Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc (KNX) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is John, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Knight-Swift Transportation First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Speakers from today's call will be Adam Miller, Chief Executive Officer; Andrew Hess, Chief Financial Officer; Brad Stewart, Treasurer and Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Miller, the meeting is now yours.

午安.我叫約翰，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時此刻，我謹歡迎大家參加 Knight-Swift Transportation 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）今天電話會議的發言人將是執行長 Adam Miller；安德魯‧赫斯，財務長； Brad Stewart，財務長兼投資者關係資深副總裁。米勒先生，現在會議由您主持。

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2024 earnings call. Today, we plan to discuss topics related to the results of the quarter, current market conditions and our earnings guidance. We have slides to accompany this call, which are posted on our investor website. Our call is scheduled to last 1 hour. And following our commentary, we will answer questions related to these topics. In order to get to as many participants as possible, we limit the questions to 1 per participant. If you have a second question, please feel free to get back in the queue, we will answer as many questions as time allows. If were not able to get to your question due to time restrictions, you may call (602) 606-6349.

謝謝約翰，大家下午好，謝謝您參加我們的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。今天，我們計劃討論與本季業績、當前市場狀況和我們的獲利指引相關的議題。我們在本次電話會議上附有幻燈片，這些幻燈片發佈在我們的投資者網站上。我們的通話預計為期 1 小時。在我們的評論之後，我們將回答與這些主題相關的問題。為了吸引盡可能多的參與者，我們將每位參與者的問題限制為 1 個。如果您還有第二個問題，請隨時回到隊列中，我們將在時間允許的情況下回答盡可能多的問題。如果由於時間限制無法回答您的問題，您可以致電 (602) 606-6349。

Now before we jump into the slides, I want to introduce the 2 gentlemen that will be joining me on the call today for the first time: Andrew Hess and Brad Stewart. Andrew Hess is our newly appointed CFO. Andrew has been with our company for the last 5 years and has served in several financial roles, including the VP of Finance at Knight when he started in 2019, then led our M&A efforts beginning in January of 2021. Andrew played a significant role in closing on the AAA Cooper, MME and U.S. Xpress acquisitions. And just prior to becoming the CFO, Andrew was leading the finance efforts at Swift, along with continued oversight of M&A. So we want to welcome Andrew to the call.

現在，在我們開始投影片之前，我想介紹一下今天首次參加電話會議的兩位先生：安德魯·赫斯 (Andrew Hess) 和布拉德·斯圖爾特 (Brad Stewart)。安德魯‧赫斯 (Andrew Hess) 是我們新任命的財務長。 Andrew 在過去5 年裡一直在我們公司工作，並擔任過多個財務職務，包括2019 年入職時擔任Knight 的財務副總裁，然後從2021 年1 月開始領導我們的併購工作。中發揮了重要作用收購 AAA Cooper、MME 和 U.S. Xpress。在成為財務長之前，Andrew 負責領導 Swift 的財務工作，並持續監督併購工作。因此，我們歡迎安德魯參加電話會議。

And then many of you may be familiar with Brad Stewart as he has been leading our Investor Relations activity for the past year. Brad is our Treasurer and has held various finance leadership roles in the Knight and Swift businesses over the past several years, and Brad has been with the company for 20 years now. I'm excited to welcome both Brad and Andrew to the call.

你們中的許多人可能熟悉布拉德·斯圖爾特（Brad Stewart），因為他在過去的一年裡一直領導我們的投資者關係活動。 Brad 是我們的財務主管，過去幾年在 Knight 和 Swift 業務中擔任過各種財務領導職務，現在 Brad 在公司工作了 20 年。我很高興歡迎布拉德和安德魯參加電話會議。

And with that, I will now turn the call over to Brad.

現在，我將把電話轉給布拉德。

Thank you, Adam. To begin, I will first refer you to the disclosures on Slide 2 of the presentation and note the following. This conference call and presentation may contain forward-looking statements made by the company that involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Investors are directed to the information contained in Item 1A Risk Factors or Part 1 of the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of the risks that may affect the company's future operating results. Actual results may differ.

