J B Hunt Transport Services Inc (JBHT) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.

女士們先生們，謝謝你們的支持。

My name is Abby, and I'll be your conference operator today.

我叫艾比，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to J.B. Hunt's fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call.

此時此刻，我歡迎大家參加 J.B. Hunt 的 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

And I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Delco, Senior Vice President of Finance.

現在我想將會議交給財務高級副總裁布拉德·德爾科 (Brad Delco)。

You may begin.

你可以開始了。

Good afternoon.

午安.

Before I introduce the speakers, I would like to provide some disclosures regarding forward-looking statements.

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。

This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

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。

Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates, or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements.

預期、預期、打算、估計或類似表達等詞語旨在識別這些前瞻性陳述。

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.

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'd like to introduce the speakers on today's call.

現在，我想介紹一下今天電話會議的講者。

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 Highway Services and Final Mile, Nick Hobbs; Brad Hicks, President of Dedicated Contract Services; and Darren Field, President of Intermodal.

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；我們的營運長兼公路服務和最後一哩路總裁 Nick Hobbs； Brad Hicks，專用合約服務總裁；達倫‧菲爾德 (Darren Field)，聯運公司總裁。

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

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。

Shelley?

雪萊？

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon.

謝謝你，布拉德，下午好。

While 2024 was a continuation of the challenging freight environment, I am proud of the work of our team and how we position the company for our future.

雖然 2024 年貨運環境充滿挑戰，但我對我們團隊的工作以及我們對公司未來的定位感到自豪。

We focus on providing excellent service to our customers, improving on our record-setting safety performance, and remaining cost disciplined, all while leveraging our strategic investments in our people, technology, and capacity.

我們專注於為客戶提供卓越的服務，提高創紀錄的安全績效，並保持成本控制，同時利用我們在人員、技術和產能方面的策略投資。

We have been in a period of heavy investment to better prepare ourselves to expand all aspects of our business in the future.

我們正處於大量投資的時期，以便更好地為未來擴展業務的各個方面做好準備。

Our commitment to our people in providing quality, differentiated service, and capacity for our customers, particularly during another strong peak season, sets us up extremely well to scale into these investments ahead.

我們對員工的承諾是為客戶提供優質、差異化的服務和容量，特別是在另一個旺季，這使我們能夠很好地擴大未來的這些投資。

Looking forward, the overall strategy and focus of our organization is on operational excellence and scaling into our investments.

展望未來，我們組織的整體策略和重點是卓越營運和擴大投資。

We are positioning the business for long-term growth that generates appropriate returns on capital that delivers long-term value for our shareholders.

我們將業務定位為長期成長，產生適當的資本回報，為股東帶來長期價值。

The decisions we made to strategically hold on to our people and capacity through the freight recession and make some bold investments like acquiring the intermodal assets from Walmart were made through that lens and has only enhanced our future earnings potential.

我們所做的決定是在貨運衰退期間策略性地保留我們的人員和產能，並進行一些大膽的投資，例如從沃爾瑪收購多式聯運資產，這些決定都是從這個角度做出的，只會增強我們未來的獲利潛力。

That said, while our performance has held up relatively well in this difficult environment, we aren't satisfied with the current results of our business, particularly around margins and returns on capital.

也就是說，雖然我們的業績在這種困難的環境中保持相對較好，但我們對目前的業務結果並不滿意，特別是在利潤率和資本回報率方面。

A focus and a top priority for our leaders in the company to get us on a path to repair and improve our financial performance.

公司領導者的關注點和首要任務是讓我們走上修復和改善財務表現的道路。

My confidence in this team and our ability to leverage our brand and our services coming off of another strong year of service execution and safety is extremely high.

我對這個團隊以及我們利用我們的品牌和服務的能力充滿信心，因為我們在服務執行和安全方面又取得了強勁的一年。

We've executed on two consecutive quarters of record intermodal volumes, with capacity to grow more, while we focus on repricing our larger book of business.

我們已經連續兩個季度實現了創紀錄的多式聯運量，產能也將繼續成長，同時我們專注於對更大的業務進行重新定價。

Our dedicated business has been remarkably resilient, and has solid visibility to future growth.

我們的專注業務具有顯著的彈性，並且對未來的成長具有堅實的預見性。

We still have work to do in our brokerage business and progress is being made, but I see lots of opportunity to scale that business ahead, and I'll let Nick provide some color on the plan there.

我們的經紀業務仍有工作要做，並且正在取得進展，但我看到了很多擴大業務規模的機會，我會讓尼克為該計劃提供一些資訊。

And our JBT and Final Mile businesses have a good model, and we see plenty of opportunities for growth ahead.

我們的 JBT 和 Final Mile 業務擁有良好的模式，我們看到未來有大量的成長機會。

While market dynamics remain uncertain around the timing and magnitude of a potential inflection, our focus in 2025 is to grow and begin to repair our margins.

儘管潛在拐點的時間和幅度的市場動態仍不確定，但我們 2025 年的重點是成長並開始修復我們的利潤率。

We will be coming out of the freight recession from a position of strength.

我們將以強勢地位走出貨運衰退。

We believe the value we create for our customers with our capacity and our exceptional service levels are unique in the market and that our return should mirror this value.

我們相信，我們憑藉我們的能力和卓越的服務水準為客戶創造的價值在市場上是獨一無二的，我們的回報也應該反映這一價值。

We and our customers know this.

我們和我們的客戶都知道這一點。

We stand ready to continue to expand with our customers and to add new customers under the J.B. Hunts.

我們隨時準備好繼續與客戶一起拓展業務，並在 J.B. Hunts 的領導下增加新客戶。

The team will have more commentary on each area business, but in closing, we have proven our service levels and our safety culture are unmatched and have available capacity ready for future growth.

該團隊將對每個領域的業務進行更多評論，但最後，我們已經證明我們的服務水平和安全文化是無與倫比的，並且擁有為未來成長做好準備的可用能力。

We will continue to focus on the long term while taking steps in the near term to improve the return profiles of our business, all with the same mission to drive long-term value for our people, customers, and shareholders.

我們將繼續著眼於長期，同時在短期內採取措施改善我們業務的回報狀況，所有這些都具有相同的使命，即為我們的員工、客戶和股東帶來長期價值。

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

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長約翰·庫洛 (John Kuhlow)。

John?

約翰？

Thank you, Shelley, and good afternoon.

謝謝你，雪萊，下午好。

My comments will cover a high-level review of the quarter and year.

我的評論將涵蓋對季度和年度的高層審查。

Some additional color on our cost control efforts as well as provide an update on our capital plan for 2025.

對我們的成本控制工作進行了一些補充，並提供了 2025 年資本計畫的最新資訊。

As a general overview, we saw signs of seasonality across the business and experienced a strong intermodal peak season.

總體而言，我們看到了整個業務的季節性跡象，並經歷了強勁的多式聯運旺季。

That said, the inflationary rate environment, coupled with an inflationary cost environment, weighed on margins versus the prior year.

也就是說，通貨膨脹率環境以及通貨膨脹成本環境對利潤率與前一年相比造成了壓力。

Starting with fourth quarter results.

從第四季業績開始。

On a consolidated GAAP basis compared to last year, revenue declined 5%, operating income increased 2%, and diluted earnings per share increased 4%.

與去年相比，按照綜合公認會計準則計算，收入下降了 5%，營業收入成長了 2%，稀釋每股收益成長了 4%。

We did have insurance-related charges totaling $53.4 million in Q4 of '23 and intangible asset impairment charges totaling $16 million in Q4 of '24.

我們在 23 年第四季的保險相關費用總計為 5,340 萬美元，在 24 年第四季的無形資產減損費用總計為 1,600 萬美元。

The asset impairment charges this year are related to early termination of leased facilities and intangible assets recorded from the BNSF Logistics acquisition.

今年的資產減損費用與提前終止租賃設施和收購 BNSF Logistics 記錄的無形資產有關。

After consideration of these charges, operating income and diluted earnings per share declined year-over-year, largely driven by the deflationary pricing environment.

考慮到這些費用後，營業收入和稀釋後每股收益同比下降，這主要是由於通貨緊縮的定價環境所致。

For the full year 2024, on a consolidated GAAP basis, revenue declined 6%, operating income declined 16%, and diluted EPS decreased 20%.

2024 年全年，在合併 GAAP 基礎上，收入下降 6%，營業收入下降 16%，攤薄後每股收益下降 20%。

These results include the impact of the previously mentioned charges.

這些結果包括前面提到的費用的影響。

Looking to 2025, we expect inflationary cost pressure to continue in the areas of insurance premiums and people costs.

展望2025年，我們預期保費和人力成本領域的通膨成本壓力將持續。

Despite two consecutive years of record safety performance, our insurance premiums have more than doubled over that period due to the higher cost to resolve claims.

儘管安全表現連續兩年創紀錄，但由於解決索賠的成本較高，我們的保險費在此期間增加了一倍以上。

This is an industry challenge and these inflationary costs will need to be passed on to shippers and eventually consumers.

這是一個行業挑戰，這些通貨膨脹成本將需要轉嫁給托運人並最終轉嫁給消費者。

Now, speaking specifically to the first quarter of 2025.

現在，具體談談 2025 年第一季。

Given normal seasonality on a sequential basis, we expect operating income to decline at a similar rate as what we saw in 2024 after consideration for the charges we disclosed, or more specifically somewhere around 20% to 25%.

考慮到連續的正常季節性，考慮到我們披露的費用，我們預計營業收入將以與 2024 年類似的速度下降，或更具體地說，下降幅度約為 20% 至 25%。

On the subject of cost, we have made progress across the business to rightsize our cost structure.

在成本方面，我們在整個業務範圍內取得了進展，以調整我們的成本結構。

In April 2024, we outlined $100 million of aggregate costs we were carrying across the company related to investments and resources in both our people and capacity.

2024 年 4 月，我們概述了整個公司承擔的與人員和產能投資和資源相關的總成本為 1 億美元。

We also noted that we have visibility to these costs and where they live within the organization.

我們也指出，我們可以了解這些成本以及它們在組織中的位置。

Since this time, our headcount has been reduced through attrition and performance management and now sits approximately 12% below our peak levels.

從那時起，我們透過人員流失和績效管理減少了員工人數，現在比高峰水平低了約 12%。

On the capacity side, we commented that we had about 20% excess capacity in both JBI and JBT.

