。當我們為貨運市場的最終動盪做好準備時，我們將組織的重點放在卓越營運上，並為客戶提供無與倫比的價值。透過控制我們現在能做的事情，我們使自己能夠與客戶一起成長，因為我們知道這些關鍵的服務組成部分已經根植於我們的員工之中。

At the same time, we know we need to repair our margins to generate acceptable returns to reinvest in the business. And our customers are and should be aware of that as well. We take great pride in providing high-quality service in all that we do, which is the testament to the dedication that our people have to serve customers well. Creating value for our customers is core to what we do and helps build long-term strategic relationships.

同時，我們知道我們需要修復利潤率，以產生可接受的回報來對業務進行再投資。我們的客戶也應該意識到這一點。我們為我們所做的一切提供高品質的服務感到非常自豪，這證明了我們的員工致力於為客戶提供良好的服務。為客戶創造價值是我們工作的核心，有助於建立長期策略關係。

Customer value delivery or CVD is a process that we have used for a while in our Dedicated business, and we continue to roll this out across our entire organization. Part of the value we create is through our safety culture and performance, which is a strength of our business and we have continued to improve upon last year's record performance as Nick will discuss. The team will provide more details on each of our businesses.

客戶價值交付或 CVD 是我們在專用業務中使用了一段時間的流程，並且我們將繼續在整個組織中推廣此流程。我們創造的部分價值是透過我們的安全文化和績效實現的，這是我們業務的優勢，正如尼克將討論的那樣，我們在去年創紀錄的績效的基礎上繼續改進。團隊將提供有關我們每項業務的更多詳細資訊。

But in summary, I continue to have strong conviction around our strategy and the growth potential of our company. We have and we will continue to prove our ability to deliver outperformance for our people, our customers, and our shareholders. Our confidence comes from our people, our experience, our complementary suite of services, our scale, our strategic investments, and our financial strength.

但總而言之，我仍然對我們的策略和公司的成長潛力充滿信心。我們已經並將繼續證明我們有能力為我們的員工、客戶和股東提供卓越的績效。我們的信心來自我們的員工、我們的經驗、我們的配套服務、我們的規模、我們的策略投資和我們的財務實力。

All of these uniquely position us for the future as we pursue our vision to create the most efficient transportation network in North America.

所有這些都為我們的未來奠定了獨特的地位，因為我們追求創建北美最高效的運輸網絡的願景。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, John Kuhlow. John?

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.

謝謝你，雪萊，大家午安。

Similar to recent quarters, my comments will cover a high-level review of the quarter, an update on our cost control efforts, and an update on our capital allocation plan for the remainder of 2024. As a general overview, while we have seen some slight moderation in inflationary cost pressures, the inflationary rate environment continues to pressure overall margin performance across the segments.

與最近幾季類似，我的評論將涵蓋本季度的高層審查、成本控制工作的最新情況以及 2024 年剩餘時間的資本分配計劃的最新情況。略有緩和，但通膨環境持續對各部門的整體利潤率表現構成壓力。

Let me start with a quick review of the third quarter. On a consolidated GAAP basis compared to the prior year period, revenue declined 3%, operating income declined 7%, and diluted earnings per share decreased 17%. We saw our volumes on a sequential basis outperform normal seasonality, particularly in JBI but also in our highway services business, which includes both ICS and JBT.

讓我先快速回顧一下第三季。與去年同期相比，以合併 GAAP 計算，營收下降 3%，營業收入下降 7%，攤薄每股收益下降 17%。我們發現我們的銷售量較上月優於正常季節性，特別是在 JBI，而且在我們的高速公路服務業務（包括 ICS 和 JBT）中也是如此。

That said, overall yield pressure in these areas continue to put pressure on margins and our overall profitability. We continue to focus on productivity, efficiency, and discretionary cost areas to enhance our performance across all of our businesses. We believe this is evidence and supported by what we believe to be industry-leading margin and return performances in our two largest segments, both intermodal and Dedicated.

也就是說，這些領域的整體收益率壓力繼續對利潤率和我們的整體獲利能力構成壓力。我們持續專注於生產力、效率和可自由支配成本領域，以提高我們所有業務的績效。我們相信這是證據，並得到我們認為在我們兩個最大的細分市場（聯運和專用）行業領先的利潤率和回報表現的支持。

Going forward for the full year, we expect our tax rate to be approximately 24.5%, which should imply a decent step down in our fourth-quarter tax rate comparison to the prior three quarters. The update on our cost control efforts, we have made significant improvements across the business to right size our cost structure, mostly evidenced in our highway services businesses as both JBT and ICS improve their operating margins compared to prior year period.

展望全年，我們預計稅率約為 24.5%，這意味著我們第四季的稅率將比前三個季度大幅下降。在我們的成本控制工作的更新中，我們在整個業務範圍內做出了重大改進，以調整我們的成本結構，這主要體現在我們的高速公路服務業務中，因為JBT 和ICS 的營業利潤率與上年同期相比有所提高。

We remain thoughtful in our approach to managing our costs, focusing on controlling what we can in the near term without jeopardizing our ability to support future growth and our aggregate earnings power potential. Our focus on cost has been broad based and covers the entire span of our company.

我們在管理成本的方法上仍然深思熟慮，重點是在不損害我們支持未來成長的能力和我們的總獲利潛力的情況下，在短期內控制我們能做的事情。我們對成本的關注範圍廣泛，涵蓋了我們公司的整個業務範圍。

Wrapping up with an update to our 2024 capital plan, we now expect our net capital expenditures for the year to be approximately $625 million, which is below our previously revised expectation of $650 million to $700 million. Our update from the prior quarter largely reflects the sale of all the chassis is that we acquired from Walmart, which will not fit the containers we purchased following our retrofitting of those assets.

在更新 2024 年資本計畫時，我們現在預計今年的淨資本支出約為 6.25 億美元，低於我們先前修訂的 6.5 億至 7 億美元的預期。我們上一季的更新很大程度上反映了我們從沃爾瑪購買的所有底盤的銷售，這些底盤不適合我們在改造這些資產後購買的貨櫃。

The sale reduces the net purchase price of those assets and gives us even greater confidence in the strategic value of that transaction for our customers, and importantly, our shareholders.

此次出售降低了這些資產的淨購買價格，並使我們對該交易對我們的客戶（尤其是我們的股東）的策略價值更有信心。

Our balance sheet remained strong. And during the quarter, we repurchased approximately $200 million of stock. With limited near-term capital needs with regards to equipment, our current leverage position, market dynamics, and our view on where we are in the cycle, we continue to believe a disciplined approach to share repurchases is prudent use of capital at this time.

我們的資產負債表依然強勁。在本季度，我們回購了大約 2 億美元的股票。由於設備、我們目前的槓桿狀況、市場動態以及我們對所處週期位置的看法，近期資本需求有限，我們仍然認為，目前採取嚴格的股票回購方法是謹慎使用資本的做法。

This concludes my remarks, and I'll now turn it over to Spencer.

我的發言到此結束，現在我將其轉交給史賓塞。

Thank you, John, and good afternoon.

謝謝你，約翰，下午好。

I'll provide an update on the market, our commercial strategy, and some feedback we're hearing from our customers.

我將提供有關市場的最新資訊、我們的商業策略以及我們從客戶那裡聽到的一些反饋。

In the third quarter, we saw a continuation more normal seasonal demand patterns, particularly across our intermodal and highway segments. In JBT and ICS, we had experienced modestly improving volume trends and some pockets of tightness across the country, which would or should be expected around a month end and quarter end. Well, in general, capacity remains readily available in the market on the highway side of the business, some customers are beginning to use more many bids to fill some out-of-cycle capacity needs.

在第三季度，我們看到了更正常的季節性需求模式的延續，特別是在我們的多式聯運和高速公路領域。在 JBT 和 ICS，我們經歷了全國範圍內銷售趨勢的適度改善和一些緊張的情況，這將或應該預計在月末和季度末左右。嗯，總的來說，高速公路方面的市場容量仍然很容易獲得，一些客戶開始使用更多的投標來滿足一些週期外的容量需求。

Additionally, there is interest in adding more collaborative, long-term planning discussions around business strategies. Historically, both of these engagements have been indicative that supply and demand are becoming more in balance. When we have conversations with customers around their transportation needs, we highlight the value or score of service and present and focus on excellence to ensure all of our customer needs are being met.

此外，人們有興趣圍繞業務策略添加更多協作的長期規劃討論。從歷史上看，這兩項活動都表明供需正在變得更加平衡。當我們與客戶圍繞他們的運輸需求進行對話時，我們會強調服務的價值或分數，並展示和關注卓越，以確保滿足所有客戶的需求。

Our goal is to achieve the top ranking on each of our customer's service provider scorecards. With some customers, we've achieved our goal; while with others, we have some opportunities to improve. Through our mode neutral sales strategy, we work with our customers to develop an optimal solution for their needs with our people leveraging our full suite of services and technology to create value. We believe this is a clear differentiator for J.B. Hunt in the market.

我們的目標是在每位客戶的服務提供者記分卡上獲得最高排名。對於一些客戶，我們已經實現了我們的目標；而與其他人相比，我們有一些改進的機會。透過我們的模式中立銷售策略，我們與客戶合作，開發滿足他們需求的最佳解決方案，我們的員工利用我們的全套服務和技術來創造價值。我們相信這是 J.B. Hunt 在市場上的一個明顯的差異化因素。

Our focus is on providing the best customer experience with every interaction we have well living up to our state and culture. We know that excellent service the first time leads to opportunities for future growth across our customer supply chain, and we are committed to achieving both.

我們的重點是在每次互動中提供最佳的客戶體驗，以符合我們的國家和文化。我們知道，第一次的優質服務將為我們的客戶供應鏈帶來未來成長的機會，我們致力於實現這兩點。

I'll close with some feedback we're hearing from customers. First, we are beginning to execute the peak season plans we developed with our customers. While some volumes were pulled forward into Q3, we also incurred more peak season start-up costs to pre-position resources to serve our customers peak demand in Q4.