謝謝你，亞當。首先，我將先向您介紹簡報投影片 2 上的揭露內容，並注意以下內容。本次電話會議和演示可能包含公司所做的前瞻性聲明，這些聲明涉及難以預測的風險、假設和不確定性。投資者應參閱公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表格年度報告第 1A 項風險因素或第 1 部分中包含的信息，以討論可能影響公司未來經營業績的風險。實際結果可能有所不同。

Now I will turn to our overview on Slide 3. The charts on Slide 3 compare our consolidated first quarter revenue and earnings results on a year-over-year basis. Market conditions in the LTL business continue to be solid, while soft demand and excess capacity persist in the truckload space. Revenue, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 11%, while our adjusted operating income declined by 68.5%. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the first quarter of 2024 was a loss of $0.02, and our adjusted EPS was $0.12.

現在我將轉向投影片 3 上的概述。零擔業務的市場狀況持續穩健，而整車運輸領域的需求疲軟和產能過剩依然存在。不包括燃油附加費的收入增加了 11%，而調整後的營業收入下降了 68.5%。 2024 年第一季的 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為虧損 0.02 美元，調整後每股收益為 0.12 美元。

These results include a $19.5 million operating loss in our third-party insurance business with ceased operations at the end of the quarter. The insurance loss negatively impacted our GAAP and adjusted EPS by $0.08. Excluding the loss on the insurance business, our adjusted EPS would have been $0.20. Our results were also negatively impacted on a year-over-year basis by an $18 million increase in net interest expense or approximately $0.08 per share.

這些業績包括我們第三方保險業務的 1,950 萬美元營運虧損，該業務於本季末停止營運。保險損失對我們的 GAAP 和調整後每股收益產生了 0.08 美元的負面影響。不包括保險業務的損失，我們調整後的每股收益將為 0.20 美元。我們的業績也受到淨利息支出年增 1,800 萬美元或每股約 0.08 美元的負面影響。

Now on to the next slide. Slide 4 illustrates the revenue and adjusted operating income for each of our segments. In general, the LTL segment continues to experience a much more supportive market than the Truckload, Logistics and Intermodal segments do. The first quarter saw greater than average winter weather disruption, which negatively impacted all of our operating segments. In addition, the pricing and demand environment has proven more challenging than we anticipated for all of our LTL business in the first quarter.

現在轉到下一張投影片。投影片 4 說明了我們每個部門的收入和調整後的營業收入。總體而言，零擔運輸領域持續經歷比卡車裝載、物流和多式聯運領域更具支持性的市場。第一季的冬季天氣破壞程度高於平均水平，這對我們所有的營運部門產生了負面影響。此外，事實證明，定價和需求環境比我們第一季所有零擔業務的預期更具挑戰性。

The combination of the weather disruption, more challenging bid environment and ongoing cost inflation weighed on operating results across our businesses during the quarter. U.S. Xpress continues to make progress on cost and contractual pricing in the Truckload business. And the U.S. Xpress Logistics business continues to close the gap, performing in line with our legacy logistics business on gross margin and operating margin for the quarter.

天氣幹擾、更具挑戰性的投標環境以及持續的成本通膨共同影響了我們本季各業務的營運表現。 U.S. Xpress 在卡車裝載業務的成本和合約定價方面繼續取得進展。 U.S. Xpress Logistics 業務持續縮小差距，本季的毛利率和營業利潤率與我們的傳統物流業務表現一致。

Now on to Slide 5. For the Truckload segment, we did see some recovery following the January weather disruption as well as some seasonal improvement in March, but neither was enough to overcome the negative impact to volumes and operating costs from the poor start to the quarter. Loose capacity continues to plague the truckload market, preventing the ability to recover ongoing cost inflation or attain appropriate utilization levels on our equipment.