在產能方面，我們評論稱，JBI 和 JBT 的產能過剩約為 20%。

Since we made those comments in April, we did invest further in our capacity in JBI with the purchase of Walmart's intermodal assets.

自從我們在 4 月發表這些評論以來，我們確實透過購買沃爾瑪的聯運資產進一步投資了 JBI 的產能。

And while our business activity levels have increased, so too has our capacity.

雖然我們的業務活動水準有所提高，但我們的產能也有所提高。

That said, we feel confident in our ability to generate a solid return on those investments over the useful life of those assets.

也就是說，我們對在這些資產的使用壽命內為這些投資產生可觀回報的能力充滿信心。

As it stands today, on a consolidated basis, the aggregate cost of that additional capacity is around $60 million.

就目前情況而言，在綜合基礎上，新增產能的總成本約為 6,000 萬美元。

While progress has been made, we remain focused on controlling costs in the near term without reducing the long-term earnings power of our business.

儘管取得了進展，但我們仍將重點放在短期內控製成本，而不降低我們業務的長期獲利能力。

I'll wrap up with an initial look at our capital plan.

最後我將初步了解我們的資本計畫。

For 2025, we expect our capital expenditures to be between $700 million and $900 million, which is up from the $674 million in 2024.

2025 年，我們預計資本支出將在 7 億至 9 億美元之間，高於 2024 年的 6.74 億美元。

Our first use of capital is always to invest in our business for growth.

我們對資本的首要用途始終是投資於我們的業務以實現成長。

Through strategic decisions and opportunities in the market, we have prefunded a large portion of our future growth in JBI and as has historically been the case, our capital needs and DCS are success driven.

透過策略決策和市場機會，我們為 JBI 未來的成長提供了很大一部分資金，正如歷史上的情況一樣，我們的資本需求和 DCS 是成功驅動的。

Our other businesses require very little capital investment.

我們的其他業務需要很少的資本投資。

We plan to continue to support our dividend in 2025, which has increased at this point for 20 consecutive years.

我們計劃在 2025 年繼續支持我們的股息，目前股息已連續 20 年增加。

Finally, we will continue to opportunistically repurchase stock as a means of returning value to shareholders.

最後，我們將繼續機會主義地回購股票，作為向股東回報價值的手段。

In 2024, we repurchased $514 million of stock at an average price of $169 per share. 2024 marks the second largest year for share repurchases in our company's history.

2024年，我們以每股169美元的平均價格回購了價值5.14億美元的股票。 2024 年是本公司史上股票回購規模第二大的一年。

With our modest leverage, limited near-term capital needs, and view on where we are in the cycle, we think repurchases are a prudent use of capital at this time.

鑑於我們的槓桿率較低、近期資本需求有限，以及對我們所處週期的看法，我們認為回購是目前對資本的謹慎使用。

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。

Hey, thank you, John, and good afternoon.

嘿，謝謝你，約翰，下午好。

I'll provide an update on the market, our sales objectives, and some feedback we are hearing from our customers.

我將提供有關市場的最新資訊、我們的銷售目標以及我們從客戶那裡聽到的一些反饋。

In the fourth quarter, we saw a strong peak season materialize, particularly across our intermodal business as well as in our highway businesses.

在第四季度，我們看到了強勁的旺季，特別是在我們的多式聯運業務以及高速公路業務上。

In intermodal, customer demand came in strong, and we were able to execute this higher volume while maintaining high levels of service for our customers.

在多式聯運中，客戶需求強勁，我們能夠執行更高的運輸量，同時為客戶保持高水準的服務。

In JBT and ICS, we experienced seasonal volume trends and some margin pressure in December as the market tightened, which is normal around the holiday period.

在 JBT 和 ICS 中，隨著市場收緊，我們在 12 月經歷了季節性成交量趨勢和一些利潤壓力，這在假期期間是正常的。

Throughout peak season, we were in constant communication with our customers around their changing capacity needs.

在整個旺季，我們不斷與客戶溝通，了解他們不斷變化的產能需求。

Given our strong value proposition around capacity and service, we were considered the go-to for our customers, while we see capacity exit the industry every day, overall, there is still some excess capacity available in the market.

鑑於我們在產能和服務方面的強大價值主張，我們被認為是客戶的首選，雖然我們每天都看到產能退出行業，但總體而言，市場上仍然存在一些過剩產能。

That said, some customers are securing capacity a little earlier than normal, which has historically been a good indication that supply and demand dynamics are shifting.

也就是說，有些客戶比正常情況要早一點獲得產能，這在歷史上看來是供需動態正在改變的一個很好的跡象。

Regardless of market changes, our focus is on providing the best possible experience and service for our customers.

無論市場如何變化，我們的重點都是為客戶提供最佳的體驗和服務。

Having a full suite of services to deliver optimal solutions for our customers is a strong and differentiated value proposition in the market.

擁有一整套服務來為客戶提供最佳解決方案是市場上強大且差異化的價值主張。

In 2025, we will continue to pursue operational excellence while providing an exceptional customer service.

2025 年，我們將繼續追求卓越運營，同時提供卓越的客戶服務。

We believe that providing high-quality service and creating unique value for our customers is the right thing to do every time and foundational to grow in our business.

我們相信，為客戶提供高品質的服務並創造獨特的價值是每次都應該做的正確的事情，也是我們業務發展的基礎。

We create value for our customers, and that will continue to be our focus, but we also plan to have conversations with each customer to make sure we are getting paid appropriately for our investments and efforts.

我們為客戶創造價值，這將繼續成為我們的重點，但我們也計劃與每位客戶進行對話，以確保我們的投資和努力得到適當的報酬。

Coming off another peak season with solid execution and service, we are in the best position to have conversations with customers about the value we create for their business.

憑藉著紮實的執行力和服務，我們迎來了另一個旺季，我們處於最佳位置，可以與客戶討論我們為他們的業務創造的價值。

I'll close with some feedback we're hearing from customers.

最後我將提供一些我們從客戶那裡聽到的回饋。

First, we received very positive feedback on how we executed peak season, and we are already working on our plans for next fall.

首先，我們收到了有關旺季執行情況的非常積極的回饋，並且我們已經在製定明年秋季的計劃。

Secondly, each customer is unique in terms of size, industry, and supply chain needs, which demand different strategies to execute their supply chains and mitigate potential disruptions.

其次，每個客戶在規模、行業和供應鏈需求方面都是獨一無二的，這需要不同的策略來執行其供應鏈並減輕潛在的干擾。

For example, we believe most of our customers are taking more of a wait-and-see approach to see how potential tariffs might influence future purchasing and business decisions.

例如，我們相信我們的大多數客戶更採取觀望態度，以了解潛在的關稅可能如何影響未來的採購和業務決策。

Regardless of their strategies, we believe we are in a strong position with our suite of services and the investments we've already made to support their work, take share in the market, and make appropriate long-term returns.

無論他們的策略如何，我們相信我們憑藉我們的服務套件和我們已經為支持他們的工作、佔領市場份額並獲得適當的長期回報而進行的投資而處於有利地位。

We remain focused on the long term while taking steps in the near term to improve the return profiles of our business, all with the same vision to create the most efficient transportation network in North America.

我們仍然著眼於長期，同時在短期內採取措施改善我們業務的回報狀況，所有這些都懷著共同的願景，即創建北美最高效的運輸網絡。

I'd now like to turn the call over to Nick.

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 areas of focus across our operations.

我將提供有關我們整個營運重點領域的最新資訊。

Before I begin my comments, I'd like to say I'm excited to be taking on the role as President of Highway Services and Final Mile.

在開始發表評論之前，我想說我很高興擔任高速公路服務和最後一英里總裁。

And so I will provide a quick update on those specific business.

因此，我將提供有關這些特定業務的快速更新。

I'll start with some comments on safety and customer value delivery, or CVD.

我將從一些關於安全和客戶價值交付（CVD）的評論開始。

Our company is rooted in a foundation of safety and is at the core of what we do every day.

我們公司植根於安全基礎，是我們日常工作的核心。

I'm proud to say that 2024 was another record performance for us measured as DOT preventable accidents per million miles.

我很自豪地說，2024 年是我們以 DOT 每百萬英里可預防事故數衡量的另一項記錄。

This is the second consecutive year of record performance and a testament to our focus on continuously improving in this area.

這是連續第二年創紀錄的業績，證明了我們致力於在這一領域不斷改進。

Our safety performance is just one example of our focus on customer value delivery or CVD that we continue to roll out across the organization.

我們的安全績效只是我們專注於客戶價值交付或 CVD 的一個例子，我們繼續在整個組織中推廣這一點。

As Shelley mentioned in her remarks, we have been very focused on operational excellence across the organization, improving the value we create for our customers through our CVD process.

正如 Shelley 在她的演講中提到的，我們一直非常注重整個組織的卓越運營，透過 CVD 流程提高我們為客戶創造的價值。

We believe this puts us in the best position to retain and grow our business while ensuring our customers see and appreciate the value we are creating for them.

我們相信，這使我們處於保留和發展業務的最佳位置，同時確保我們的客戶看到並欣賞我們為他們創造的價值。

Shifting more specifically to the businesses, I'll start with JBT.

更具體地轉向業務，我將從 JBT 開始。

Our focus remains on attracting the right freight for our drop trailer network while ensuring capacity is correctly positioned across the network to serve this freight efficiently.

我們的重點仍然是為我們的拖車網路吸引合適的貨物，同時確保整個網路的運力正確定位，以有效地服務這些貨物。

Our service level remains strong, and we continue to look to methodically grow this business while maintaining network balance, which will support future growth while driving efficiency and greater profitability.

我們的服務水準仍然強勁，我們將繼續尋求有條不紊地發展這項業務，同時保持網路平衡，這將支持未來的成長，同時提高效率和更大的獲利能力。

On Final Mile, demand for big and bulky products remain muted with soft demand in furniture and modestly soft trends in exercise equipment and appliances.

在最後一英里，對大型和笨重產品的需求仍然低迷，家具需求疲軟，運動器材和電器的趨勢適度疲軟。

We continue to focus on providing high levels of service differentiating ourselves in the market and ensuring we are appropriately paid for the great work we do.

我們繼續專注於提供高水準的服務，使自己在市場上脫穎而出，並確保我們因所做的出色工作而獲得適當的報酬。

I'll close with some comments on our strategy in ICS.

最後我將對我們的 ICS 策略發表一些評論。

The past couple of years have been challenging in ICS, but I believe we are in a more solid base to build off of going forward.