最後我將提供一些我們從客戶那裡聽到的回饋。首先，我們開始執行與客戶制定的旺季計畫。雖然部分銷售被推遲到第三季度，但我們也產生了更多的旺季啟動成本，以預先配置資源以滿足第四季度客戶的高峰需求。

Secondly, each customer, regardless of size and industry is, unique. Within our diverse portfolio, our customers are somewhat mixed on the outlooks for demand for their products and what their transportation needs will look like in the near to medium term.

其次，每個客戶，無論規模和行業，都是獨一無二的。在我們多元化的產品組合中，我們的客戶對其產品的需求前景以及中短期內的運輸需求的看法有些複雜。

While that is our view on the market, we believe we are in a strong position to take share based on the value we can create for our customers with our people, technology, and most importantly, our consistent service levels.

雖然這是我們對市場的看法，但我們相信，基於我們能夠利用我們的人員、技術，最重要的是我們始終如一的服務水準為客戶創造的價值，我們在搶佔市場份額方面處於有利地位。

Lastly, as we sit here today, capacity is not a top concern for customers, but they are aware the current market dynamics will shift; though the timing and rate of change remains uncertain. Customers are also aware that there has been significant cost inflation across our industry and margins are under pressure. With these knowns, we will continue to work with them to help drive efficiencies across their supply chain while balancing our need to repair our margins.

最後，當我們今天坐在這裡時，容量並不是客戶最關心的問題，但他們意識到當前的市場動態將會改變；儘管變化的時間和速度仍不確定。客戶也意識到，整個產業的成本大幅上漲，利潤率面臨壓力。有了這些知識，我們將繼續與他們合作，幫助提高整個供應鏈的效率，同時平衡我們對修復利潤的需求。

We remain committed to investing in our business and growing with our customers over the long term by delivering consistent value at the high service levels they've come to expect from J.B. Hunt.

我們仍然致力於投資我們的業務，並透過為客戶提供一致的價值以及他們對 J.B. Hunt 的期望的高服務水準來與客戶共同成長。

That concludes my remarks. So I's would now like to turn the call over to Nick.

我的發言到此結束。所以我現在想把電話轉給尼克。

Thanks, Spencer, and good afternoon.

謝謝，史賓塞，下午好。

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. Our Dedicated business model is focused on providing professional, outsourced private fleet solutions to our customers, performed well during the quarter. We believe the resiliency in the performance in this segment stands out in the market and supports our differentiated model and go-to-market strategy.

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。我們的專用業務模式專注於為客戶提供專業的外包私人車隊解決方案，在本季表現良好。我們相信該細分市場的業績彈性在市場上脫穎而出，並支持我們的差異化模式和進入市場策略。

While we have discussed some pressure on the fleet size due to customer downsizing bankruptcies and as a result are remaining disciplined on our underwriting return hurdles, we believe the market remained stable with ample opportunities for future growth. During the third quarter, we sold 258 trucks of new deals, which some we expect to sign in Q3 spilling over into Q4 due to the timing.

雖然我們討論了由於客戶縮減破產而對機隊規模造成的一些壓力，並因此對我們的承保回報障礙保持嚴格，但我們相信市場保持穩定，未來有充足的成長機會。第三季度，我們銷售了 258 輛卡車的新交易，由於時間安排，我們預計其中一些交易將在第三季簽署，並延續到第四季。

Our sales pipeline remains strong and our team has worked hard to backfill most of those truck losses we have experienced this year. We have started up a significant number of customer locations and truck over the past two quarters, which has had an impact on our margin as mature business has been replaced by newer, less-mature business. That said, we remain disciplined on new customer wins and are confident that this new business will generate both appropriate margins, and more importantly, returns on capital once they ramp to maturity.

我們的銷售管道仍然強勁，我們的團隊努力彌補今年經歷的大部分卡車損失。在過去的兩個季度中，我們啟動了大量的客戶網點和卡車，這對我們的利潤率產生了影響，因為成熟的業務已被更新的、不太成熟的業務所取代。也就是說，我們在贏得新客戶方面仍然保持紀律，並相信這項新業務將產生適當的利潤，更重要的是，一旦它們成熟，就會產生資本回報。

Going forward, we expect new account growth sales remained stable within our long-term stated range of 1,000 to 1,200 trucks on an annualized basis. But keeping in mind, growth and operating income typically lags fleet growth by a few quarters.

展望未來，我們預計新客戶成長銷售將保持穩定在我們長期規定的年化 1,000 至 1,200 輛卡車範圍內。但請記住，成長和營業收入通常落後於機隊成長幾季。

Shifting to Final Mile, we have made significant progress to improve the overall health of our business focusing on high-quality service and revenue quality while remaining cost disciplined through the process. We are seeing the market for big and bulky delivery evolve with customers looking for high-quality service providers with national scale and strong safety standards.

轉向“最後一英里”，我們在改善業務的整體健康狀況方面取得了重大進展，重點關注高品質的服務和收入質量，同時在整個過程中保持成本控制。我們看到，隨著客戶尋找具有全國規模和嚴格安全標準的高品質服務供應商，大件運輸市場不斷發展。

Overall, demand for big and bulky products remains somewhat challenged, with continued soft demand for furniture and modestly soft trends in exercise equipment and appliances. While we remained encouraged by our sales pipeline and continue to engage in discussions with new brands, we have seen some customer burn, which impacted the top-line and bottom-line performance in the quarter.

總體而言，由於對家具的需求持續疲軟以及運動器材和電器的適度疲軟趨勢，對大型產品的需求仍然受到一定程度的挑戰。雖然我們仍然對我們的銷售管道感到鼓舞，並繼續與新品牌進行討論，但我們已經看到一些客戶流失，這影響了本季的營收和利潤表現。

Our focus remains on providing the highest-service levels as we deliver products into the homes of our customers' customer with our priority on being safe and secure. We will remain disciplined with potential new business to ensure appropriate returns for our service while we work to grow the business and improve profitability.

我們的重點仍然是提供最高的服務水平，將產品運送到客戶的客戶家中，並優先考慮安全可靠。我們將繼續嚴格對待潛在的新業務，以確保我們的服務獲得適當的回報，同時努力發展業務並提高獲利能力。

Going forward, while we are encouraged by the improvement in our Final Mile business this year, we remain focused on growing the business profitably with the right customers that recognize the value we provide.

展望未來，雖然我們對今年「最後一哩路」業務的改善感到鼓舞，但我們仍然專注於與認可我們提供的價值的合適客戶一起實現業務盈利。

Similar to last quarter. I'll close with some comments on safety. Our company is rooted in a foundation of safety for not only our people but also the motoring public. And we continue to invest in training and equipment to enhance our already strong safety culture.

與上季類似。我將以一些關於安全的評論作為結束。我們公司的根基是為我們的員工和廣大駕駛者提供安全保障。我們繼續投資於培訓和設備，以增強我們業已強大的安全文化。

In 2023, we had a record performance in terms of DOT preventable accidents per million miles. And so for year to date, I am pleased to say we have improved further. I am also pleased to announce that we hit our previously stated goal of being 100% rolled out with inward-facing cameras in our trucks by the end of the third quarter. These cameras are just one of many innovative safety initiatives we have rolled out that continues to contribute to our safety culture and performance.

2023 年，我們在每百萬英里 DOT 可預防事故方面取得了創紀錄的成績。因此，今年迄今為止，我很高興地說我們取得了進一步的進步。我還很高興地宣布，我們實現了先前設定的目標，即到第三季末在卡車上 100% 配備內向攝影機。這些攝影機只是我們推出的眾多創新安全措施之一，這些措施將繼續為我們的安全文化和績效做出貢獻。

As you're aware, the cost of claims have elevated. So we continue to manage and mitigate risk by remaining focused on our safety performance.

如您所知，索賠成本有所上升。因此，我們透過繼續關注我們的安全績效來繼續管理和降低風險。

This concludes my remarks, so I would like to turn the call over to Darren.

我的發言到此結束，所以我想將電話轉給達倫。

Thank you, Nick, and thank you to everyone for joining us this afternoon on the call. Let me start with the review of intermodals performance during the quarter.

謝謝尼克，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們的電話會議。讓我先回顧一下本季多式聯運的表現。

Overall, we saw the momentum from the second quarter accelerate into the third quarter as our overall volume was up 5% year over year, which modestly outperformed normal seasonality. Volume growth during the third quarter was driven by 7% growth in transcon with Southern California outbound volumes up double digits once again this quarter and 3% growth in the East. By month, our consolidated volumes were up 7% in July, up 4% in August, and up 4% in September .

總體而言，我們看到第二季度的勢頭加速進入第三季度，我們的整體銷量同比增長了 5%，略好於正常的季節性。第三季的出口量成長是由運輸量成長 7% 推動的，南加州出境量本季再次成長兩位數，東部成長 3%。按月來看，我們的綜合銷量在 7 月成長了 7%，在 8 月成長了 4%，在 9 月成長了 4%。

In the East, we continue to compete more directly with one-way truckload, but as evidenced by our overall volume improvement this quarter, we are beginning to win back small amounts of freight from customers due to our strong service levels and ability to meet their capacity needs. As we look to our bid warehouse, we continue to see a large amount of freight that we believe should be converted from over the road to intermodal as it is more economical and environmentally friendly. We stand ready and have the capacity and people in place to meet and exceed our customer service needs both now and in the years ahead.