Now on to Slide 5. For the Truckload segment, we did see some recovery following the January weather disruption as well as some seasonal improvement in March, but neither was enough to overcome the negative impact to volumes and operating costs from the poor start to the四分之一.產能過剩持續困擾卡車市場，阻礙我們恢復持續的成本上漲或達到適當的設備利用率水準。

Combined Truckload revenue per loaded mile was down 2.5% sequentially, though our contract rates are largely stable thus far in 2024. The early part of the bid season led to greater-than-expected pressure on freight rates as some shippers are still trying to push rates down further. In some cases, we have lost contractual volumes because we were not willing to commit to further concessions on what we view as unsustainable contractual rates. This resulted in more of our capacity being allocated to the spot market, which creates further pressure on revenue per mile and utilization in the near term, but positions capacity to react to changes in the market when the market does inflect.

儘管我們的合約費率在 2024 年迄今基本穩定，但每裝載英里的卡車裝載收入合計下降了 2.5%。在某些情況下，我們失去了合約量，因為我們不願意就我們認為不可持續的合約價格做出進一步讓步。這導致我們更多的運能被分配到現貨市場，這對短期內的每英里收入和利用率造成了進一步的壓力，但在市場確實發生變化時，我們有能力對市場的變化做出反應。

U.S. Xpress made further progress on costs and contractual rates through bids, which allowed this business to overcome the weather disruption and some dedicated business losses to stay largely flat on operating ratio from the fourth quarter. On a year-over-year basis, our Truckload revenue, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 26%, reflecting an 11% decline in the legacy Truckload business prior to the inclusion of U.S. Xpress.

U.S. Xpress 透過投標在成本和合約費率方面取得了進一步進展，這使得該業務克服了天氣影響和一些專門業務的損失，與第四季度相比營運比率基本持平。與去年同期相比，我們的卡車裝載收入（不含燃油附加費）增加了 26%，反映出在納入 U.S. Xpress 之前傳統卡車裝載業務下降了 11%。

Revenue per loaded mile fell 10% year-over-year or 9% before including U.S. Xpress. Miles per tractor increased 8% overall or 6% before the inclusion of U.S. Xpress, largely driven by our earlier decision to reduce the number of unseated tractors in our legacy businesses in order to reduce cost. We have been intentionally trimming our tractor and trailer fleets over the past few quarters in order to improve our cost structure through the down cycle, but without cutting so far as to sacrifice our ability to flex when the market does improve.

每裝載英里的收入年減 10%，不包括 U.S. Xpress 則下降 9%。每台拖拉機的行駛里程總體增加了 8%，在納入 U.S. Xpress 之前增加了 6%，這主要是由於我們之前決定減少傳統業務中未停座拖拉機的數量以降低成本。在過去的幾個季度中，我們一直在有意削減我們的拖拉機和拖車車隊，以便在下行週期中改善我們的成本結構，但不會削減太多以至於犧牲我們在市場確實改善時靈活應變的能力。

Now I'll turn the call over to Andrew to discuss our LTL business on Slide 6.

現在我將把電話轉給 Andrew，討論幻燈片 6 上我們的零擔業務。

Thanks, Brad. The benefits of our diversification continue to stand out as market conditions in the LTL industry remain much more supportive than in Truckload. Our LTL business grew revenue, excluding fuel charge, nearly 13% year-over-year. Our shipments per day increased 6%. And revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 3% year-over-year.

謝謝，布拉德。由於零擔產業的市場狀況仍然比卡車運輸業更有利，我們多元化的優勢持續凸顯。我們的零擔業務收入（不含燃油費）年增近 13%。我們每天的出貨量增加了 6%。每英擔收入（不含燃油附加費）較去年同期成長 3%。

With our LTL activities concentrated in regions exposed to the severe weather during the quarter, the disruptions were particularly impactful to our network and operating costs for our LTL segment. In addition, maintenance and labor costs were higher than normal as we stretched to cover growing volumes and extend our reach into new facilities. We anticipate these costs should normalize as we scale volumes and staffing while growing revenue in new locations.