過去幾年 ICS 充滿挑戰，但我相信我們已經打下了更堅實的基礎來繼續前進。

In 2024, we incurred quite a bit of expense related to the integration of BNSF Logistics acquisition.

2024年，我們因收購BNSF Logistics的整合而產生了大量費用。

This year that will not repeat in 2025 to the tune of $35 million.

今年到 2025 年，這種情況將不會重演，金額高達 3,500 萬美元。

This includes the impairment charge John referenced earlier.

這包括約翰之前提到的減損費用。

Going forward, with our base business on a more solid footing, and the integration behind us, our focus turns to growth and more specifically, growth with the right customers.

展望未來，隨著我們的基礎業務更加堅實的基礎以及我們背後的整合，我們的重點將轉向成長，更具體地說，是與合適的客戶一起成長。

We need to further diversify our customer base in terms of size as well as industry, really targeting businesses that we can differentiate ourselves with our service, people, and technology.

我們需要在規模和行業方面進一步實現客戶群的多元化，真正針對那些我們可以透過我們的服務、人員和技術脫穎而出的企業。

We are implementing some of the playbook we utilized and dedicated to help us generate better leads and customers that we believe will see the value in what service we offer.

我們正在實施一些我們使用過的策略，致力於幫助我們產生更好的潛在客戶和客戶，我們相信他們會看到我們提供的服務的價值。

We have better alignment with our sales resources and the strategy we are confident that sets us up to scale the investments we've made in the business overall.

我們更好地協調我們的銷售資源和策略，我們有信心使我們能夠擴大我們在整體業務中所做的投資。

We are already seeing some momentum as volumes and customer counts have been growing the past two quarters.

隨著過去兩個季度銷售和客戶數量的不斷增長，我們已經看到了一些勢頭。

Finally, we are continuing our focus on controlling costs.

最後，我們將繼續關注控製成本。

The team has made significant progress in rightsizing our cost structure but there are still opportunities for additional improvement.

該團隊在調整成本結構方面取得了重大進展，但仍有進一步改進的機會。

As we come out of this recessionary freight environment, we will focus on leveraging our investments to drive greater productivity.

當我們走出衰退的貨運環境時，我們將專注於利用我們的投資來提高生產力。

I'm excited about the work we are doing within ICS and believe we have a long runway of growth and the ability to scale quickly in this business.

我對我們在 ICS 內所做的工作感到興奮，並相信我們在這項業務中擁有漫長的成長道路和快速擴展的能力。

With that, I'd like to now turn the call over to Brad.

現在，我想將電話轉給布拉德。

Thanks, Nick, and good afternoon, everybody.

謝謝尼克，大家下午好。

Before I get into my prepared comments on our dedicated business, I'd just like to say how excited I'm to be leading us in this area.

在我對我們的專業業務發表準備好的評論之前，我只想說我非常高興能在這一領域領導我們。

I recently celebrated my 29th anniversary at the company and having spent 25 of those years in our dedicated business, in some ways, it feels like a homecoming.

我最近慶祝了我在公司的 29 週年紀念日，其中 25 年都在我們專注的業務中度過，從某些方面來說，這感覺就像回家一樣。

While we have had a lot of success in the business, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to continue to expand on our performance and accelerate our growth.

雖然我們在業務上取得了巨大的成功，但我對繼續擴大我們的業績並加速我們的成長感到強烈的責任感。

As we have talked about in the past and Nick his hit on previously, we focused our dedicated business on providing professional, outsourced private fleet solutions for our customers.

正如我們過去和尼克之前談到的那樣，我們專注於為客戶提供專業的外包私人車隊解決方案。

We believe our performance during the downturn has been a standout in the market and highlights the strength and resiliency of our model.

我們相信，我們在經濟低迷時期的表現在市場上表現出色，凸顯了我們模式的實力和彈性。

We have a diverse set of customers by both industry and geography with the average size of our deals remaining relatively small.

我們擁有來自不同行業和地理的多元化客戶，但我們交易的平均規模仍然相對較小。

With this diversification and also having a decentralized model, we have great visibility into our performance, which drives strong accountability both for the benefit of our customers and financial management.

憑藉這種多元化和去中心化模式，我們對我們的績效有了很大的了解，這為我們的客戶和財務管理的利益推動了強有力的責任。

We continue to see considerable opportunity for future growth with a qualified addressable market of approximately $90 billion.

我們繼續看到未來成長的巨大機會，合格的潛在市場約為 900 億美元。

We are pleased with our pipeline and the opportunities we see across a diverse set of customers and industries.

我們對我們的產品線以及在不同客戶和行業中看到的機會感到滿意。

We've maintained our disciplined underwriting standards on new business, and I am pleased to report on another strong quarter of new truck sales.

我們對新業務保持了嚴格的承保標準，我很高興地報告新卡車銷售又一個強勁的季度。

We sold just shy of 440 trucks of new business in the quarter. 2024 marked one of our best truck sales years in our history, a strong statistic considering the environment.

本季我們銷售了近 440 輛新業務卡車。 2024 年是我們歷史上最好的卡車銷售年份之一，考慮到環境，這是一個強大的統計數據。

This only reinforces our belief in our value proposition to our customers, further supported by our customer value delivery process that Nick just touched on.

這只會增強我們對顧客價值主張的信念，尼克剛才提到的顧客價值交付流程也進一步支持了這個信念。

I'd like to take a second to review our performance in 2024 and maybe set the stage for 2025 and our view of our future opportunity.

我想花點時間回顧我們 2024 年的表現，或許為 2025 年奠定基礎，以及我們對未來機會的看法。

A little over a year ago, we spoke about having visibility to some fleet losses, and we certainly combated that challenge throughout the year.

一年多前，我們談到要了解一些機隊損失，我們全年都在應對這項挑戰。

We also saw some pressure with customer bankruptcies and to a lesser extent, some competition on a small portion of our portfolio.

我們也看到了客戶破產帶來的一些壓力，以及在較小程度上，我們投資組合的一小部分面臨的一些競爭。

We sit here today with visibility to some of the fleet loss pressure continuing through the early part of the second quarter.

今天我們坐在這裡，可以看到一些機隊損失壓力持續到第二季​​初期。

That said, with our sales momentum and strong pipeline, we feel fairly good about our ability to return to net fleet growth in 2025.

也就是說，憑藉我們的銷售動能和強大的管道，我們對 2025 年恢復機隊淨成長的能力感到相當滿意。

As we discussed before, we do typically incur some start-up expense with newly launched businesses, like given the average life of our contracts remain around five years, we recover that investment over the life of the deal.

正如我們之前討論的，我們通常會因新推出的業務而產生一些啟動費用，例如考慮到我們合約的平均期限約為五年，我們會在交易期限內收回該投資。

This is all embedded in our underwriting process.

這一切都體現在我們的核保流程中。

Excluding some of the noise around fleet losses in 2024, our base business, so excluding the start-up drag from the new ads, did operate within our stated margin target range of 12% to 14%.

排除 2024 年機隊損失的一些噪音，我們的基礎業務（因此排除新廣告對啟動的拖累）確實在我們規定的 12% 至 14% 的利潤率目標範圍內運營。

As we progress through 2025, we look forward to the fleet losses abating and returning to our long-term growth trajectory, which we target to be about 800 to 1,000 trucks per year on a net basis.

隨著 2025 年的進展，我們期待車隊損失減少並恢復到長期成長軌跡，我們的目標是每年淨成長約 800 至 1,000 輛卡車。

With this as the backdrop for 2025, we expect top line and operating income growth this year will likely be modest.

以此為 2025 年的背景，我們預期今年的營收和營業收入成長可能會溫和。

In closing and looking forward, the playbook and play calls remain the same.

總結和展望未來，劇本和劇本呼籲保持不變。

Execute with operational excellence, drive additional value for our customers through our CVD process, and continue to invest in our people to help support and accelerate our growth.

執行卓越運營，透過 CVD 流程為客戶帶來額外價值，並繼續投資於我們的員工，以幫助支持和加速我們的成長。

With that, I'd like to turn it over to Darren.

有了這個，我想把它交給達倫。

Thank you, Brad, and thank you to everyone for joining us this afternoon on the call.

謝謝布拉德，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們的電話會議。

I'll review the performance of the Intermodal business during the quarter and give an update on the market and service performance.

我將回顧本季多式聯運業務的表現，並提供市場和服務表現的最新情況。

I'll start with Intermodal's performance.

我將從聯運的表現開始。

Overall, we saw the momentum from the third quarter continue into the fourth quarter, with total volume up 5% year-over-year.

總體而言，我們看到第三季度的勢頭延續到第四季度，總銷量較去年同期成長 5%。

Sequentially, we outperform normal seasonality as the fourth quarter set a new quarterly record for intermodal volume.

隨後，我們的表現優於正常季節性，第四季的多式聯運量創下了新的季度記錄。

In fact, in the quarter, we had the largest intermodal volume month ever surpassing 200,000 loads in October, our largest volume week and our largest volume outbound Southern California.

事實上，在本季度，我們在 10 月份實現了有史以來最大的多式聯運月運量，超過了 200,000 負載，也是我們最大的周運量和最大的南加州出境運量。

By month, intermodal volumes were up 4% in October, 7% in November and 3% in December.

按月來看，10 月份聯運量增加了 4%，11 月份增長了 7%，12 月份增長了 3%。

As it pertains to mix, our Transcon volumes increased 4% during the quarter and Eastern volume grew 6%.

就混合而言，本季我們的 Transcon 銷量成長了 4%，東部銷量成長了 6%。

I remain encouraged by volume growth in the East despite depressed truck rates, which is a testament to the strong service levels of the rails and how that translates into attractive and valuable alternative to truck for our customers.

儘管卡車運價低迷，但我仍然對東部地區的運量增長感到鼓舞，這證明了鐵路強大的服務水平，以及如何轉化為對我們的客戶有吸引力且有價值的卡車替代品。

Going forward, we continue to see a lot of opportunities for future volume growth given the attractive economics, and environmental benefits of intermodal versus a truck alternative.

展望未來，鑑於多式聯運與卡車替代方案相比具有吸引力的經濟性和環境效益，我們繼續看到未來銷售成長的大量機會。

During the quarter, we experienced a strong peak season where we were able to meet the elevated demand of our customers while maintaining high service levels, highlighting the strength and flexibility of our network.