在東部，我們繼續與單程卡車裝載進行更直接的競爭，但正如本季度我們的整體運量改善所證明的那樣，由於我們強大的服務水平和滿足客戶需求的能力，我們開始從客戶那裡贏回少量貨運。當我們查看我們的投標倉庫時，我們繼續看到大量貨運，我們認為應該將其從公路運輸轉換為多式聯運，因為它更經濟、更環保。我們已做好準備，並擁有足夠的能力和人員來滿足和超越我們現在和未來幾年的客戶服務需求。

During the quarter, we did see margin pressure year over year. And despite a modest improvement in margins sequentially, we did incur additional expenses in the third quarter. You've heard me say that right now volume means more to us than it has ever before, and that remains true. However, pricing has been and is still the biggest lever to improve margins. While we did see sequential volume growth, we absorbed additional expense during the quarter to keep our network fluid in light of the imbalances caused by the strength in our network, specifically out of Southern California.

在本季度，我們確實看到了同比的利潤壓力。儘管利潤率連續略有改善，但我們在第三季確實產生了額外費用。你聽我說過，現在成交量對我們來說比以往任何時候都更重要，這仍然是事實。然而，定價一直是、現在仍然是提高利潤率的最大槓桿。雖然我們確實看到了銷量的環比增長，但鑑於我們的網絡實力（特別是南加州以外的網絡）造成的不平衡，我們在本季度吸收了額外的費用，以保持我們的網絡流暢。

We are encouraged by the improvement we are seeing in customer bid compliance, which will provide us better opportunities in the future to fill in lane and balances and drive greater efficiencies in the network. Going forward and as a reminder, we implemented the remaining pricing from our 2024 bid season during the third quarter. And given the nature of our pricing cycle, we will be living with a large portion of current pricing through the first half of 2025.

我們對客戶投標合規性的改善感到鼓舞，這將為我們在未來提供更好的機會來填補車道和餘額並提高網路效率。展望未來，謹此提醒，我們在第三季實施了 2024 年投標季的剩餘定價。考慮到我們定價週期的性質，到 2025 年上半年，我們將維持目前定價的很大一部分。

We just kicked off our 2025 bid season, and we do like our position, given our service levels and ability to handle customer surge demand that we have been experiencing. We continue to see truckload pricing that we believe is unsustainable over the long term, particularly in the Eastern network. We have recently seen some shippers look to convert small amounts of freight from truck to rail in the East, which we are encouraged by and highlights our service and value proposition that we and our rail providers are able to provide.

我們剛開始 2025 年投標季，考慮到我們的服務水準和處理客戶激增需求的能力，我們確實喜歡我們的立場。我們繼續看到整車定價從長遠來看是不可持續的，特別是在東部網路。最近，我們看到一些托運人希望在東部將少量貨運從卡車轉向鐵路，我們對此感到鼓舞，並強調了我們和我們的鐵路供應商所能提供的服務和價值主張。

With regard to our rail service providers, we have been pleased with the service levels from each of them, their commitment to the intermodal offering and growing the overall market. That said, we and our railroad providers know the true test of our collective service will come once freight volumes increase with higher overall demand on our networks.

至於我們的鐵路服務供應商，我們對他們每個人的服務水準、他們對多式聯運服務和整體市場發展的承諾感到滿意。也就是說，我們和我們的鐵路提供者都知道，一旦貨運量隨著我們網路的整體需求增加而增加，我們集體服務的真正考驗就會到來。

We have been in constant dialogue with them that this peak could serve as one of many prove-it moments to show customers that we collectively can handle significant growth while maintaining proper service. Maintaining service during periods of stronger demand like we are experiencing today supports the case for intermodal growth and additional conversion from over-the-road freight. Our conviction in the strength of our intermodal franchise hasn't wavered.

我們一直在與他們進行持續對話，認為這一高峰可以作為眾多證明時刻之一，向客戶表明我們可以共同應對顯著增長，同時保持適當的服務。在像我們今天這樣的需求強勁時期維持服務，支持了多式聯運的成長和公路貨運的額外轉換。我們對多式聯運專營權實力的信念從未動搖。

Our customers trust us. Our service levels are exceptional. And our optimism on the future growth for our intermodal business hasn't changed.

我們的客戶信任我們。我們的服務水準非常出色。我們對多式聯運業務未來成長的樂觀態度並沒有改變。

That concludes my prepared remarks, and I'll turn it over to Brad Hicks.

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, everyone.

謝謝達倫，大家下午好。

I'll review the performance of our integrated capacity solutions and truckload segments. I will also provide an update on some of our work in J.B. Hunt 360. Starting with ICS, the overall brokerage environment remains competitive with pressure on both volume and rate. That said, I am encouraged by some of the progress we have made to stabilize trends in the business.

我將回顧我們的綜合容量解決方案和卡車裝載部分的表現。我還將介紹我們在 J.B. Hunt 360 中的一些工作的最新情況。儘管如此，我對我們在穩定業務趨勢方面取得的一些進展感到鼓舞。

Segment gross revenue declined 7% year over year in the third quarter, driven by a 10% decline in volume, partially offset by 3% increase in revenue per load. Sequentially, ICS volume increased 2% as our efforts to diversify and strengthen our customer base are starting to yield results. While we continue to focus on quality revenue and growing with the right customers, we have also made strides to right size the cost structure of our business, especially in our legacy ICS business.

第三季度，由於銷量下降 10%，該部門總收入年減 7%，但每負載收入成長 3% 部分抵消了這一影響。隨後，隨著我們多元化和加強客戶群的努力開始取得成果，ICS 銷售量成長了 2%。在我們繼續專注於優質收入並與合適的客戶一起成長的同時，我們也在調整業務成本結構方面取得了長足進步，尤其是在我們的傳統 ICS 業務中。

Segment gross margins were high at 17.9% for the quarter, highlighting our disciplined bid strategy, effective sourcing, and was also aided by some project-related work. We continue to make progress on our costs and better aligning our resources with our current business levels.

本季的分部毛利率高達 17.9%，凸顯了我們嚴謹的投標策略、有效的採購，以及一些專案相關工作的幫助。我們繼續在成本方面取得進展，並更好地將我們的資源與當前的業務水平相結合。

In the quarter, we did incur some additional expense related to the integration of the brokerage assets of BNSF Logistics, which had an approximately $2 million negative impact on our operating expenses in the quarter as compared to the second quarter .

本季度，我們確實產生了一些與 BNSF Logistics 經紀資產整合相關的額外費用，與第二季度相比，這對我們本季的營運費用產生了約 200 萬美元的負面影響。

Going forward, we will remain focused on further diversifying our customer base, continuing to right size our cost structure and leveraging our technology to scale growth. We will need to scale the business with more volume on the platform to return the business to acceptable levels of profitability.

展望未來，我們將繼續專注於進一步多元化我們的客戶群，繼續調整我們的成本結構，並利用我們的技術來擴大成長。我們需要擴大平台上的業務規模，使業務恢復到可接受的獲利水準。

Moving over to JBT or truckload, segment gross revenue was down 12% year over year, driven by a 6% decrease in volume and a 6% decrease in revenue per load. Our focus remains on attracting the right freight that best fits our network while ensuring that our capacity is positioned in the right markets to meet customer needs.

轉向 JBT 或卡車裝載，該部門的總收入年減 12%，原因是銷量下降 6%，每裝載收入下降 6%。我們的重點仍然是吸引最適合我們網路的合適貨運，同時確保我們的運力定位在正確的市場，以滿足客戶需求。

We've seen customer bid compliance improved throughout the year, which allows us to better plan our capacity, which provides efficiency across our network and has contributed to the improved profitability in our JBT business.

我們看到客戶投標合規性在這一年中得到了改善，這使我們能夠更好地規劃我們的產能，從而提高了整個網路的效率，並有助於提高我們 JBT 業務的盈利能力。

Our service levels have been very strong and at the highest level since the shift to our power-only model, J.B. Hunt 360box in 2019. Our high-service levels combined with the flexibility of the drop trailer network position us well for future growth with new and existing customers.

自 2019 年轉向純動力型號 J.B. Hunt 360box 以來，我們的服務水準一直非常強勁，處於最高水準。和現有客戶。

Going forward, we continue to expect to see some pressure on volumes. That said, I am confident in the network discipline that we have and the growth opportunities in front of us as we head into the 2025 bid season.

展望未來，我們仍預期銷售將面臨一些壓力。也就是說，我對我們擁有的網路紀律以及在進入 2025 年申辦季節時面臨的成長機會充滿信心。

I'll close with some comments on 360. Technology is foundational to our company and is the piece that connects and empowers our people to the available capacity we have to serve our customers. A lot of the significant investments into the foundations of our platform have been complete.

最後，我將對 360 發表一些評論。對我們平台基礎的許多重大投資已經完成。

That said, we continue to leverage this foundation into new market opportunities, for example, rolling out the platform to the agents we acquired from the brokerage assets of the BNSF Logistics and also to the SMB and LTL markets while also improving cargo security in our business. We continue to believe our technology investments will drive greater productivity and efficiency gains across the scroll and better position us for long-term growth with our customers.

也就是說，我們繼續利用這個基礎來開拓新的市場機會，例如，將該平台推廣到我們從 BNSF Logistics 經紀資產收購的代理商以及中小企業和零擔市場，同時提高我們業務中的貨物安全性。我們仍然相信，我們的技術投資將推動整個行業更高的生產力和效率提升，並為我們與客戶的長期成長奠定更好的基礎。

This concludes my comments, so I'll turn the call back to the operator to provide instructions for the Q&A portion of the call.

我的評論到此結束，因此我會將電話轉回給接線員，以提供電話問答部分的說明。

(Operator Instructions) Ken Hoexter, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）Ken Hoexter，美國銀行。

Wow. Great. Appreciate being upfront. And I guess, Shelley, you would cut me off if I asked on November 16, how many points Texas will win by, so I will not ask that.