由於我們的零擔活動集中在本季遭受惡劣天氣影響的地區，因此中斷對我們零擔業務的網路和營運成本影響尤其大。此外，隨著我們不斷擴大產量並擴大新設施的覆蓋範圍，維護和勞動力成本也高於正常水平。我們預計，隨著我們擴大產量和人員配置，同時在新地點增加收入，這些成本應該會正常化。

The cost pressures contributed to a 90% adjusted operating ratio for the quarter and adjusted operating income declining by over 20% year-over-year. While this margin level is not up to our expectations or recent performance, it did improve in each month of the quarter after bottoming in January and continues to progress thus far, and we're on track with our expectations to be back online for the second quarter.

成本壓力導致本季調整後營業比率達90%，調整後營業收入較去年同期下降超過20%。 While this margin level is not up to our expectations or recent performance, it did improve in each month of the quarter after bottoming in January and continues to progress thus far, and we're on track with our expectations to be back online for the second四分之一.

After being impacted by weather disruptions in January, volumes recovered well as average shipments per day in February increased nearly 7% over January and held steady into March. Since acquiring AAA Cooper and MME in 2021, we have acquired or assumed the leases on 56 additional properties. We have brought 14 locations online prior to 2024, and we opened 7 more during the first quarter. We expect to open another 25 terminals by the end of 2024.

受到 1 月份天氣幹擾的影響後，2 月份的日均發貨量較 1 月份增長近 7%，並在 3 月份保持穩定。自 2021 年收購 AAA Cooper 和 MME 以來，我們已收購或承接了另外 56 處房產的租賃。 2024 年之前，我們已開設 14 家門市，並在第一季又開設了 7 家。我們預計到 2024 年底將再開設 25 個航站樓。

Overall, the 32 locations planned to open in 2024 will represent a 16% increase to our door count from the end of 2023, meaningfully impacting the reach of our service offering and increasing the density of our network. Filling out a super regional network in the short term and ultimately creating a national network, will allow us to participate in more freight and enable us to find opportunities to further support our existing truckload customers with LTL capacity.

總體而言，計劃於 2024 年開設的 32 個營業點將使我們的門數比 2023 年底增加 16%，這對我們的服務範圍產生重大影響並增加我們的網路密度。 在短期內完善一個超級區域網絡並最終創建一個全國性網絡，將使我們能夠參與更多的貨運業務，並使我們能夠找到機會進一步支持我們現有的整車零擔運力客戶。

Acting on organic and inorganic opportunities to geographically expand our footprint within the LTL market remains a key strategic priority for us. Now on to Slide 7. Logistics market continues to be a challenge as many brokers have struggled to find enough volume and margins, and margins have been compressed while purchased transportation rates offered little room for relief. Being an asset-based logistics provider allows us to provide our customers seamless service, regardless if it is on our own assets or one of our partner carriers.

抓住有機和無機機會，在地理上擴大我們在零擔市場的足跡仍然是我們的關鍵策略重點。現在轉到幻燈片 7。作為一家以資產為基礎的物流提供者，我們能夠為客戶提供無縫服務，無論是我們自己的資產還是我們合作夥伴承運商的資產。

This allows us to provide both committed and search capacity and drop-and-hook trailer pool service at scale. Because of this, our Logistics business remains profitable, though margins were squeezed by the weather-induced capacity crunch in January and by our decision to divert loads to the asset division to help offset losses of contractual business through bid activity. Overall revenue was down 7% year-over-year as revenue per load improved 2% and load count declined 10%.

這使我們能夠大規模提供承諾和搜索能力以及拖車池服務。因此，我們的物流業務仍然保持盈利，儘管利潤率因一月份天氣導致的運力緊縮以及我們決定將負載轉移到資產部門以幫助通過投標活動抵消合約業務的損失而受到擠壓。整體收入年減 7%，每次負載收入提高 2%，負載計數下降 10%。

The U.S. Xpress Logistics business continues to make progress and performed in line with our legacy logistics businesses on gross margin and operating margin for the quarter. Now moving to Slide 8. In our Intermodal business, revenue decreased 20% year-over-year, driven by a 19% decrease in revenue per load and a nearly 2% decrease in load count. The decline in project revenue from the prior year largely drove the decline in revenue per load and negatively impacted the adjusted operating ratio, which was largely in line with the fourth quarter.