本季度，我們經歷了強勁的旺季，我們能夠滿足客戶不斷增長的需求，同時保持高服務水平，凸顯了我們網路的實力和靈活性。

For a few weeks early in the quarter, rail service in the West modestly deteriorated as the railroad experienced record intermodal demand.

在本季度初的幾週內，由於鐵路經歷了創紀錄的多式聯運需求，西部地區的鐵路服務略有惡化。

In order to fulfill our service promise to customers during this time, we had to do some unnatural activities to help keep the rail network fluid.

為了履行我們在這段時間對客戶的服務承諾，我們不得不做一些不自然的活動來幫助保持鐵路網的流暢度。

While rail service was restored to normal after a few weeks, the additional costs we incurred more than offset the benefit of incremental volume in our network and put pressure on our margins.

雖然鐵路服務在幾週後恢復正常，但我們產生的額外成本遠遠抵消了網路增量的好處，並對我們的利潤率造成壓力。

Going forward, as a reminder of our pricing cadence, we will be living with the vast majority of our current pricing through the first half of 2025.

展望未來，為了提醒我們的定價節奏，我們將在 2025 年上半年維持目前的絕大多數定價。

We are in the early innings of our bid season, and it is too early to comment on the outlook of bid results.

我們正處於申辦季節的早期階段，現在評論申辦結果的前景還為時過早。

That said, due to inflationary cost pressure across our business and the deflationary pricing experienced over the last two years, we will need to correct our pricing while remaining focused on our cost to return our business to reinvestable levels.

也就是說，由於我們業務的通膨成本壓力以及過去兩年經歷的通貨緊縮定價，我們將需要糾正我們的定價，同時繼續關注我們的成本，以使我們的業務恢復到可再投資的水平。

We are entering this bid season from a position of strength having just successfully executed our second peak season with high service levels, and our available capacity was able to handle strong customer surge demand.

我們剛剛以高服務水準成功執行了第二個旺季，並且我們的可用能力能夠滿足強勁的客戶激增需求，因此我們正處於有利地位進入這個投標季節。

The improvement in customer bid compliance also gives us greater visibility for opportunities to fill in lane imbalances across our network to drive greater efficiency.

客戶出價合規性的改善也使我們能夠更好地了解填補整個網路中車道不平衡的機會，從而提高效率。

In closing, we sit here today at or near the end of the worst freight recession we have ever experienced, having just reported two consecutive quarters of record intermodal volume.

最後，我們今天坐在這裡，正值或接近我們經歷過的最嚴重的貨運衰退結束時，剛剛報告了連續兩個季度創紀錄的多式聯運量。

As we look forward, we see more opportunities for volume growth coupled with opportunities to improve our margin performance.

展望未來，我們看到了更多銷售成長的機會以及提高利潤表現的機會。

While our margin performance has been under pressure, it is not at acceptable reinvestable levels for us.

雖然我們的利潤率表現一直面臨壓力，但它還沒有達到我們可接受的可再投資水準。

We continue to lead the industry in both margins and returns.

我們在利潤率和回報方面繼續領先行業。

Our focus in 2025 is on growing into our available capacity and beginning to repair our margins by ensuring that the value we create for our customers is realized and captured.

我們 2025 年的重點是擴大我們的可用產能，並透過確保實現和獲取我們為客戶創造的價值來開始修復我們的利潤。

We strongly believe in the strength and value of our intermodal franchise.

我們堅信我們多式聯運特許經營的實力和價值。

We have the people, technology, and capacity in the network for growth and remain excited to work with our customers to meet their growing demand with an efficient cost competitive and more environmentally friendly solution.

我們擁有網路中的人員、技術和能力來實現成長，並且仍然很高興與我們的客戶合作，透過高效的成本競爭力和更環保的解決方案來滿足他們不斷增長的需求。

That concludes my prepared remarks, so I'll turn it over to the operator to give instructions for the Q&A portion of the call.

我準備好的發言就到此結束，因此我將把它轉交給接線員，以指導通話的問答部分。

(Operator Instructions) Chris Wetherbee, Wells Fargo.

（操作員說明）Chris Wetherbee，富國銀行。

I guess maybe if we could start on the first quarter commentary you gave, which I thought was helpful.

我想也許我們可以從您給出的第一季評論開始，我認為這很有幫助。

I guess maybe first a point of clarification.

我想也許首先需要澄清一點。

I just want to make sure that you're talking about the sequential decline in operating profit for the entire business, not just one of the segments?

我只是想確定一下，您談論的是整個業務的營業利潤連續下降，而不僅僅是其中一個細分市場？

And then assuming that's the case, just maybe if you can give us a little bit more color about some of the moving parts that go into that.

然後假設情況確實如此，也許您能給我們更多有關其中的一些移動部件的信息。

Is it lingering costs from peak season, some of the head count or people sort of cost pressures that you're noting.

您注意到的是旺季帶來的揮之不去的成本、人員數量還是人員成本壓力。

Just want to get a little bit of a breakdown of what's driving that sequential decline of that magnitude.

只是想詳細了解是什麼導致瞭如此大規模的連續下降。

Hey, Chris, it's Brad Delco.

嘿，克里斯，我是布拉德德爾科。

How are you?

你好嗎？

I'm good, thanks.

我很好，謝謝。

So just to clarify, so yes, we rarely give guidance.

所以只是為了澄清一下，是的，我們很少提供指導。

And including that in our script, really, we thought it would be helpful to analysts and investors.

事實上，我們認為這對分析師和投資者有所幫助，並將其納入我們的腳本中。

We talked about seeing normal seasonality from Q4 to Q1 given consideration to the impairment charge.

我們討論了考慮到減損費用，從第四季度到第一季的正常季節性。

So I would say take our GAAP number, you can add the impairment charge back and then the 20% to 25% sequential decline in operating income is what we intended to say.

因此，我想說，以我們的 GAAP 數據為例，您可以將減損費用加回去，然後營業收入連續下降 20% 至 25% 這就是我們想說的。

And that would be in line with really what we've seen over the last, call it, 10 years, excluding maybe the [ 2 unique years ] during the pandemic.

這與我們過去（稱之為 10 年）所看到的情況相符，可能不包括大流行期間的 [2 年]。

So I just want to reiterate, that is in line with normal seasonality.

所以我想重申一下，這符合正常的季節性。

And I sense from comments and notes, there's concern about pull forward.

我從評論和筆記中感覺到，人們對拉動有擔憂。

And I just think there's a little bit of a disconnect.

我只是認為存在一點脫節。

If investors and analysts are very concerned about this pull forward and this record volume performance we're seeing, they're not really reflecting that in their expectations going forward.

如果投資者和分析師非常擔心這種拉動和我們所看到的創紀錄的成交量表現，那麼他們並沒有真正在未來的預期中反映出來。

And so we sit here today.

所以我們今天坐在這裡。

I think Spencer did a great job of giving review of the market.

我認為斯賓塞在對市場的評估方面做得很好。

And our expectations are normal seasonality from Q4 to Q1, and it's just not reflected right now in current expectations, and we just wanted to clean that out for everyone.

我們的預期是從第四季度到第一季的正常季節性，只是現在沒有反映在當前的預期中，我們只是想為每個人清除這一點。

I don't think we will continue to give guidance, and we probably will not go into any further detail on this call on guidance.

我認為我們不會繼續提供指導，而且我們可能不會就本次指導電話會議提供任何進一步的細節。

And so I just wanted to go ahead and clean that up here at the start.

所以我只是想從一開始就將其清理乾淨。

Jason Seidel, TD Cowen.

賈森·賽德爾，TD·考恩。

I wanted to touch on the CapEx commentary.

我想談談資本支出評論。

If I heard that right, that was $700 million to $900 million, that implies either 4% growth or over 30% growth.

如果我沒聽錯的話，那就是 7 億到 9 億美元，這意味著成長要么 4%，要么超過 30%。

I guess I was wondering maybe you can talk to me about the underlying assumptions for both the top and bottom part of the range.

我想我想知道也許你可以和我談談該範圍頂部和底部部分的基本假設。

Yes.

是的。

So the -- with respect to the CapEx numbers, keep in mind that what we've kind of putting that to, we feel like there's anywhere from $600 million to $700 million of replacements on any given year.

因此，就資本支出數字而言，請記住，我們認為任何一年都會有 6 億至 7 億美元的替代品。

And so a big bulk of what we're guiding in our CapEx plan for '25 has to do with power replacement specifically.

因此，我們在 25 年資本支出計畫中指導的大部分內容都與電力更換有關。

We do have some.

我們確實有一些。

We have made some property investments over the years.

多年來我們進行了一些房地產投資。

We have a little bit more in '25 that we're planning on and forecasting.

我們正在計劃和預測 25 年還有更多的事情。

But really, the range that we're providing there is dependent upon the success of dedicated sales going into '25.

但實際上，我們在那裡提供的產品範圍取決於 25 年專門銷售的成功。

And so we've got growth in our numbers, and that's part of the CapEx plan, but we typically provide at the beginning of the year, a little bit wider range until we get more visibility into the successes and dedicated.

因此，我們的數字有所增長，這是資本支出計劃的一部分，但我們通常會在年初提供更廣泛的範圍，直到我們對成功和專注有更多的了解。

John Chappell, Evercore ISI.

約翰·查佩爾，Evercore ISI。

Shelley, you mentioned a couple of times in your prepared remarks focusing on improving returns on capital and improving margins.

雪萊，您在準備好的發言中多次提到專注於提高資本回報率和提高利潤率。

Obviously, the cycle would play a big role in that, but I assume you're not counting on the cycle recovery anytime soon.

顯然，週期將在其中發揮重要作用，但我認為您不會很快指望週期恢復。

Given some of the inflationary pressures that John talked about and even Darren talked about, what steps can you take that are in your own control that you can start improving both of those metrics without getting more help from the broader market.

考慮到約翰甚至達倫談到的一些通膨壓力，您可以採取哪些在您自己控制範圍內的步驟，以便您可以開始改善這兩個指標，而無需從更廣泛的市場獲得更多幫助。

Yeah, good question.

是的，好問題。

Thank you for that, John.

謝謝你，約翰。

So I would say there's a few things inside our businesses, and I'll speak specifically for Intermodal.

所以我想說的是我們的業務內部有一些事情，我將專門針對聯運進行發言。

If you think about the challenges that we had through 2024, part of that was around balance.