哇。偉大的。感謝您的坦率。我想，雪萊，如果我在 11 月 16 日問德克薩斯州會贏多少分，你會打斷我的話，所以我不會問這個。

You noted normal intermodal patterns. But I guess looking at how much was pulled forward, can you estimate how much was the results were aided by the pull forward? And Darren, you noted business is strong now, I guess, given the post hurricanes, catch-up from strike or is this just the peak season improvement? I'm wondering if we see the slowdown faster because of those earlier shipments. I know a lot in there, but I'm trying to understand that the impact of the pre-shipping.

您注意到正常的聯運模式。但我想看看向前拉了多少，你能估計一下向前拉對結果有多少幫助嗎？達倫，你注意到現在的生意很強勁，我想，考慮到颶風過後、罷工的影響，或者這只是旺季的改善？我想知道我們是否會因為較早的發貨而看到更快的放緩。我在那裡知道很多，但我試圖了解預發貨的影響。

Sure. So Ken, appreciate the question. I'm sure Spencer might have some thoughts as well.

當然。肯，謝謝你提出這個問題。我相信斯賓塞也可能有一些想法。

Look, as we went into peak season planning, we communicated with all of our customers and look for as much of their advice we can get and prepared our plans. We certainly know that there were customers that were shifting business back to the West Coast from the East because it fit their network well. We had customers shifting freight from the East back to the West because of fears of a potential labor strike on the East Coast. We had customers talking about a pull forward just from a preparedness and an overall capacity standpoint.

看，當我們進入旺季計劃時，我們與所有客戶進行了溝通，並尋求盡可能多的建議並準備了我們的計劃。我們當然知道有些客戶正在將業務從東部轉移回西海岸，因為這非常適合他們的網路。由於擔心東海岸可能發生罷工，我們的客戶將貨物從東部轉移回西部。我們讓客戶談論僅從準備和整體容量的角度進行推進。

And we had many, many customers that said normal peak. So I think that the results are really -- in terms of a mixed bag, in terms of how much was pulled forward, we don't really know. I don't want to tell you that none of it was. Some of that was certainly pulled forward.

我們有很多很多客戶說正常高峰。所以我認為結果確實是——就混合情況而言，就向前推進了多少而言，我們真的不知道。我不想告訴你這一切都不是。其中一些肯定被提前了。

We do have a lot of customers that continue to expect a normal peak as we go through the fourth quarter. So we do anticipate continued demand for our services and we'll have to wait and see if it's a faster pull down. But at this point, I think we're expecting things to behave what we consider normal.

我們確實有很多客戶繼續預計第四季會出現正常的高峰。因此，我們確實預計對我們服務的需求將持續存在，我們將不得不等待，看看是否會出現更快的下降。但在這一點上，我認為我們期望事情會以我們認為正常的方式進行。

Spencer, I don't know if you have some thoughts you'd like to share there.

史賓塞，我不知道你是否有一些想法想分享。

Yeah, Darren, thanks for that, and Ken, appreciate your question.

是的，達倫，謝謝你，肯，謝謝你的問題。

A couple of things just regarding the port strike in the East. As Darren mentioned, our customers really deployed a handful of different strategies. Some of that was a little bit of a shift to the West. Some of it may be pulled some inventory in ahead of that strike. And others had a wait-and-see approach.

關於東部港口罷工的一些事情。正如達倫所提到的，我們的客戶確實部署了一些不同的策略。其中一些是向西方的一點轉變。其中一些可能會在罷工之前被撤走一些庫存。其他人則持觀望態度。

And when we sit here right now, I'd say we've got a couple of weeks for those East Coast ports to really normalize their flows. But something to consider is this deadline just got extended to January 15. And so the place that they ran leading up to this event are now probably going to be rerun as we look forward into January.

當我們現在坐在這裡時，我想說，我們有幾週的時間讓東海岸港口的流量真正正常化。但需要考慮的是，這個截止日期剛剛延長至 1 月 15 日。

And then also, I'd say a couple of other things, just around peak and peak demand. I want to give our customers a lot of credit for the work that they've done as their demand has normalized as well as their inventories have normalized (technical difficulty) forecast the capacity needs from J.B. Hunt. They've done a better job at that. I think Brad and Darren both mentioned that our bid compliance numbers have improved; we're happy to see that.

然後，我還要說一些其他的事情，圍繞著高峰和高峰需求。我想對我們的客戶所做的工作給予高度讚揚，因為他們的需求已經正常化，他們的庫存也已經正常化（技術難度），預測了 J.B. Hunt 的產能需求。他們在這方面做得更好。我認為布拉德和達倫都提到我們的投標合規數字有所改善；我們很高興看到這一點。

And then also, as we think about peak going forward, we're still in active conversations to make sure we continue to position our people to successfully execute peak along with our capacity over the next several weeks so our customers can have a great finish to the year.

此外，當我們考慮未來的高峰時，我們仍在積極對話，以確保我們繼續讓我們的人員在接下來的幾週內成功執行高峰以及我們的產能，以便我們的客戶能夠有一個很好的完成那一年。

Brian Ossenbeck, JPMorgan.

布萊恩‧奧森貝克，摩根大通。

Hey. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. So maybe a little bit more on the peak season, you mentioned a little bit of project freight coming back. I think that was Brad on the ICS side. So (technical difficulty) rail service, how is it performing out of the West? It seems like you have a pretty good ability to move a tremendous amount of volume. But how is that performed in with the new, COO, I guess, consulting for them, Ed Harris at BNSF? Do you expect any changes here in the short term or the medium term as you look to take a closer look at those operations? Thank you.

嘿。午安.感謝您提出問題。因此，也許在旺季，您提到了一些項目貨運的回歸。我認為那是 ICS 方面的 Brad。那麼（技術難度）鐵路服務在西方的表現如何？看起來你有很好的能力來移動巨大的體積。但我想，BNSF 的新任營運長 Ed Harris）是他們的顧問，他的表現如何？當您希望更仔細地審視這些業務時，您預計短期或中期會發生什麼變化嗎？謝謝。

Okay, Brian, your phone kind of broke up there. But I think I know the gist of it. Our western provider, we're -- we continue to be engaged at all levels of our organization in terms of how can we be more efficient and stronger together when we solve problems together.

好吧，布萊恩，你的手機在那裡壞了。但我想我知道它的要點。我們的西方供應商，我們繼續在我們組織的各個層面參與，共同解決問題時如何變得更有效率、更強大。

I'm aware that Ed Harris being aside as a consultant to BNSF has created a handful of questions. It's our understanding that it's really focused on their merchandise network. I would say this -- BNSF is the largest intermodal provider and moves the densest intermodal business serving the fewest nodes in the intermodal industry. That density is very much in line with all things PSR. Now I'm not saying there are PSR railroads. It's just they didn't have to do that.

我知道 Ed Harris 擔任 BNSF 顧問一事引發了一些問題。據我們了解，它真正關注的是他們的商品網絡。我想說的是，BNSF 是最大的多式聯運提供商，並提供最密集的多式聯運業務，為多式聯運行業中最少的節點提供服務。此密度與所有 PSR 非常一致。現在我並不是說有 PSR 鐵路。只是他們沒有必要這樣做。

There's a lot of attention to intermodal at BNSF in terms of their growth channel. And we are convinced that there is no changes coming to our business in the coming months or years. There's no deviation from their strategy to grow intermodal. We're very encouraged by their commentary.

BNSF 的多式聯運因其成長管道而備受關注。我們堅信，未來幾個月或幾年我們的業務不會有任何變化。他們發展多式聯運的策略並沒有偏離。他們的評論讓我們深受鼓舞。

If anything, improvement in their merchandise network could positively influence intermodal service. We'll wait and see. That's not an area of their business that we stay focused on. But we're assured by the (technical difficulty) BNSF that PSR is not a strategy at BNSF. I don't know if Shelley wanted to make a comment on that or not.

如果有什麼不同的話，那就是商品網路的改善可能會對多式聯運服務產生正面影響。我們拭目以待。這不是我們重點關注的他們的業務領域。但 BNSF 的（技術難度）讓我們確信 PSR 不是 BNSF 的策略。我不知道雪萊是否想對此發表評論。

So I think Darren said it well. I would just say, for us, we're very focused on expanding the intermodal market together, so both J.B. Hunt and BN are thinking about how do we launch for customers around intermodal and expanding emerging markets like things you've done with Quantum and what we're doing with Mexico. We are continuing these conversations. I would say anything that happens from a merchandising perspective will rollover into J.B. Hunt and should benefit us as well.

所以我認為達倫說得很好。我只想說，對我們來說，我們非常專注於共同拓展聯運市場，因此 J.B. Hunt 和 BN 都在考慮如何為客戶推出聯運服務並拓展新興市場，就像你們在 Quantum 和 Quantum 所做的那樣我們正在與墨西哥做什麼。我們正在繼續這些對話。我想說，從行銷角度來看，發生的任何事情都會影響 J.B. Hunt，也應該讓我們受益。

And then, Brian, I think, I may have been put on mute. This is Brad. But you asked a question about project-related business. I'll let Brad Hicks respond to that.

然後，布萊恩，我想，我可能被靜音了。這是布拉德.但你問的是專案相關業務的問題。我會讓布拉德·希克斯對此做出回應。

Yeah, Brian, we had some of that start [in order] and we'll certainly have project, a business that will carry into Q4. Some of that is seasonal work that we do on behalf of our customers. Otherwise, there's no small pockets where our customers have needs, where we want to make sure that we're the right partner and service them at a level that we can continue to be that first call when they have those extra needs.

是的，布萊恩，我們[按順序]開始了一些工作，我們肯定會有項目，一項將延續到第四季度的業務。其中一些是我們代表客戶所做的季節性工作。否則，我們的客戶有需求的地方就不小了，我們希望確保我們是合適的合作夥伴，並以一定水平為他們提供服務，以便當他們有這些額外需求時，我們可以繼續成為他們的第一通電話。

I really think that the key element there is just how proud we are of the improvement that we've seen. In ICS, in particular, the gross margins in the quarter were very healthy. And I think that's representative of the foundational work that we've been focused on all year around quality of revenue and the right type of business. And certainly, our teams have done a great job executing throughout the quarter.