U.S. Xpress Logistics 業務持續取得進展，本季的毛利率和營業利潤率與我們的傳統物流業務保持一致。現在轉到投影片 8。專案收入較上年下降在很大程度上推動了每負荷收入的下降，並對調整後的營運比率產生了負面影響，該比率與第四季度基本一致。

Load count declined 4% sequentially, which is better than the typical seasonal progression coming out of the fourth quarter, and we anticipate sequential volume growth into the second quarter based on progress thus far in bid season. And moving to Slide 9. Slide 9 illustrates our All Other segments formerly referred to as our nonreportable segments. This category includes support services provided to our customers, independent contractors and third-party carriers, such as insurance, maintenance, equipment sales and rentals, equipment leasing and warehousing activities.

負載量環比下降 4%，這比第四季度的典型季節性進展要好，而且我們根據競標季迄今的進展預計第二季度的環比量將增長。現在轉到投影片 9。此類別包括向我們的客戶、獨立承包商和第三方承運商提供的支援服務，例如保險、維護、設備銷售和租賃、設備租賃和倉儲活動。

For the quarter, revenue declined 40% year-over-year, largely as a result of winding down our third-party insurance business, which ceased operations at the end of the quarter. The $20 million operating loss within All Other segments is primarily driven by the $19.5 million our operating loss in the third-party insurance business as well as $8.2 million of severance, legal, accrual and impairment charges recorded during the quarter within this category.

本季營收年減 40%，主要原因是我們的第三方保險業務在本季末停止營運。所有其他部門內2000 萬美元的營運虧損主要是由第三方保險業務1950 萬美元的營運虧損以及本季度該類別中記錄的820 萬美元的遣散費、法律費、應計費用和減值費用造成的。

In order to further reduce the risk of ongoing income statement volatility from potential adverse development of the claims of the third-party insurance program, we executed a transaction during the quarter to transfer the majority of the risk to another insurance company. The cost of this transaction are included in the operating loss of the insurance business for the quarter. Now I will turn the call over to Adam for Slide 10.

為了進一步降低因第三方保險計劃索賠的潛在不利發展而導致損益表持續波動的風險，我們在本季度執行了一項交易，將大部分風險轉移給另一家保險公司。此交易的成本計入本季保險業務的營運虧損。現在我將把幻燈片 10 的電話轉給 Adam。

All right. Thank you, Andrew. Over the next few slides, we plan to talk through our structure as a company and how we are positioned to navigate the cyclical freight environment, the strategic intent each of our businesses are measured against and the ability of our model to generate profits and cash flows and how we manage that capital to drive long-term value for our stakeholders.

好的。謝謝你，安德魯。在接下來的幾張投影片中，我們計劃討論我們作為一家公司的結構，以及我們如何定位以應對週期性貨運環境，衡量我們每項業務的戰略意圖以及我們的模型產生利潤和現金流的能力以及我們如何管理這些資本，為我們的利害關係人帶來長期價值。

We will start with our Truckload segment on Slide 10. It's no secret that we are in one of the deepest freight recessions the truckload industry has ever felt. And it comes during a time when the rest of the economy is performing well such that cost inflation continues to be a challenge, labor is staying tight and interest rates are up significantly. This has resulted in both significant pricing and cost pressures and has led to razor-thin margins and even losses for some of the best run companies in our industry.

我們將從幻燈片 10 上的卡車裝載部分開始。同時，其他經濟部門表現良好，成本通膨仍然是一個挑戰，勞動力持續緊張，利率大幅上升。這導致了巨大的定價和成本壓力，並導致我們行業中一些營運最好的公司利潤微薄，甚至虧損。

This environment, however, comes on the heels of one of the best market our industry has ever seen, where many experienced record earnings and margins. It's clear that the highs during the pandemic have led to the lows in the current environment. As a cyclical industry, we are accustomed to changes in the market. We have never seen these streams we are currently experiencing. When we compare our margin performance during this current cycle to previous cycles, we have found that while the current cycle highs were much higher and the low is much lower, our average margin over this cycle has been very similar to what we have typically achieved.