如果你考慮一下 2024 年我們面臨的挑戰，其中一部分是圍繞著平衡的。

And so our ability to move the network actually loaded versus empty, that is a core strategy for us in this bid season to really focus on making sure that we're loading our equipment and minimizing the amount of empties that we're moving.

因此，我們行動網路實際裝載與空載的能力，這是我們在本投標季節的核心策略，真正專注於確保我們正在裝載設備並最大限度地減少我們移動的空箱數量。

The networks out of balance for a couple of reasons.

由於多種原因，網路失去平衡。

One, our customers have shifted West Coast from East Coast and that's caused more to happen out of the West Coast and then also some of the things that are happening in Mexico.

第一，我們的客戶已經從東海岸轉移到西海岸，這導致西海岸發生了更多的事情，然後墨西哥也發生了一些事情。

So that would be one thing.

所以那是一回事。

We'll continue to focus on our cost control efforts that we've been working on really since the last one to two years, and so we see that.

我們將繼續專注於我們自過去一兩年以來一直在努力的成本控制工作，所以我們看到了這一點。

And we'll also be scaling into our cost with revenue.

我們也將透過收入來擴大成本。

And so we do have good growth as we look at this year across our segments, and we'll start to scale into the revenue.

因此，今年我們的各個細分市場確實取得了良好的成長，並且我們將開始擴大收入。

But I will say our customers understand, I think Spencer covered this well, our customers understand where we're at, across our businesses and also the commitment that we've made to them.

但我想說的是，我們的客戶理解，我認為 Spencer 很好地闡述了這一點，我們的客戶理解我們的處境、我們的業務以及我們對他們的承諾。

We are in the best position that I have seen our company across all 5 services with the level of value and service that we have given to our customers.

在我所見過的所有 5 項服務中，我們處於最佳位置，我們為客戶提供了價值和服務水準。

And we're going to continue to maintain that.

我們將繼續保持這一點。

And we think that those conversations that we'll have with customers will be able to have conversation around what makes the most sense for us and what makes most sense for them on a customer-by-customer basis.

我們認為，我們將與客戶進行的對話將能夠在每個客戶的基礎上圍繞什麼對我們最有意義以及什麼對他們最有意義進行對話。

So I think it's really twofold for us, keep controlling costs and work on minimizing some of the incremental costs that we've had in the last half of the year, focused on our growth and then also talk about customers around the value that we create.

因此，我認為這對我們來說實際上是雙重的，繼續控製成本並努力最大限度地減少我們去年下半年的一些增量成本，專注於我們的成長，然後圍繞我們創造的價值來談論客戶。

Brian Ossenbeck, JP Morgan.

布萊恩‧奧森貝克，摩根大通。

Maybe I'll ask a question on Dedicated because you did give a little bit of guidance there, but clearly, there's some -- there's been some challenging -- some churn that you've highlighted here.

也許我會問一個關於 Dedicated 的問題，因為您確實在那裡提供了一些指導，但顯然，您在這裡強調了一些 - 有一些挑戰 - 一些流失。

Just take a while to start up these contracts, but I believe you mentioned modest year-over-year growth in both op income and revenue.

只需花一些時間來啟動這些合同，但我相信您提到了營運收入和收入的同比適度增長。

So I know you don't want to give any more specific guidance, but I think maybe that's another area where expectations are a little bit too high just based on how that business typically operates even if you are going back to growth.

所以我知道您不想提供任何更具體的指導，但我認為這可能是另一個領域，即使您要恢復成長，僅基於該業務通常的運作方式，期望也有點過高。

So any further details there would be appreciated.

因此，如果有任何進一步的細節，我們將不勝感激。

Yeah.

是的。

Thanks, Brian.

謝謝，布萊恩。

Just trying to convey that we have known losses that were not completely out of the woods yet, that we do feel largely will be behind us in the second quarter.

只是想傳達這樣的訊息：我們知道損失尚未完全擺脫困境，我們確實認為第二季大部分損失將被拋在腦後。

And so really just trying to help everyone understand when they can expect our net tractor growth to get back on plan and back on our historical model.

因此，我真的只是想幫助每個人了解何時可以預期我們的拖拉機淨增長恢復到計劃並恢復到我們的歷史模型。

We feel very good about that.

我們對此感覺非常好。

We're coming off of a great performance year, certainly didn't meet all of our expectations, but we are remarkably proud of where we did finish the year both from a performance standpoint, whether it's talking about safety, as was mentioned earlier, our driver management and retention.

我們剛剛度過了一個出色的業績年，當然沒有達到我們所有的期望，但我們對今年的表現感到非常自豪，無論是從業績的角度來看，還是在談論安全方面，正如前面提到的，我們的司機管理和保留。

We see our retention rates on overall customers rebounding from earlier inside of '24 versus where we sit today.

我們發現我們的整體客戶保留率與 24 世紀初期相比目前有所反彈。

And we feel like we have good line of sight to get back to our historical expectations of 98%, 98.5% retention in the not-too-distant future.

我們覺得我們有良好的視野，可以在不久的將來恢復到 98%、98.5% 的歷史預期。

So I can't really offer you any more specifics than that, but do feel great about our pipeline and believe that we'll continue to deliver new sales that will offset known reductions or losses, and then we'll get back on plan.

因此，我無法向您提供更多具體信息，但我確實對我們的管道感到滿意，並相信我們將繼續提供新的銷售，以抵消已知的減少或損失，然後我們將回到計劃。

Yeah.

是的。

And Brian, I'll add a little bit in terms of what was included in some of the prepared remarks.

布萊恩，我將補充一些準備好的評論中包含的內容。

Brad did mentioned, we do expect to see net fleet growth this year.

布拉德確實提到，我們確實預計今年機隊將出現淨成長。

But just thinking about the cadence of onboarding new accounts, we talked about the investment.

但只要考慮到新帳戶的加入節奏，我們就討論了投資。

We typically start these things up, and it does put margin pressure on the business for start-ups.

我們通常會啟動這些事情，這確實給新創企業的業務帶來了利潤壓力。

Usually, it's about three months of losses then the next three months of that startup will recoup the losses that were incurred in the first three months of that start-up.

通常，大約有三個月的損失，然後該新創公司接下來的三個月將彌補該新創公司前三個月所遭受的損失。

And so like to date of new deals is effectively breakeven through the first six months.

到目前為止，新交易在前六個月實際上實現了收支平衡。

So we would really need to see significant fleet growth early in the year in order to contribute operating income or EBIT dollars, if you will, to that business in the second half of the year.

因此，我們確實需要在今年年初看到機隊的顯著成長，以便在下半年為該業務貢獻營業收入或息稅前利潤（如果您願意的話）。

And so if we think about a normal cadence of how these fleets will be sold and onboarded across the year, you're really talking about growing the fleet this year and seeing the benefit of that at a future period, which should probably be next year.

因此，如果我們考慮這些機隊在一年中如何銷售和上船的正常節奏，那麼您實際上是在談論今年擴大機隊規模，並在未來一段時間（可能應該是明年）看到其帶來的好處。

Jordan Alliger, Goldman Sachs.

喬丹·阿利格，高盛。

I'm just sort of curious a little bit on the first quarter, if I could.

如果可以的話，我只是對第一季有點好奇。

Just to see if I understand, I'm assuming the bulk of the dollar drop off sequentially 4Q to 1Q is going to come in intermodal.

只是為了看看我是否理解，我假設第四季到第一季美元下跌的大部分將透過聯運方式進行。

And so I'm just sort of curious how much of that is driven by, let's say, the revenue falloff versus like a margin degradation to something well less than 7%

所以我只是有點好奇其中有多少是由收入下降造成的，而不是利潤率下降到遠低於 7%

Jordan, this is Brad again.

喬丹，這又是布萊德。

Again, we don't want to get into the specifics of guiding by segment nor just guiding in general.

再次強調，我們不想深入探討按細分市場進行指導的細節，也不想只是進行一般指導。

We saw an opportunity where the Street or the market seem to be a little bit off from what our expectations are.

我們看到了一個機會，華爾街或市場似乎與我們的預期有些偏差。

And keep in mind, we're now on our third earnings call talking about our visibility to our pricing for the first half of 2025 being said, I think the term we've used historically is the cake is somewhat baked.

請記住，我們現在正在第三次財報電話會議上討論我們對 2025 年上半年定價的可見性，我認為我們歷史上使用的術語是蛋糕已經烤好了。

We said at the end of our second quarter call, we said it on our third quarter call.

我們在第二季電話會議結束時說過，我們在第三季電話會議上也說過。

And so there's really not tremendous opportunities to move intermodal with price and the work we're doing right now will be reflected in kind of how we look at Q3 and certainly the exit rate out of '25 and the '26, we'll see more a reflection of what bids look like.

因此，確實沒有巨大的機會透過價格來推動多式聯運，我們現在正在做的工作將反映在我們如何看待第三季度，當然還有 25 年和 26 年的退出率，我們會看到更多地反映了出價的情況。

In Dedicated, I think there's normal seasonality and in our SEC filings, we talked about Q1 weather and all other reasons.

在 Dedicated 中，我認為存在正常的季節性，在我們向 SEC 提交的文件中，我們討論了第一季的天氣和所有其他原因。

It's just a more difficult environment for businesses that run trucking assets.

對於經營貨運資產的企業來說，這只是一個更困難的環境。

And that's -- so we just -- we're talking about normal seasonality in Q4 and Q1, and that's where I want to sort of land this plane on any other guidance questions.

這就是——所以我們只是——我們正在討論第四季度和第一季的正常季節性，這就是我想在任何其他指導問題上讓這架飛機降落的地方。

Scott Group, Wolfe Research.

斯科特集團，沃爾夫研究。

So just to follow up there on your -- about like what's happening in bid season now is what's going to drive Q3 and the exit into '26.

因此，跟進一下您的情況，就像現在申辦季節發生的情況一樣，這將推動第三季和進入 26 年。

Darren, I think you said like it's a little too early to tell about bid season, but can we at least -- are we at least confident we're getting some degree of pricing increases?

達倫，我想你說過現在談論投標季節還為時過早，但我們至少可以——我們至少有信心我們會得到一定程度的價格上漲嗎？

Maybe just talk a little bit more color about what's happening with bid season?

也許只是多談談申辦季節發生的事情？

And then is there enough to give us some confidence that if we're getting some price increases in the back half of this year, we'll start to see that margin inflection in intermodal.

那麼，是否有足夠的信心讓我們相信，如果今年下半年價格有所上漲，我們將開始看到多式聯運的利潤率出現變化。

Okay.