我真的認為關鍵因素是我們對所看到的進步感到多麼自豪。特別是在 ICS 領域，本季的毛利率非常健康。我認為這代表了我們全年圍繞著收入品質和正確的業務類型所關注的基礎工作。當然，我們的團隊在整個季度的執行工作中表現出色。

Jon Chappell, Evercore ISI.

喬恩·查佩爾，Evercore ISI。

Thank you. Good afternoon. Darren, I hope you can help understand the sequential increase in revenue per load. I know it wasn't gigantic but it did go up. Your East win up 3% in 3Q versus down 7%. So conceptually, that should have been a mix headwind there. You've been telling us all along to bake in that 30% bid season from 1Q, 2Q, and 3Q. So just felt like with everything that you just posted from a mix perspective, that revenue per load would have been down sequentially. So how did you manage that up? And then I guess, how do we think about your comments about being fully baked into the middle of '25? Does that mean kind of flat from here? Or is there any improvement potential?

謝謝。午安.達倫，我希望您能幫助理解每次負載收入的連續成長。我知道它並不巨大，但它確實上漲了。東部地區的勝利在第三季上升了 3%，而東部地區則下降了 7%。所以從概念上講，這應該是一個混合逆風。您一直告訴我們要在第一季、第二季和第三季的 30% 出價季節中進行烘焙。因此，感覺就像您剛從混合角度發布的所有內容一樣，每次負載的收入都會連續下降。那麼你是如何做到這一點的呢？然後我想，我們如何看待您關於在 25 年中期完全烘焙的評論？這是否意味著這裡有點公寓？或是有什麼改進的潛力嗎？

Okay. Well, on the on the revenue per load, I mean, the mix results in the quarter were -- our length of haul was actually longer in the third quarter than it was in the second quarter. And there was sequential pricing pressure. Certainly, that played a role in those results. I lost a little piece of your question there. I just know that as we've gone through the year and implemented a new pricing, none of us are satisfied with where we're at in terms of the returns on our business.

好的。好吧，就每次負載的收入而言，我的意思是，本季的綜合結果是——我們第三季的運輸長度實際上比第二季更長。並且存在連續的定價壓力。當然，這在這些結果中發揮了作用。我在那裡丟失了你的問題的一小部分。我只知道，隨著我們經歷了這一年並實施了新的定價，我們中沒有人對我們的業務回報率感到滿意。

We still believe that the pathway to help for us is to execute on behalf of our Coast customers, make sure that we're doing what we say we're going to do, and deliver value to our customers so that when the world changes, we're prepared and in a good position to talk about the quality of our service, the challenges we have from a cost standpoint, and recover some of our margins through pricing efforts. That will continue to be our focus, and we'll wait and see how that plays out as we move into next year.

我們仍然相信，為我們提供幫助的途徑是代表我們的 Coast 客戶執行任務，確保我們按照我們所說的去做，並為我們的客戶提供價值，以便當世界發生變化時，我們已準備好並處於有利位置，可以討論我們的服務品質、從成本角度面臨的挑戰，並透過定價努力恢復部分利潤。這將繼續是我們的重點，我們將拭​​目以待明年的情況如何。

Jordan Alliger, Goldman Sachs.

喬丹·阿利格，高盛。

Yeah, hi. Question on Dedicated. Can you maybe give an update a bit on the overall general competitive environment for new business? And then also, I've been hearing some thoughts that private fleets shippers themselves have been adding their own trucks over the last year or two, and maybe that's impacting some of the over-the-road guys. I'm just curious if you've heard that. And if so, does that make it tougher maybe to sign in and close some of the deals on the Dedicated front? Thanks.

是的，嗨。關於專用的問題。您能否介紹一下新業務的整體競爭環境的最新情況？此外，我還聽到一些想法，私人車隊托運人自己在過去一兩年裡一直在增加自己的卡車，也許這正在影響一些公路運輸公司。我只是好奇你是否聽過。如果是這樣，這是否會使在 Dedicated 方面登入並完成一些交易變得更加困難？謝謝。

Thanks, Jordan. I'll talk about that a little bit. I have been reading a lot about competition in the dedicated market as well. But what we're seeing in the marketplace and where we're focused on really private fleet replacement. We're not seeing any unusual competition out there, I would say, in what we're really targeting. We love our pipeline. We love the success we've had. We're remaining disciplined in our pricing margins. And so we feel very good about that.

謝謝，喬丹。我會稍微談談這一點。我也閱讀了很多有關專用市場競爭的文章。但我們在市場上看到的情況以及我們專注於真正的私人車隊更換。我想說，在我們真正的目標方面，我們沒有看到任何不尋常的競爭。我們喜歡我們的管道。我們熱愛我們所取得的成功。我們在定價利潤方面保持嚴格。所以我們對此感覺非常好。

I see a lot of the competition and hear about a lot of it. It's more in the retail broadband kind of drop and hook, more commoditized. And we have a little bit in there, but not a lot. But just looking at the names that we've been awarded in the last week, you probably wouldn't recognize three or four of the names in there, the private fleets that we're taking over. So we feel good about that.

我看到了很多比賽，也聽到了很多。它更像是零售寬頻的一種即插即用的方式，更商品化。我們有一點，但不是很多。但只要看看我們上週授予的名字，你可能不會認出其中的三四個名字，即我們正在接管的私人艦隊。所以我們對此感覺良好。

Now from private fleets, I would say, yes, some of the large private fleets are growing and that's fine. But if I look at the market, $60 billion to $80 billion to $90 billion that we have qualified, we still feel very good about where we're going and our sales targets. So I read a lot about the competition, and we see some -- we've lost some business with our trucks. But overall, I feel very good that with our disciplined pricing approach, we can still be very, very successful.

現在，從私人船隊來看，我想說，是的，一些大型私人船隊正在成長，這很好。但如果我看看市場，我們已經合格的 600 億美元到 800 億美元到 900 億美元，我們仍然對我們的發展方向和銷售目標感到非常滿意。所以我讀了很多有關競爭的信息，我們看到了一些——我們失去了一些卡車業務。但總的來說，我感覺非常好，透過我們嚴格的定價方法，我們仍然可以非常非常成功。

Jordan, this is Brad Delco. I do want to add, I mean, Nick in his prepared comments talked about the performance of that business. And I think when you look at the performance of the business, both in terms of how well revenue in trucks and certainly operating income margins has held up relative to a lot of peers. I mean, I do think it's a differentiated model that's supported by the performance. And hopefully, that's recognized by those on the call.

喬丹，這是布拉德·德爾科。我確實想補充一點，我的意思是，尼克在他準備好的評論中談到了該業務的表現。我認為，當你觀察該業務的表現時，無論是卡車收入還是營業利潤率相對於許多同行的表現如何。我的意思是，我確實認為這是一個由性能支持的差異化模型。希望通話中的人能夠認清這一點。

Daniel Imbro, Stephens, Inc.

丹尼爾·因布羅，史蒂芬斯公司

Yeah. Good evening, everybody. Thanks for taking our questions.

是的。大家晚上好。感謝您回答我們的問題。

Darren, on the intermodal margin side, those held in, I think, nicely and better than expected given the pricing pressure this year. Can you maybe just talk through the puts and takes of the sequential step up in margin? And then from a pricing standpoint, maybe Spencer can add color too, but you're going into the upcoming bid season with more excess capacity than historically. So maybe the year that didn't go as well this year. Strategically, how are you thinking about driving volume growth versus holding line on price, the strategy going into that bid season, given the excess capacity we're in now?

達倫，在多式聯運利潤方面，我認為，考慮到今年的定價壓力，這些利潤比預期的要好。您能否談談保證金連續增加的賣權和賣出選擇權？然後從定價的角度來看，也許斯賓塞也可以增加色彩，但你將進入即將到來的投標季節，產能過剩比歷史上更多。所以也許今年的情況不太好。從策略上講，考慮到我們現在產能過剩，您如何考慮推動銷售成長與保持價格不變，以及進入投標季節的策略？

Okay. Well, on the sequential margin, at the end of the day volume - we've said before. Volume has meant more to us today than ever before. It still is bit more valuable than the role that pricing would play. When pricing can turn, you can see what that impact margin quicker.

好的。嗯，在連續利潤率上，在一天結束時的成交量上——我們之前已經說過了。今天，成交量對我們來說比以往任何時候都更重要。它仍然比定價所扮演的角色更有價值。當定價發生轉變時，您可以更快地看到對利潤率的影響。

Certainly, velocity on our system can play a role and we pick up volume there, efficiencies we gain inside of our drayage operation, or there's certainly a lot of opportunity to grow. A load out of Southern California is not the same as a load going back to Southern California.

當然，我們系統的速度可以發揮作用，我們可以提高運量，提高拖運操作的效率，或肯定有很多成長的機會。從南加州出發的負載與返回南加州的負載不同。

So the mix of the traffic that operates in the third quarter versus second quarter is very different and the result of the margin is what it is. As we go into the next year, like I said earlier in the call, I mean, we're not satisfied with our returns. We believe that carriers are operating at rates below their cost. We take they're unsustainable. We're surprised by the longevity and how long it has lasted.

因此，第三季與第二季營運的流量組合非常不同，利潤率的結果就是這樣。當我們進入明年時，就像我之前在電話會議中所說的那樣，我的意思是，我們對我們的回報並不滿意。我們認為營運商的營運費率低於其成本。我們認為它們是不可持續的。我們對它的壽命和持續時間感到驚訝。

We also have been wrong in the past when we believed that the pricing market was about to turn and we could get rates up. And I would even say, at this point last year -- probably I'm not sure I said it, but I probably did believe that a year ago today and I would have been wrong. And so as we go into the bid season, we're focused on delivering value to our customers, talking about the capacity answers that we have, also talking about the cost challenges we face, talking about how we're prepared to serve their needs in a host of ways. And that's at the enterprise level.