然而，這種環境緊隨我們行業有史以來最好的市場之一而來，許多人都經歷了創紀錄的利潤和利潤。顯然，大流行期間的高點導致了當前環境的低點。作為週期性產業，我們已經習慣了市場的變化。我們從未見過我們目前正在經歷的這些溪流。當我們將本週期的利潤率表現與先前的週期進行比較時，我們發現，雖然本週期的高點要高得多，低點要低得多，但我們在本週期的平均利潤率與我們通常實現的水平非常相似。

Given that, we are at the lowest levels of operating performance our business may have ever seen. We believe we are positioned to benefit from significant operating leverage as business conditions improve. While we can't change the timing of any change in market dynamics, we believe we have positioned our business to endure a difficult market and to be prepared to rapidly improve margins and cash flow when we begin to experience an inflection in the market similar to our performance in previous cycles.

有鑑於此，我們的經營業績正處於有史以來的最低水準。我們相信，隨著業務狀況的改善，我們將受益於龐大的營運槓桿。雖然我們無法改變市場動態發生任何變化的時間，但我們相信我們的業務已定位為能夠承受困難的市場，並準備好在我們開始經歷類似於以下情況的市場變化時迅速提高利潤和現金流。在之前週期中的表現。

We have a unique position in our Truckload segment as compared to peers. We have several large brands between Knight, Swift and U.S. Xpress and several other smaller brands that provide us a view of the markets on a daily basis. We're able to read what is happening to supply and demand in each market and to determine if changes are a result of market trends or specific changes to the network of one of our brands.

與同行相比，我們在卡車裝載領域擁有獨特的地位。我們擁有 Knight、Swift 和 U.S. Xpress 等幾個大品牌，以及其他幾個較小的品牌，這些品牌讓我們每天都能了解市場狀況。我們能夠了解每個市場的供需情況，並確定變化是否為市場趨勢或我們某個品牌網絡的特定變化的結果。

We believe this provides insight to shifts to the market before most of the industry has visibility. We can leverage technology and automation to connect to customers and find solutions, leveraging all of our brands. We have scale that enables us to solve large problems quickly and at a high level of service. We have maintained the majority of our truckload capacity in one way over the road service, which becomes very valuable to our customers in a favorable freight market.

我們相信，這可以在大多數行業獲得知名度之前提供對市場轉變的洞察。我們可以利用技術和自動化來聯繫客戶並尋找解決方案，利用我們所有的品牌。我們的規模使我們能夠以高水準的服務快速解決大型問題。我們透過公路服務以一種方式維持了大部分卡車裝載能力，這對於我們在有利的貨運市場中的客戶來說非常有價值。

We intentionally managed our contractual versus spot exposure through different phases in the cycle in order to create value for customers and for our business. Although we have areas where we can further improve costs, we maintain a culture of cost discipline throughout cycles, which allows us to reach levels of industry-leading margins in both good and difficult markets.

我們有意在周期的不同階段管理合約與現貨風險，以便為客戶和我們的業務創造價值。儘管我們有可以進一步降低成本的領域，但我們在整個週期中保持成本紀律文化，這使我們能夠在良好和困難的市場中達到行業領先的利潤水平。

Now that we have acquired U.S. Xpress and have had time to establish the right rigors around cost and revenue management, we believe this business is positioned to perform at levels significantly better than legacy U.S. Xpress, and we expect to close the margin gap within our legacy Knight and Swift fleets when we have a more favorable market. As margins improve, we generate significant amounts of free cash flow that enable us to invest in organic growth, M&A and other high-return investment opportunities across our segments.

現在我們已經收購了 U.S. Xpress，並且有時間圍繞成本和收入管理建立正確的嚴格要求，我們相信該業務的表現水平明顯優於傳統的 U.S. Xpress，並且我們預計將縮小我們傳統業務中的利潤差距當我們有更有利的市場時，騎士和史威夫特艦隊。隨著利潤率的提高，我們產生了大量的自由現金流，使我們能夠投資於各部門的有機成長、併購和其他高回報投資機會。

Now if we turn to Slide 11. The significant free cash flow generated by our Truckload business allowed us to make a meaningful investment in the LTL market in 2021 without meaningfully increasing leverage. We purchased AAA Cooper and MME and have converted them to one platform, providing seamless service from the Southeast through the Northwest. We further identified opportunities to put capital to work to invest in 56 additional terminals to expand our footprint towards building out a nationwide network.