好的。

Thanks for the question, Scott.

謝謝你的提問，斯科特。

Certainly, we're on two consecutive years of this crazy long freight recession that's frustrating to all of us.

當然，我們已經連續兩年經歷了這種瘋狂的長期貨運衰退，這讓我們所有人都感到沮喪。

I think that I want to be really clear with the whole audience.

我想我想向全體觀眾說清楚。

I'm so proud of the team for the way we have executed and really earned back confidence from our customers.

我為我們團隊的執行方式感到非常自豪，並真正贏得了客戶的信任。

We are the clear leader in service and capacity.

我們在服務和能力方面無疑是領先者。

Our customers buy on service, cost and capacity.

我們的客戶購買服務、成本和容量。

So certainly, you have to be the leader in at least two of those three, if you can't be in all three.

當然，如果你不能在所有三個方面都成為領導者，那麼你必須至少在這三個方面成為領導者。

There will be markets where capacity demand certainly justifies price increases.

在某些市場，容量需求肯定會證明價格上漲是合理的。

.

。

You also heard Shelley comment on our need to fill up and rebalance the network and do some repair work on volumes to support headhaul markets.

您還聽到雪萊評論我們需要填充和重新平衡網絡，並對容量進行一些修復工作以支持頭程市場。

In those particular lanes, we're looking for cost takeout there.

在那些特定的車道上，我們正​​在尋找那裡的成本外送。

And so the pricing conversation may behave a little differently.

因此，定價對話的表現可能會略有不同。

The reason I'm I'm kind of trying to talk about how we think about this pricing cycle, it's a conversation with one customer at a time.

我之所以嘗試談論我們如何看待這個定價週期，是一次與一位客戶的對話。

I'm very confident that the service product we've offered over the last two years has really earned us the right to have really strong confidence in what we're providing value for our customers, and we're going to share that with the customers and work on our price.

我非常有信心，我們過去兩年提供的服務產品確實使我們對我們為客戶提供的價值充滿信心，我們將與客戶分享這一點客戶並製定我們的價格。

When we said it's too early, we really haven't completed very much the bid cycle.

當我們說現在還為時過早時，我們實際上還沒有完成太多的投標週期。

There are a lot of ongoing conversations.

有很多正在進行的對話。

Everybody is under cost inflation challenges.

每個人都面臨成本通膨的挑戰。

Our customers are not going into that.

我們的客戶不會參與其中。

So it's an ongoing conversation.

所以這是一個持續的對話。

But certainly, we feel confident that as truck rates climb, as new capacity demand hits us, we can certainly begin to repair our margins and improvements in price will have to be part of that.

但當然，我們相信，隨著卡車運價的攀升，隨著新產能需求的衝擊，我們肯定可以開始修復我們的利潤，而價格的改善也必須成為其中的一部分。

Ken Hoexter, Bank of America.

肯‧霍克斯特，美國銀行。

Interesting about your discussion on the end of the worst freight recession.

關於最嚴重的貨運衰退結束的討論很有趣。

Hopefully, we keep hearing about that, but then the dip in 1Q is a little concerning, I guess, on the progression of that.

希望我們能繼續聽到這一消息，但我想，第一季的下滑有點令人擔憂，因為它的進展。

But last quarter, Darren, I think you mentioned -- you didn't think you'd get back to 1.8 to 2 turns per month, but it looked like utilization of boxes improved in the quarter, now turns are up to about over 1.5, it looks like, and utilization up into maybe the 90s.

但上個季度，Darren，我想你提到過 - 你認為你不會回到每月 1.8 到 2 週轉，但看起來本季度箱子的利用率有所提高，現在周轉率達到約 1.5 以上，看起來像，並且使用可能到了90 年代。

How should we think about the scalability of that?

我們應該如何考慮它的可擴展性？

Maybe talk about what is still parked, what is still left to come out of the sidelines and how utilization is going?

也許可以談談仍然停放的東西、還剩下什麼需要從場邊出來以及利用率如何？

I want to take something -- I want to take the first comment, which was coming out of fourth quarter going into Q1 was somewhat surprising.

我想採取一些措施 - 我想採取第一個評論，該評論來自第四季度進入第一季度，這有點令人驚訝。

If you think about just the seasonality of our business, we've been talking about at our bid season that we've already -- all of our pricing has already been established.

如果您只考慮我們業務的季節性，我們已經在投標季節討論過 - 我們所有的定價都已經確定。

Everything we're working on today is to be implemented in the third quarter of 2025 and beyond.

我們今天所做的一切都將在 2025 年第三季及以後實施。

So we're coming into Q1 with intermodal pricing that has already been set.

因此，當我們進入第一季時，聯運定價已經確定。

Demand volume for our services have been at record levels for the entire back half of 2024.

2024 年下半年，我們的服務需求量一直處於創紀錄水準。

Our operational service and excellence that we have provided for our customers is the best we've ever done from an intermodal perspective, and I'm not sure how long, Darren, but many, many, many years.

從多式聯運的角度來看，我們為客戶提供的營運服務和卓越表現是我們有史以來做得最好的，達倫，我不確定需要多長時間，但很多很多很多年了。

So I think we are setting ourselves up for great success for the future.

所以我認為我們正在為未來的巨大成功做好準備。

Q1 is a result of the 2023, '24 bid season.

第一季是 2023 年 '24 申辦季的結果。

Moving into this period now, we'll focus on what that looks like for the back half of '25 and into '26.

現在進入這個時期，我們將重點放在 25 年後半段和 26 年的情況。

And so Darren, I'll turn it to you to answer the question around time.

達倫，我會請你在適當的時候回答這個問題。

Sure.

當然。

So clearly, record volumes without onboarding more equipment, improved utilization for us.

很明顯，在不安裝更多設備的情況下創紀錄的產量，提高了我們的利用率。

That's clearly a big part of our story moving forward is, we have to scale into those capacity investments we've made.

顯然，我們前進的故事的一個重要部分是，我們必須擴大我們已經進行的產能投資。

We're very aware that we have excess capacity, and we're proud of the fact that we were able to grow.

我們非常清楚我們的產能過剩，我們為我們能夠成長這一事實感到自豪。

I think what I said on the last call that the years of two loads per container per month are probably behind us.

我想我在上次電話會議上所說的每月每個貨櫃裝載兩批貨物的時代可能已經過去了。

That has a lot more to do with the railroad schedules and the way that the rail networks flow, everything today flows a little bit slower than it did when we last turned at 2x per month.

這與鐵路時刻表和鐵路網絡的運作方式有很大關係，今天的一切都比我們上次每月運行 2 倍時慢了一點。

.

。

And I would even say our customers have a role in their ability to unload the equipment and create maximum utilization, and we have seen that be a challenge for some of our questions or for some of our customers.

我甚至想說，我們的客戶在卸載設備和創造最大利用率方面發揮作用，我們已經看到這對我們的一些問題或對我們的一些客戶來說是一個挑戰。

As we move forward, do I think that we can turn the entire fleet at 1.8 for a whole calendar year.

隨著我們的前進，我認為我們可以在整個日曆年將整個機隊的運轉率提高到 1.8。

That's probably also not in the cards.

這也可能是不可能的。

But certainly, in the heaviest months, and I would anticipate October is always going to be your biggest month of the year.

但當然，在最嚴重的月份，我預計十月永遠是一年中最嚴重的月份。

And so if we're turning the fleet at 1.8x in October, I think that certainly would be a challenge for us, but it's not an out-of-sight goal that we can certainly look to achieve.

因此，如果我們在 10 月將機隊利用率提高 1.8 倍，我認為這對我們來說肯定是一個挑戰，但這並不是一個我們可以實現的遙不可及的目標。

But as we move forward, we'd like to see our turns continue to improve as we grow volumes.

但隨著我們的前進，我們希望看到我們的周轉率隨著銷售量的成長而繼續改善。

I'm going to duck your question and not answer specifically, but we have more room for improvement than what you even saw in 4Q.

我將迴避你的問題，不具體回答，但我們比你在第四季看到的還有更多的進步空間。

Brandon Oglenski, Barclays.

布蘭登·奧格倫斯基，巴克萊銀行。

Darren, maybe following up with that then, I think in the prepared remarks, it was discussed like spare capacity in intermodal was close to 20%, then you guys did the Walmart deal.

達倫，也許接下來，我想在準備好的發言中，討論了多式聯運的閒置產能接近 20%，然後你們就做了沃爾瑪交易。

Maybe that's what Ken was also getting that in his question.

也許這就是肯在他的問題中得到的答案。

But where do you see spare capacity maybe in your network and maybe more broadly across the system?

但是，您在網路中或整個系統中的哪些地方看到了空閒容量？

And is that a hurdle that we still have to get over as it was like in '25.

這是否是我們仍需要克服的障礙，就像 25 年一樣。

Well, certainly, we still have really significant capacity that's underutilized.

嗯，當然，我們仍然有大量產能未充分利用。

And the cost to store that equipment is a significant headwind for us.

儲存這些設備的成本對我們來說是一個重大阻力。

And so as we continue to scale and grow our volumes, while also improving pricing, that's going to be our focus and our effort.

因此，隨著我們繼續擴大規模和增加銷售量，同時提高定價，這將成為我們的重點和努力。

The Walmart equipment we reported -- I think we reported just over 122,000 containers at the end of 4Q.

我們報告的沃爾瑪設備——我認為我們在第四季度末報告了超過 122,000 個貨櫃。

When we onboarded the Walmart equipment, all of that equipment requires a modification, and we haven't completed that work.

當我們裝載沃爾瑪設備時，所有這些設備都需要修改，而我們還沒有完成這項工作。

Clearly, we just did the acquisition in, I think, the second quarter of -- or end of first quarter, second quarter last year.

顯然，我們剛剛在去年第二季或第一季末、第二季進行了收購。

And that equipment is tucked away in storage right now because, frankly, we're still trying to grow into the 122,000 containers that you can see we own today.

這些設備現在都藏在倉庫裡，因為坦白說，我們仍在努力發展到今天您可以看到的 122,000 個貨櫃。

That will -- the Walmart equipment will become more visible as demand for it helps us grow into it, and we complete that conversion and bring it active into our system.

這將 - 沃爾瑪設備將變得更加明顯，因為對它的需求幫助我們成長，我們完成了轉換並將其活躍到我們的系統中。

Daniel Imbro, Stephens.