過去，我們也曾錯誤地認為定價市場即將轉變，我們可以提高利率。我甚至會說，去年的這個時候——也許我不確定我是否說過這句話，但一年前的今天我可能確實相信這一點，但我錯了。因此，當我們進入投標季節時，我們專注於為客戶提供價值，談論我們擁有的產能答案，也談論我們面臨的成本挑戰，談論我們準備如何滿足他們的需求以多種方式。這是在企業層面。

And so as we go into this bid cycle, we're going to continue that process because the experience in this room has taught us that that's the best approach.

因此，當我們進入這個投標週期時，我們將繼續這個過程，因為這個房間的經驗告訴我們，這是最好的方法。

Yeah, and Darren, I'll add, Daniel, you kind of wanted to know a little bit about where we're at with customers in our conversations. And I would say this -- they're in their bid and budgeting process right now. And in that, their challenge is to operate their supply chain and find ways to do that in the most efficient way possible. And they also know, Darren just said, the costs in our industries has been rising dramatically and margins are not sufficient. But when we have those conversations with our customers, really, we are very transparent in the cost to serve them while working with them to design optimal solutions across their network.

是的，達倫，我要補充一點，丹尼爾，你有點想知道我們在與客戶的對話中處於什麼狀態。我想說的是——他們現在正在投標和預算過程中。在這方面，他們面臨的挑戰是運作供應鏈並找到以最有效的方式實現這一目標的方法。達倫剛才說，他們也知道，我們這個行業的成本一直在急劇上升，但利潤卻不夠。但當我們與客戶進行這些對話時，實際上，我們對服務他們的成本非常透明，同時與他們合作設計整個網路的最佳解決方案。

And ultimately, we're leaning on the consistently high-service levels that drive value and find a match for that value for both companies. And ultimately, that's going to set them up, set our teams up for success, and hopefully, improve our returns in the process.

最終，我們依靠一致的高服務水準來推動價值，並為兩家公司找到與該價值相符的服務。最終，這將幫助他們、讓我們的團隊成功，並希望在過程中提高我們的回報。

Scott Group, Wolfe Research.

斯科特集團，沃爾夫研究。

Hey, thanks. Afternoon, guys. So pretty dramatic improvement in the broker ICS gross margin in the quarter. Any thoughts? Is that the market? Is that, in your mind, more specific to you? And how sustainable is that? And then just separately, I think the last couple of years, in Q4, we've had some pretty big insurance accruals just catch up. Any color on how to think about that in Q4 this year?

嘿，謝謝。下午好，夥計們。本季經紀商 ICS 毛利率有了相當顯著的改善。有什麼想法嗎？那是市場嗎？在您看來，這對您來說更具體嗎？這有多可持續？然後，我認為在過去幾年的第四季度，我們已經有一些相當大的保險應計費用剛剛趕上。關於今年第四季如何看待這個問題，有什麼顏色嗎？

Hey, Scott. I'll start with the first question. Then I'll maybe throw to John Kuhlow for the second part there.

嘿，斯科特。我將從第一個問題開始。然後我可能會把第二部分交給約翰·庫洛（John Kuhlow）。

The gross margin percent that we see in Q3, I think, is unique to J.B. Hunt and the focus in the work that we've been trying to accomplish. Now, we will see with some others release, but certainly, against what we were seeing in earlier quarters of the year, that feels like it's unique to us. And I really do think it's a testament to the type of freight that we're going after, the customers, and the value that we're providing to our customers, as well as the execution of our business in terms of our purchasing and leveraging our technology through J.B. Hunt 360. And I think that those all come together for us in a unique way in Q3.

我認為，我們在第三季看到的毛利率是 J.B. Hunt 所獨有的，也是我們一直在努力實現的工作重點。現在，我們將看到其他一些版本的發布，但當然，與我們在今年早些時候看到的情況相比，這感覺對我們來說是獨一無二的。我確實認為這證明了我們所追求的貨運類型、客戶以及我們為客戶提供的價值，以及我們在採購和利用方面的業務執行情況我們通過J.B. Hunt 360 獲得技術。獨特的方式為我們提供了幫助。

Now, we have seen more recently disruption with the back-to-back hurricanes in the Southeast and Florida, as Shelley mentioned at the opening comments. So we see little things happening there that can have the potential to put pressure on us. But we also saw that a little bit leading the July 4, and that it loosened back up for us in terms of the book of freight that we have. So I do feel like we're capitalizing and trying to maximize what that could be for us. And I'm really proud of the great work that the team has done.

現在，正如雪萊在開場評論中提到的那樣，我們最近看到了東南部和佛羅裡達州接連發生的颶風造成的破壞。因此，我們看到那裡發生的一些小事可能會給我們帶來壓力。但我們也看到了 7 月 4 日之前的情況，我們的貨運量有所放鬆。所以我確實覺得我們正在利用並努力最大化這對我們來說可能帶來的好處。我對團隊所做的出色工作感到非常自豪。

Hey, Scott. It's Shelley. I might just add, we don't model and aren't modeling for 17%-plus margin. That's historically a very high for the market, so I would say anything in the average of 14% to 15% would be more norm. And so there had been some things that ICS has done in some key customers that we're working closely with. And I think that's yielded some improvement here in third quarter, and we'll see what happens here moving forward.

嘿，斯科特。是雪萊。我想補充一點，我們不建模，現在也不會為 17% 以上的利潤率建模。從歷史上看，這對市場來說是一個非常高的水平，所以我想說 14% 到 15% 的平均水平都比較正常。因此，ICS 在與我們密切合作的一些關鍵客戶中做了一些事情。我認為這在第三季度取得了一些進展，我們將看看未來會發生什麼。

Hey, Scott. This is John Kuhlow. And actually, I thought maybe Shelley is going to take the insurance question.

嘿，斯科特。這是約翰·庫洛。事實上，我想雪萊也許會回答保險問題。

So to your point, we did -- over the last couple of years, we had some more significant charges in various quarters for reinsurance. That was a little bit more of circumstances around the dramatic increases in where some of these settlements were going and as it was layered against our insurance structure at the time. And so I do feel like we've made a lot of good progress in going through our claims, working with our actuaries and our attorneys, and feel like we're in a good spot respect to our insurance accruals.

因此，就您的觀點而言，我們確實在過去幾年中在各個方面收取了一些更重要的再保險費用。這是關於其中一些和解金額急劇增加的情況，因為它是針對我們當時的保險結構分層的。因此，我確實覺得我們在處理索賠、與精算師和律師合作方面取得了很大進展，並且感覺我們在保險應計費用方面處於有利位置。

Ravi Shanker, Morgan Stanley.

拉維‧尚克，摩根士丹利。

Good evening, everyone. I just want to follow up on the BNSF commentary. I think you said that you don't expect anything to materially change but -- so are you saying that you don't think they're going to do PSR at all? And if they did, does that change your go-to-market strategy with them in any way? Thanks.

大家晚上好。我只是想跟進 BNSF 的評論。我認為您說過您不希望發生任何實質性變化，但是 - 那麼您是說您認為他們根本不會進行 PSR 嗎？如果他們這樣做了，這是否會以任何方式改變你與他們的市場推廣策略？謝謝。

Well, first of all, Ravi, yes, you heard us loud and clear. I don't believe BNSF is implementing PSR. They have certainly engaged with us for decades now and how can we be more efficient and more effective together. Now that we are largely the only channel at BNSF, I would say that dialogue has ramped up to another gear. And together, we work together on how can we draw efficiency for each other.

好吧，首先，拉維，是的，你清楚地聽到了我們的聲音。我不相信 BNSF 正在實施 PSR。他們肯定已經與我們合作了數十年，我們如何更有效率、更有效地合作。現在我們基本上是 BNSF 的唯一管道，我想說對話已經升級到另一個檔次。我們共同致力於如何為彼此提高效率。

But most importantly, BNSF listens to us talk about what our BCOs need and want from the market. And we feel like that is very different than what we have experienced from railroads implementing PSR. Certainly, the way that they listen to what BCOs want and need has us very encouraged. And we're certain, at all levels at BNSF, we have their commitment that PSR is not part of their strategy. Growing their intermodal business is part of their strategy.

但最重要的是，BNSF 傾聽我們談論我們的 BCO 對市場的需求和需求。我們覺得這與我們在實施 PSR 的鐵路中所經歷的非常不同。當然，他們傾聽 BCO 的願望和需求的方式讓我們深受鼓舞。我們確信，在 BNSF 的各個層面，我們都承諾 PSR 不是他們策略的一部分。發展多式聯運業務是他們策略的一部分。

All that being said, their margin isn't what they wanted to be. Our margin isn't what we wanted to be. So together, we have to deliver excellence in our service execution, and we have to go repair each other's margins together in the market, and we stand ready to do that with our customers just as soon as that as possible.

話雖如此，他們的利潤並不是他們想要的。我們的利潤率不是我們想要的。因此，我們必須共同提供卓越的服務執行，我們必須在市場上共同修復彼此的利潤，我們隨時準備好盡快與我們的客戶一起做到這一點。

Tom Wadewitz, UBS.

湯姆‧瓦德維茨，瑞銀集團。

Yeah, good afternoon. I'm going to ask a question on intermodal. Hope that's okay with you, Brad. You've had a pretty good mix of questions on others, but let's see.