丹尼爾·因布羅，史蒂芬斯。

Maybe I'll ask on the ICS side.

也許我會問 ICS 方面。

We saw stronger gross margins, particularly given the move in truck rates during the quarter.

我們看到了更高的毛利率，特別是考慮到本季卡車費率的變化。

I guess, can you just talk about how the pricing strategy has changed here?

我想，您能談談定價策略是如何改變的嗎？

I think in the prepared remarks, you mentioned you expect a return to growth this year. so maybe we're past kind of the peak pressure there, but if normalized margins used to be mid-teens.

我認為您在準備好的發言中提到預計今年將恢復成長。因此，也許我們已經過了那裡的峰值壓力，但如果標準化利潤率曾經是十幾歲左右的話。

Could they be higher for ICS here?

這裡的 ICS 會更高嗎？

Just how should we think about that profitability?

我們該如何看待這種獲利能力？

I'll try not to give any guidance here.

我會盡量不在這裡提供任何指導。

I'll just talk about our philosophy.

我只想談談我們的理念。

We think we're in a really good spot right now.

我們認為我們現在處於一個非常好的位置。

We've got through the integration.

我們已經完成了整合。

We think we've got through our customer losses that really that come on board for the most part, back during peak of COVID and some of that.

我們認為，我們已經度過了客戶流失的難關，這些客戶流失實際上大部分是在新冠疫情高峰期以及部分客戶流失的情況下發生的。

And we think we're in the right spot.

我們認為我們處於正確的位置。

Our sweet spot is going to be focusing on the customers that are hard to do business, multi-stop, other specialty things.

我們的最佳點將集中在那些難以開展業務、多站、其他特殊業務的客戶。

And so we're really focused on mid, small size, expanding in different industries.

因此，我們真正專注於中小型企業，在不同行業擴張。

And so we feel good.

所以我們感覺很好。

We had a really good gross margins because of the project work we were doing, it's solid anyway that we had some extra project work in there in Q4.

由於我們正在進行的專案工作，我們的毛利率非常高，無論如何，我們在第四季度有一些額外的專案工作，這很可靠。

But we're proud of our gross margin, and we want to continue to have some of the best gross margins in the industry and grow our business.

但我們對我們的毛利率感到自豪，我們希望繼續擁有業內最好的毛利率並發展我們的業務。

So our strategy is to find the right customer that appreciate our service we do.

因此，我們的策略是找到欣賞我們服務的合適客戶。

We do great service, we've got a great reputation, and we're hearing that from our customers, and expanding with some of our existing customers as we speak.

我們提供優質的服務，擁有良好的聲譽，我們從客戶那裡聽到了這一點，並在我們發言時與一些現有客戶進行了擴展。

So we're excited.

所以我們很興奮。

We think we've got a lot of the noise behind us, really ready to launch at scale, and that's what we need.

我們認為我們已經做好了大規模發布的準備，這就是我們所需要的。

We need to scale on our investments in our sales team, and in our technology that is really good.

我們需要擴大對銷售團隊和真正優秀技術的投資。

It sets us up to scale really well.

它使我們能夠很好地擴展規模。

So we're excited about that and got a lot of good conversations going on with our customers.

因此，我們對此感到很興奮，並與客戶進行了許多良好的對話。

Tom Radowitz, UBS.

湯姆‧拉多維茨，瑞銀集團。

So I wanted to ask you on intermodal volumes.

所以我想向您詢問有關聯運量的問題。

You've had a lot of strength in intermodal volumes in 2024.

2024 年，您在多式聯運量方面表現強勁。

It does set you up for a more difficult comparison.

它確實讓你進行更困難的比較。

Yes, it sounds like you don't think there's a lot of pull forward, but I just want to get a sense of do you think against that tougher comp, we should be considering flattish intermodal volume?

是的，聽起來你不認為有很大的推動力，但我只是想知道你是否認為相對於更嚴格的競爭，我們應該考慮平坦的聯運量？

Or do you think that it's appropriate to say, "Hey, we're still going to get some volume growth.

或者您認為這樣說是否合適：「嘿，我們的銷量仍然會有所成長。

I guess if you think there is some growth, are there any verticals that you say, hey, this area can really drive it if it's housing or auto or consumer.

我想如果你認為有一些成長，你是否會說，嘿，如果是住房、汽車或消費者，這個領域確實可以推動成長。

So I appreciate your thoughts on that, just broadly how to think about intermodal volume.

因此，我很欣賞您對此的想法，即大致如何思考聯運量。

Sure.

當然。

Well, for years, we've highlighted that we believe there's at least 9 million to 11 million loads of highway business where intermodal can and should be the correct answer.

多年來，我們一直強調，我們相信至少有 900 萬至 1100 萬輛公路業務負載，多式聯運可以而且應該是正確的答案。

We continue to see opportunities for volume growth in the Eastern network, particularly as the truck market swings, we're really uniquely positioned with really a good bit of available capacity.

我們繼續看到東部網路銷售成長的機會，特別是隨著卡車市場的波動，我們確實處於獨特的地位，擁有大量的可用運力。

Both of our Eastern rail providers are performing excellent, and we're in a great spot to convert that business to intermodal as the truckload market begins to change and customers are faced with higher cost and higher rates out of the truckload market, intermodal can be a great answer to that.

我們的兩家東部鐵路供應商都表現出色，隨著卡車市場開始發生變化，並且客戶面臨著離開卡車市場的更高成本和更高費率，我們處於將該業務轉變為多式聯運的絕佳位置，多式聯運可以對此的一個很好的答案。

And so we're -- we believe, for the long term, for many years, we have growth opportunities in the East.

因此，我們相信，從長遠來看，多年來，我們在東方擁有成長機會。

Out West, certainly, it has been traditionally a little bit more dependent upon the imports, but there are so many intact international moves today as we think about the most efficient way for customers to plan their supply chains, converting out of the 40 and transloading on the West Coast into our equipment can provide them really strong efficiency efficient answers.

當然，在西方，它傳統上更加依賴進口，但今天有很多完整的國際搬遷，因為我們正在考慮客戶規劃供應鏈的最有效方式，從 40 種產品中轉換出來並進行轉運在西海岸投入我們的設備可以為他們提供真正強大效率高效的答案。

And then certainly, we've talked a little bit about growth in Mexico.

當然，我們也討論了墨西哥的成長。

And as that market continues to expand, we're excited about our opportunity there.

隨著該市場的不斷擴大，我們對在那裡的機會感到興奮。

So our expectations and the way that we approach every year will always be to find methods of growth.

因此，我們的期望和每年的做法始終是尋找成長方法。

The last 2 quarters being record volume quarters continue to give us really strong confidence that the value we're providing to customers with service can continue and expand from here.

過去兩個季度的銷售量創歷史新高，這繼續讓我們非常有信心，我們為客戶提供的服務價值可以繼續下去並從這裡擴大。

Bruce Chan, Stifel.

布魯斯·陳，斯蒂菲爾。

Darren, maybe one for you.

達倫，也許有一個適合你。

Certainly, good to see the demand levels in JBI.

當然，很高興看到 JBI 的需求水準。

But just maybe to dig into the service issues at your rail partner a little bit.

但也許只是稍微深入研究一下您的鐵路合作夥伴的服務問題。

I think there's maybe a temptation to see shades of 2021 or 2022 with the fluidity getting affected by higher volumes and then causing some higher costs as you support your service standards.

我認為可能會出現 2021 年或 2022 年的情況，流動性會受到銷售增加的影響，然後在支援服務標準時導致更高的成本。

Is that not a fair characterization?

這不是一個公平的描述嗎？

And if not, what gives you confidence that maybe this is just more of an episodic or onetime disruption?

如果不是，是什麼讓您相信這可能只是一次偶發或一次性的中斷？

Sure.

當然。

Okay.

好的。

Thanks for that question.

謝謝你提出這個問題。

And I'm glad I get an opportunity to comment on this.

我很高興有機會對此發表評論。

There are infrastructure challenges at railroads, and that's not what this is.

鐵路存在基礎設施挑戰，但事實並非如此。

And that's the good news because infrastructure challenges are years to solve.

這是個好消息，因為基礎設施挑戰需要數年時間才能解決。

That's big in CapEx investment and can be certainly a headwind.

這對資本支出來說是一筆巨大的投資，而且肯定會變成一個阻力。

But that is not the case in this circumstance.

但在這種情況下，情況並非如此。

Certainly, record intermodal volumes, the terminals and the capacity that BNSF has expanded and added really showed up for us throughout the second half of the year.

當然，創紀錄的多式聯運量、BNSF 擴建和增加的碼頭和運能在整個下半年確實向我們展示了出來。

But as those record volumes in both international and our domestic business hit them in October, I think it became a little bit more of a people challenge.

但隨著國際和國內業務量在 10 月創下歷史新高，我認為這更多地成為了對人員的挑戰。

They went through a new union agreement in 2023 and that meant some changes in the way their employees work hours showed up.

他們在 2023 年簽署了新的工會協議，這意味著員工的工作時間方式將會發生一些變化。

And I think the planning of their resources and the way the employees took time off or had sick time or had, for whatever reason, a difference in how they reported to work, and that's set us through some challenges.

我認為他們的資源規劃以及員工請假或請病假的方式，或者無論出於何種原因，他們的工作報告方式都有所不同，這給我們帶來了一些挑戰。

There were also some imbalances in their own railcar fleet.

他們自己的軌道車車隊也存在一些不平衡。

So these are planning issues.

所以這些都是規劃問題。

There are people issues that can be solved in a matter of months, and we're very confident in our ability to exercise growth in the -- on the West Coast next peak season and execute even more volume than we did this year.

有些人的問題可以在幾個月內解決，我們對我們在西海岸下一個旺季實現增長的能力非常有信心，並且執行的數量甚至比今年還要多。

And as usual, we have great dialogue with BNSF about this.

像往常一樣，我們與 BNSF 就此進行了良好的對話。

They are equally as unhappy about that element that hit us this year as we are, and we're working together to come up with better ways to think about that.

他們和我們一樣對今年襲擊我們的因素感到不滿，我們正在共同努力想出更好的方法來思考這個問題。

But I don't want the group to believe that, that was a 2021 like event, it's not it at all.

但我不想讓大家相信，那是一場類似 2021 年的事件，根本不是這樣。

It was really just a change in the way their employees behaved about time off.

這其實只是員工休假行為方式的改變。

Bascome Majors, Susquehanna.

巴斯科姆專業，薩斯奎哈納。

Can you talk a little bit about the typical notice your dedicated customers need to give before exiting the contract?

您能否談談您的忠實客戶在退出合約之前需要發出的典型通知？

And just how much visibility and conviction you have into the churn really giving way after the second quarter and the ability to really net grow the fleet and kind of seeing that gross growth you've been delivering in the second half and for the full year.

以及您對第二季後真正消失的客戶流失有多少可見度和信念，以及真正實現機隊淨增長的能力，以及看到您在下半年和全年實現的總增長。

Yes, Bascom.

是的，巴斯科姆。

Each agreement is unique and specific to each customer.

每份協議對於每個客戶來說都是獨特且特定的。

So there's not really a formal standard in terms of how we work closely with each customer.

因此，就我們如何與每位客戶密切合作而言，並沒有真正的正式標準。

There's really three types of losses that we incurred.

我們確實遭受了三種類型的損失。

I'll just rehighlight that.

我將再次強調這一點。

First and foremost, our customers, some of them have been pressured in their own industries and their businesses.

首先也是最重要的是我們的客戶，他們中的一些人在自己的行業和業務中承受著壓力。

And so we see fleet sizes that reduce as a result of that.

因此，我們看到機隊規模因此而縮小。

And that's one type of conversation.

這就是一種對話。

And quite frankly, our CVD process helps us be proactive with our customers when we see their demand shift upward or downward in the environment we've been living in the last two years, as Darren mentioned, there's been more of those downward revisions, but that's part of how we offer flexibility for our customers.

坦白說，當我們看到客戶的需求在我們過去兩年生活的環境中向上或向下變化時，我們的CVD 流程幫助我們積極主動地對待客戶，正如達倫所提到的，向下修正的情況更多，但是這是我們為客戶提供靈活性的一部分。

.

。

There are also points in times when we recover, I don't know, recessionary times or where we go plus net positive on all the ads that we have.

我不知道，也有一些時候我們會復甦，例如經濟衰退時期，或是我們要去什麼地方，加上我們所有廣告的淨正面價值。

So if we do the right thing by our customer in the most difficult of times, we believe that they're going to continue to partner with us, and we will be rewarded for that when there are more appropriate times for growth in their industries.

因此，如果我們在最困難的時期為客戶做正確的事情，我們相信他們將繼續與我們合作，當他們的行業出現更合適的成長時機時，我們將因此獲得回報。

So that's one thing.

所以這是一回事。

Then we also had, and we mentioned in the prepared remarks and even our earnings release, we did have some bankruptcies this year.

然後我們也有，我們在準備好的發言甚至我們的收益發布中提到，今年我們確實有一些破產。

These are some of our customers that their businesses struggle vitally, and so we lose business in that fashion.

這些是我們的一些客戶，他們的業務陷入困境，因此我們以這種方式失去了業務。

And then the third is typically through a competitive bid.

第三種通常是透過競爭性投標。

In many cases, it's a renewal of a term where we're nearing the end of that contractual commitment.

在許多情況下，這是合約承諾即將結束時的續約。

And given the current economic pressures that our customers are facing, they look to bid that out.

考慮到我們的客戶目前面臨的經濟壓力，他們希望透過競標來解決這個問題。

And so we've had all three of those working against us over the past 12 to 18 months.

因此，在過去 12 到 18 個月裡，這三個因素都對我們不利。

We do see it and it did slow.

我們確實看到了它，而且速度確實很慢。

The combination of all 3 of those slowed throughout 2024.

所有這三個因素的總和在 2024 年都會放緩。

And I think that's really what gives us the optimism as long as we can deliver on our sales plan which we are very optimistic about that based on our pipeline and our more recent performance.

我認為，只要我們能夠實現我們的銷售計劃，這確實讓我們感到樂觀，根據我們的管道和最近的業績，我們對此非常樂觀。

We feel like we will get back to that net positive later this year.

我們覺得今年稍後我們將恢復淨正值。

Ari Rosa, Citigroup.

花旗集團的阿里·羅莎。

Great.

偉大的。

Thanks for squeezing me here at the end.

謝謝你最後把我擠到這裡。

So I wanted to ask about the first quarter outlook.

所以我想問一下第一季的前景。

So Brad, hopefully you won't kill me.

所以布拉德，希望你不要殺我。

But I'm a little confused because you mentioned that there were some, I think, you called them unnatural costs in fourth quarter, but you're saying you expect normal seasonality in the first quarter.

但我有點困惑，因為你提到，我認為，你稱第四季有一些非自然成本，但你說你預計第一季會出現正常的季節性成本。

I would have thought given the unnatural cost that maybe we would expect slightly better than normal seasonality in the first quarter.

我以為考慮到不自然的成本，也許我們預期第一季的季節性會比正常的季節性稍微好一點。

So I'm just trying to understand, is this kind of a reflection of either particularly weak trends in terms of seasonality in terms of the giveback in the first quarter?

所以我只是想了解，這是否反映了第一季回饋的季節性特別疲軟的趨勢？

And then maybe you could talk about what the prospect is for improvement as we kind of move through the year into second quarter and beyond.

然後，也許您可以談談隨著今年進入第二季度及以後的情況，改進的前景是什麼。

Well, I mean, we very rarely give guidance.

嗯，我的意思是，我們很少提供指導。

There's reasons why we don't give guidance.

我們不提供指導是有原因的。

We feel like we have a great business, a great business made up of 5 different segments, and we really like a lot of the time in these sort of environments or opportunities to speak to investors to talk about our great businesses and not talk about what's embedded or implied in our guidance, which is a big reason why we're just not fans of issuing it.

我們覺得我們擁有一家偉大的企業，一家由 5 個不同部門組成的偉大企業，我們真的很喜歡在這種環境中或有很多時間與投資者交談，談論我們偉大的企業，而不是談論什麼嵌入或暗示在我們的指導中，這是我們不喜歡發布它的一個重要原因。

We saw there being a disconnect.

我們看到存在脫節。

We think that there is concerns, like I said about pull forward.

我們認為存在擔憂，就像我所說的關於向前推進的問題。

And I'm just really calling out if there's that much concern about pull forward and us benefiting in Q4 or Q3 as Q3 was written about related to pull forward then why wouldn't that be reflected in forward expectations?

我只是想指出，如果人們對前移有如此多的擔憂，並且我們在第四季度或第三季度受益，因為第三季度是與前移相關的，那麼為什麼這不會反映在遠期預期中呢？

Where are we pulling this demand from?

我們從哪裡拉動這種需求？

And so we sit here today and we just saw a disconnect in Q1 relative to normal seasonality.

因此，我們今天坐在這裡，我們剛剛看到第一季相對於正常季節性的脫節。

We executed a very strong fourth quarter peak season in intermodal.

我們在多式聯運方面的第四季旺季表現非常強勁。

We have double-digit EBIT margins and returns on capital in our dedicated business that has proven to be the most resilient trucking business through the last 2.5 years.

我們的專業業務擁有兩位數的息稅前利潤和資本回報率，該業務已被證明是過去 2.5 年中最具彈性的貨運業務。

We have a lot of momentum.

我們有很大的動力。

We sit here after 2 consecutive quarters of record intermodal volume, as Darren said, at or near the end of this freight recession with opportunities ahead to grow both volume and make sure we're getting the appropriate value out of the great service we're providing customers.

正如達倫所說，在連續兩個季度創紀錄的多式聯運貨運量之後，我們坐在這裡，在貨運衰退即將結束時，未來有機會增加貨運量，並確保我們從我們所提供的優質服務中獲得適當的價值。

So I think there is a lot of optimism and excitement at least in this room about the future prospects because we just tried to level set expectations for Q1 on what normal seasonality should be.

因此，我認為至少在這個房間裡對未來前景充滿了樂觀和興奮，因為我們只是試圖根據正常的季節性應該對第一季設定預期。

That's what we want to set.

這就是我們想要設定的。

And obviously, our goal will go out to try to execute and outperform normal seasonality.

顯然，我們的目標將是努力執行並超越正常的季節性。

But no, I'm not going to provide more details on color as to the puts and takes of 4Q versus 1Q.

但不，我不會提供更多有關 4Q 與 1Q 的放置和取出顏色的詳細資訊。

And that concludes our question-and-answer session.

我們的問答環節到此結束。

I will now turn the conference back to Ms. Shelley Simpson for closing remarks.

現在我將請雪莉辛普森女士致閉幕詞。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you for joining the call.

感謝您加入通話。

We try to be more transparent on this call and help you understand where we believe we are in the cycle.

我們試圖在這次電話會議中更加透明，並幫助您了解我們認為我們處於週期中的哪個位置。

But also, as I think about the past few years, we've been in a time of investing really looking at our position of strength as a company, how can we invest in our people, our technology and capacity to set us up for really great future success.

而且，正如我對過去幾年的看法，我們一直處於投資時期，真正著眼於我們作為一家公司的實力地位，我們如何投資於我們的員工、我們的技術和能力，使我們能夠真正實現未來的巨大成功。

We focus on controlling our costs, and we strategically focus specifically this year on being exceptional in our safety and delivering the highest levels of value and service to our customers.

我們專注於控製成本，今年我們的策略重點是在安全方面表現出色，並為客戶提供最高水準的價值和服務。

And we've done that.

我們已經做到了。

It was our proven year that's what Darren called it through most of the year, and we proved it, we've done that, our customers and they're satisfaction with us at the highest level that we've recorded.

這是我們經過驗證的一年，達倫在這一年的大部分時間裡都這麼稱呼它，我們證明了這一點，我們已經做到了這一點，我們的客戶和他們對我們的滿意度達到了我們記錄的最高水平。

So standing on the bedrock of our operational excellence, this is our year to grow, and it's our year to build on the successes that we've had.

因此，立足於我們卓越營運的基石，今年是我們成長的一年，也是我們在已經取得的成功的基礎上再接再厲的一年。

We're going to be focused on growth, improving our financial performance, and we're going to take really great care of our people, and that allows us to deliver on our brand promise and make sure that we have success for our future.

我們將專注於成長，改善我們的財務業績，我們將非常關心我們的員工，這使我們能夠兌現我們的品牌承諾，並確保我們的未來成功。

Thank you for joining the call.

感謝您加入通話。

Look forward to speaking with you next time.

期待下次與您交談。

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束，我們感謝你們的參與。

You may now disconnect.

您現在可以斷開連線。