是的，下午好。我想問一個關於聯運的問題。希望你沒問題，布萊德。您向其他人提出了很多問題，但讓我們看看。

If I can go back to the comment, Darren, on normal peak season, when you say normal, is that normal seasonal kind of 4Q versus 3Q? Is it normal year over year? I don't -- I guess it still seems like they're probably looking at the container imports would have been some strength that wouldn't continue. So I don't know if there's a way to put a little more on that. Maybe another way to look at it would be, you know, if you go back over time and say, hey, sometimes there are reasons why customers ship more in terms of imports in June, July, August versus a bit later October, November. So I'm just wondering if you could look back on historical and may be offer a little more on how you think about normal in terms of intermodal volumes?

如果我可以回到評論，達倫，關於正常旺季，當你說正常時，這是第四季度與第三季度的正常季節性嗎？年復一年正常嗎？我不知道——我想他們似乎仍然在關注貨櫃進口，這將是一種不會持續下去的力量。所以我不知道是否有辦法可以多加一點。也許另一種看待它的方式是，你知道，如果你回顧過去並說，嘿，有時客戶在6 月、7 月、8 月的進口量出貨量高於10 月、11 月的出貨量，這是有原因的。所以我只是想知道您是否可以回顧一下歷史，並提供更多關於您如何看待聯運量正常情況的資訊？

Well, when I said normal, I would say that the sequential change is that we go from Q2 to Q3 to Q4. And the way our dialogue has gone with our customers in terms of what their expectations are, what their forecasts are, and the accuracy in which they forecast their needs, all of those have returned to what we would call normal pre-pandemic levels.

好吧，當我說正常時，我會說順序變化是我們從第二季到第三季再到第四季。我們與客戶就他們的期望、預測以及需求預測的準確性進行對話的方式，所有這些都恢復到了我們所說的大流行前的正常水平。

We have -- we don't have customers telling us, hey, we're going to have a much weaker demand during the fourth quarter than what we told you just a month ago. None of that is going on today. Again, I'm not going to break down for you how many customers told us. They didn't move pull some forward. Some did. But I don't think it's this overwhelming market story for us. It certainly has been a factor. I don't want to ignore it, but the same time, we expect our volumes in the fourth quarter demand to continue to be strong demand from Southern California.

我們沒有客戶告訴我們，嘿，我們第四季的需求將比一個月前告訴您的要弱得多。今天這些都沒有發生。再說一次，我不會為您詳細說明有多少客戶告訴我們。他們沒有動，拉著一些人往前走。有些人做到了。但我不認為這對我們來說是一個壓倒性的市場故事。這當然是一個因素。我不想忽視這一點，但同時，我們預計第四季的需求將繼續來自南加州的強勁需求。

They import volumes in the way that imports flowed into the West Coast ports throughout the summer. That didn't translate to intermodal market. There are warehouses with inventory and they're built for peak season shipping on the West Coast. And so we do feel like -- this is what I would consider normal. I don't know that I've defined it the way you want me to, but that's the way I'm going to define it today.

他們的進口量與整個夏季進口流入西海岸港口的方式相同。這並沒有轉化為多式聯運市場。這裡有庫存倉庫，專為西海岸的旺季運輸而建。所以我們確實覺得——我認為這是正常的。我不知道我是否按照你想要的方式定義它，但這就是我今天要定義的方式。

Chris Wetherbee, Wells Fargo.

克里斯‧韋瑟比，富國銀行。

Hey. Thanks. Good afternoon. So I guess, Darren, you had noted a couple of things that we're interested in. The first was the comment about some Eastern modes potentially moving over from truck competition. So I guess I wanted to get a sense of maybe what you are seeing there and what you think are the driving factors, given the pricing advice and that's been persistent for a while there?

嘿。謝謝。午安.所以我想，達倫，你已經注意到了一些我們感興趣的事情。所以我想我想了解一下您在那裡看到的情況以及您認為的驅動因素是什麼，考慮到定價建議並且這種情況已經持續了一段時間？

I guess, and the second piece of it, I guess, when you think about costs as well, I think there's some repositioning or some position in costs related to the strong growth off of the West Coast. Is that something that we think sticks around for an extended period or maybe until the boxes on the sideline start to get drawn down more? I'm just curious. Anything about the durability of that type of cost.

我想，第二部分，我想，當你也考慮成本時，我認為與西海岸的強勁增長相關的成本有一些重新定位或某些位置。我們是否認為這種情況會持續很長一段時間，或者可能直到邊線的盒子開始被更多地拉低？我只是好奇。關於此類成本的持久性的任何事情。

Okay. All good. Good questions, Chris. So certainly, let me touch on the come the empties first. So I don't know how to call it durable, whether it's going to stick or not. The balance of Southern California is inbound and outbound. There certainly is an uptick in demand for the East-bound volume coming off the West Coast, where there's not necessarily an uptake in demand for West-bound flows.

好的。一切都好。好問題，克里斯。當然，讓我談談先空的問題。所以我不知道如何稱之為耐用，無論它是否會粘住。南加州的平衡是入境和出境。來自西海岸的東行流量的需求肯定會增加，而西海岸的流量需求不一定會增加。

If the need to support capacity in Southern California sustains that they kind of new ratio today that we're experiencing now, then certainly, that has to find its way into the economics with the customers. I don't think that will completely surprise our customers, but it certainly is a factor as we move forward.

如果支持南加州產能的需求能夠維持我們現在所經歷的新比率，那麼當然，這必須融入客戶的經濟中。我認為這不會讓我們的客戶完全感到驚訝，但這無疑是我們前進的一個因素。

I think that in 2024, it's a little more visible because the growth opportunity that we saw off the West Coast was stronger than it was in the East. So it's getting a little bit extra spotlight on the demand for supplying capacity out of West in order to source that capacity.

我認為到 2024 年，這種情況會更加明顯，因為我們在西海岸看到的成長機會比東部更強。因此，為了採購這些產能，西方國家對供應產能的需求受到了額外的關注。

Now in the East, I did say that we had some shippers moving small business to us. While we're encouraged by is every single week, we've had new startups in the East and they're -- these are lots of customers, relatively small business segment. So this can be 100 loads a year, can be 1,000 loads a year. These are not big, big chunks, but customers are coming to us talking about their pull to ship more back to intermodal, whether it be a sustainability effort on their part. Maybe it's an effort because they want to get out in front of what they believe will be a tightening in the truckload market.

現在在東方，我確實說過我們有一些托運人將小生意轉移給我們。雖然我們每週都受到鼓舞，但我們在東方有新的新創公司，它們有很多客戶，但業務部門相對較小。因此，這可以是每年 100 次負載，也可以是每年 1,000 次負載。這些並不是很大很大的部分，但客戶來找我們談論他們將更多的貨物運回多式聯運的動力，無論這是他們的永續發展努力。也許這是一種努力，因為他們希望在他們認為卡車市場緊縮的情況下脫穎而出。

It's also an acknowledgment of the better service performance that we have sustained for well over a year now in the East. And I think that we're very encouraged by acknowledgment from the customers that the service quality has earned intermodal a new right at the table at many of those shippers. And that's beginning to play out. And we certainly thought it was worthwhile to call out because it is -- we've sustained this opportunity with many, many customers for -- throughout the third quarter and look to gain momentum on that as we move forward.

這也是對我們在東部地區一年多來所保持的更好服務表現的認可。我認為，客戶承認我們的服務品質為多式聯運在許多托運人的餐桌上贏得了新的權利，這讓我們深受鼓舞。這已經開始發揮作用了。我們當然認為這是值得呼籲的，因為在整個第三季度，我們已經與許多許多客戶保持了這個機會，並希望在我們前進的過程中獲得動力。

I don't know, Spencer, if you want to comment on that part of it.

史賓塞，我不知道你是否想對這部分內容發表評論。

Well, I think, you're 100% right, Darren, in thinking about how service connects to growth. Then also, with the comment on what are customers thinking about for 2025, we did a couple of questions consistently from our customers and that they are, number one, when is this market going to change? None of us have a crystal ball. They don't either. The other question is what do the best transportation and supply chain customers do with their kind of mix and strategies.

嗯，我認為，達倫，你關於服務如何與成長​​聯繫起來的想法是 100% 正確的。然後，在評論客戶對 2025 年的想法時，我們不斷地向客戶提出了幾個問題，他們的第一個問題是，這個市場什麼時候會改變？我們誰都沒有水晶球。他們也不知道。另一個問題是最好的運輸和供應鏈客戶如何利用他們的組合和策略。

And I would say whenever things start to change, historically, customers have leaned into highway intermodal conversion. They've leaned into adding dedicated capacity or exploring the dedicated options for their private fleet. They've also leaned into really doing more with the best service providers in their live and dropped networks. That create efficiency and value for them.

我想說，從歷史上看，每當情況開始改變時，客戶都會傾向於高速公路多式聯運轉換。他們傾向於增加專用運力或探索其私人車隊的專用選項。他們也傾向於與線上和離線網路中最好的服務提供者一起做更多事情。這為他們創造了效率和價值。

And so those are the conversations that we're starting to have, some of the things that we're starting to see. And that's really why we focus on operational excellence across our entire business. So we can be in a position to serve our customers well as things changed.

這些就是我們開始進行的對話，以及我們開始看到的一些事情。這就是我們在整個業務中註重卓越營運的真正原因。因此，我們能夠在情況改變時為客戶提供良好的服務。

I'm going to add one other thing. I think, it is important during the pandemic both on the up and down through this great recession. Our customers who were challenged were telling us what shipments we would actually haul. So their ability to forecast has been super difficult over the last 40 years. We're on our second quarter where big compliance is in reasonable level, in the mid-80s now in intermodal and JBT. Those are two networks that really need more stability to build out and create more efficiency in the network.

我要補充一件事。我認為，在大流行期間，無論是在經濟衰退期間還是在上升和下降中，這一點都很重要。受到挑戰的客戶告訴我們實際要運送哪些貨物。所以他們的預測能力在過去 40 年是非常困難的。我們正處於第二季度，在 80 年代中期，聯運和 JBT 的合規性處於合理水平。這兩個網路確實需要更高的穩定性來建立網路並創造更高的效率。

So as we commented this bid season, our network is out of balance because of our customers now coming back to balance. So we're coming into this bid season knowing and being able to predict better, both our customers and us, whether these network balances are inside intermodal, inside JBT. So you're going to see us start to fill in those gaps, so the empties and all the things we're having to do to service our customers that are currently short-term cost, we will be able to solve for those over this next bid season, not necessarily solving in one bid season, but you'll see that start to be solved for over the next couple of bid seasons. That's a positive sign for our business moving into '25.

因此，正如我們評論本次投標季節時，我們的網路已經失去平衡，因為我們的客戶現在恢復了平衡。因此，當我們進入這個投標季節時，無論是我們的客戶還是我們自己，都知道並且能夠更好地預測這些網路平衡是否在聯運內部、在 JBT 內部。所以你會看到我們開始填補這些空白，所以我們必須做的所有事情來服務我們的客戶，這些都是目前的短期成本，我們將能夠解決這些問題下一個投標季節，不一定在一個投標季節內解決，但您會發現在接下來的幾個投標季節中開始解決這個問題。這對我們的業務進入 25 世紀來說是一個積極的信號。

David Zazula, Barclays.

大衛·扎祖拉，巴克萊銀行。

Hey. Thanks for squeezing me in. For Brad or Shelley, you guys have talked about doing some things to repair intermodal margins. I'm wondering if you could talk about -- and you have talked about your relationship with BNSF. I'm wondering if you could talk about the strategic nature of that relationship. Maybe if it's a little bit more dynamic and some things you could do with that relationship to try to encourage better returns for you that can hopefully get you back towards those margin targets.

嘿。感謝您邀請我加入。我想知道您是否可以談談您與 BNSF 的關係。我想知道你是否可以談談這種關係的戰略性質。也許如果它更有活力一點，你可以利用這種關係做一些事情來嘗試鼓勵你獲得更好的回報，從而有望讓你回到那些利潤目標。

Okay. David, this is Darren, and I'll try to comment on that. I think from a strategic standpoint with BNSF, the areas that we're focused on together to drive efficiency for each other come from growing. Growth in our intermodal business today is a contributor to improving our margins certainly now. Is there something we're going to do that create some new model or new method of execution? No, I don't think we're going to change the way we function. In terms of -- we've got a drain and it goes in or our trucks that goes up and picks a load up, we've got a lot of assets that we own in order to accommodate this growth, and we'll be very focused on growing together and then how can we get utilization out of the assets for both BNSF and J.B. Hunt.

好的。大衛，這是達倫，我將嘗試對此發表評論。我認為，從 BNSF 的策略角度來看，我們共同關注以提高彼此效率的領域來自於成長。如今，我們多式聯運業務的成長無疑為提高我們的利潤做出了貢獻。我們是否要做一些事情來創建一些新的模型或新的執行方法？不，我不認為我們會改變我們的運作方式。就我們而言，我們有一個排水管，它可以進去，或者我們的卡車可以上升並裝載貨物，我們擁有大量資產來適應這種增長，我們將我們非常注重共同成長，然後我們如何充分利用BNSF和J.B. Hunt 的資產。

So from the margin repair standpoint, the focus that we have today is to grow our business, look for efficiency in our network, how can we still have more empties, which would certainly drive some benefits to our margin. And then again, there needs to be some core pricing work done in order to get to our goal, certainly. So that's how we'll focus. I don't think that any one project with BNSF is going to unlock margin with J.B. Hunt necessarily.

因此，從利潤修復的角度來看，我們今天的重點是發展我們的業務，尋找我們網路的效率，我們如何擁有更多的空箱，這肯定會為我們的利潤帶來一些好處。話又說回來，為了實現我們的目標，當然需要完成一些核心定價工作。這就是我們要關注的重點。我認為 BNSF 的任何一個項目都不一定會釋放 J.B. Hunt 的利潤。

Hey, Sarah, we have time for one more question.

嘿，莎拉，我們還有時間再問一個問題。

Bascome Majors, Susquehanna.

巴斯科姆專業，薩斯奎哈納。

There has understandably been a lot of focus on the opportunity to restore margin and returns via pricing over the next couple of years. But if we look at three, five years beyond, where do you guys see the biggest opportunities to grow operating income more secularly in the business and at attractive risk-adjusted returns? And from where you sit today, does that look any different than what we'd say you did over the last 5 to 10? Thank you.

可以理解的是，人們非常關注未來幾年透過定價恢復利潤和回報的機會。但如果我們展望未來三、五年，你們認為在業務中更長期地增加營業收入並獲得有吸引力的風險調整回報的最大機會在哪裡？從你今天坐的位置來看，這與我們所說的你在過去 5 到 10 年所做的事情有什麼不同嗎？謝謝。

Yeah. Thank you, Bascome. And I would say if you looked at all five of our business units, the market size, and market opportunity, we think it's well positioned for each one of those five. I don't see our profile changed significantly if you exclude the last two years. Our margin profile, the last two years have been outside of our ranges for majority of our segments.

是的。謝謝你，巴斯科姆。我想說，如果你看看我們的所有五個業務部門、市場規模和市場機會，我們認為它對於這五個業務部門中的每一個都處於有利地位。如果排除過去兩年，我認為我們的概況沒有顯著變化。過去兩年，我們大部分細分市場的利潤率都超出了我們的範圍。

So if you look over the last 5 to 10 years, I would say those margin profiles and we'll be giving guidance on margin targets really being in line. Our two largest segments, both intermodal and Dedicated, although they are very large, the market size opportunity is even larger. So our ability to take both of those segments into high-growth categories. We'll just continue our operating income performance inside us. And as highway, both JBT and ICS, and Final Mile continue to move forward, it's going to be difficult for them to catch the size of both intermodal and Dedicated. So I think you'll see them continue profit improvement and also revenue growth overall. But I don't see our mix changing significantly.

因此，如果你回顧過去 5 到 10 年，我會說這些利潤概況，我們將提供真正符合利潤目標的指導。我們最大的兩個細分市場，即聯運和專用，雖然它們非常大，但市場規模機會更大。因此，我們有能力將這兩個細分市場納入高成長類別。我們將繼續我們內部的營業收入表現。隨著高速公路、JBT 和 ICS 以及 Final Mile 的不斷發展，它們將很難趕上聯運和專用運輸的規模。因此，我認為您會看到他們的利潤持續改善，整體收入也不斷增長。但我認為我們的組合不會有重大變化。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'll turn the call to CEO, Shelley Simpson, for closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。我將把電話轉給執行長雪莉辛普森 (Shelley Simpson)，讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you. And I'd like to thank everybody for spending time with us here on the call. And you've heard a lot of discussion from us. We spent a lot of time on intermodal. We've been working really hard on controlling our costs and things that we can control. You've heard us talk about providing excellent service to our customers. Very important for us right now that we make sure customers know we want be number one in their minds when they think of a go to or who they want to use, you want them to think of J.B. Hunt across our suite of services.

謝謝。我要感謝大家花時間與我們一起參加電話會議。您已經聽到了我們的許多討論。我們在聯運上花了很多時間。我們一直在努力控製成本和我們可以控制的事情。您聽過我們談論為客戶提供優質服務。現在對我們來說非常重要的是，我們確保客戶知道，當他們想到要去哪裡或想要使用誰時，我們希望成為他們心目中的第一，您希望他們在我們的服務套件中想到 J.B. Hunt。

We are focused on controlling our costs where we can, but we are preparing for future transportation needs. So think about the investments that we've made in our people, technology, and capacity being ready for our customers and then we will continue maintaining our focus on safety. So we've been working hard. I am proud of several things that have happened this quarter, like our safety performance continuing to improve, our growth in intermodal volume really proving out that we can take share off the highway and to intermodal over the long term, our six quarters of Dedicated, selling 250 trucks or more, our Final Mile business continuing to repair margin.

我們專注於盡可能控製成本，但我們正在為未來的運輸需求做好準備。因此，請考慮我們在人員、技術和能力方面所做的投資，為我們的客戶做好準備，然後我們將繼續保持對安全的關注。所以我們一直在努力。我對本季度發生的幾件事感到自豪，例如我們的安全績效持續改善，我們多式聯運量的增長確實證明我們可以從長遠來看從高速公路和多式聯運中奪取份額，我們的六個季度的專用，銷售 250 輛卡車或更多，我們的“最後一英里”業務繼續修復利潤。

ICS had good improvement, but not there yet. The improvement on cost and quality revenue and further diversifying our customer base. JBT is five-year high on service in total. And so I'm very proud of all the work of our 33,000 people.

ICS 有很好的改進，但還沒有實現。成本和品質收入的改善以及我們的客戶群進一步多元化。 JBT 的服務總量創五年新高。因此，我對我們 33,000 名員工的所有工作感到非常自豪。

I'm confident. I remain confident about our opportunities. But although we've done a lot of great work, there's still so much that we have to do. We are still battling our way to this part of the freight cycle. And I think that's really important. So we're going to maintain our focus on excellence for our customers driving value. And we're going to battle through the last part of this great recession. There's still too much capacity in the market. We need that market to really move into more of equilibrium.

我有信心。我對我們的機會仍然充滿信心。儘管我們已經做了很多偉大的工作，但我們還有很多工作要做。我們仍在努力進入貨運週期的這一部分。我認為這非常重要。因此，我們將持續專注於卓越，為客戶創造價值。我們將度過這場大衰退的最後階段。市場容量仍然太多。我們需要市場真正進入更平衡的狀態。

We're looking forward to seeing how that plays out into 2025 but our focus will remain on those four pieces I've spoken about.

我們期待看到 2025 年的情況如何，但我們的重點仍將放在我談到的這四件事上。

Thank you giving your time. We look forward to talking with you next quarter.

感謝您抽出時間。我們期待下個季度與您交談。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。