現在，如果我們轉向幻燈片 11。我們收購了 AAA Cooper 和 MME，並將它們轉變為一個平台，提供從東南到西北的無縫服務。我們進一步確定了投資機會，投資另外 56 個航站樓，以擴大我們的足跡，打造全國性的網路。

We plan to continue down the path of organic growth, but also maintain a desire to acquire LTL companies that will provide a foothold in the Southwest and Northeast regions. Our goal over the medium term is to achieve a nationwide network with $2 billion in annual revenue. We believe developing this network will provide access to more freight opportunities with existing and new customers, which should lead to improved margins and create additional synergies with our nationwide truckload network.

我們計劃繼續沿著有機成長的道路前進，但也仍希望收購能夠在西南部和東北地區立足的零擔公司。我們的中期目標是建立一個年收入達 20 億美元的全國性網路。我們相信，發展該網路將為現有和新客戶提供更多貨運機會，從而提高利潤並與我們的全國卡車運輸網路產生額外的協同效應。

A nationwide LTL network will also provide a larger base of more stable income that should reduce the earnings volatilities of the company that come with the cyclical nature of the Truckload segment. We also believe that in the next up cycle, we will grow our Logistics business at a rapid pace as it complements our Truckload business and provides differentiated value through our scalable power-only solutions.

全國範圍內的零擔網絡還將提供更大的更穩定的收入基礎，這將減少公司因卡車運輸業務的周期性而帶來的盈利波動。我們還相信，在下一個上升週期中，我們的物流業務將快速成長，因為它補充了我們的卡車業務，並透過我們可擴展的純電力解決方案提供差異化價值。

And lastly, in our Intermodal business, we continue to build a diverse customer base while developing strategic partnerships with our rail partners in the West, East and in Mexico. We believe we can build this business back to profitability while offering our customers a sustainable alternative that complements our truckload services. Performing in these 3 segments, coupled with our Truckload business returning to historical margins, we will lead to both significantly improved earnings and cash flow.

最後，在我們的多式聯運業務中，我們繼續建立多元化的客戶群，同時與西部、東部和墨西哥的鐵路合作夥伴發展策略夥伴關係。我們相信，我們可以使這項業務恢復盈利，同時為我們的客戶提供可持續的替代方案，以補充我們的整車服務。在這三個領域的表現，再加上我們的卡車裝載業務利潤率恢復到歷史水平，我們將顯著改善利潤和現金流。

Now on to Slide 12. We outlined how our path to generate strong cash flow from the previous slides, combined with our prudent capital structure and disciplined capital allocation strategy to drive long-term value. We have always valued a strong balance sheet to provide us flexibility in a cyclical industry. We are also mindful of optimizing our weighted average cost of capital. We target what we believe is our optimal leverage position of 1 to 1.5x of EBITDA.

現在轉到投影片 12。我們概述瞭如何從先前的幻燈片中產生強勁現金流，並結合我們審慎的資本結構和嚴格的資本配置策略來推動長期價值。我們始終重視強大的資產負債表，以便為我們在週期性行業中提供靈活性。我們也注重優化加權平均資本成本。我們的目標是我們認為最佳的槓桿部位為 EBITDA 的 1 至 1.5 倍。

As we execute on M&A, this leverage can flex up, such as when we acquired AAA Cooper in 2021 or U.S. Xpress in 2023. And then we used free cash flow to reduce leverage back to this level to preserve flexibility for navigating cycles and pursuing additional opportunities. We will also prioritize investing in organic growth of our businesses where we believe we can generate double-digit returns throughout cycles.

當我們執行併購時，這種槓桿率可能會上升，例如當我們在2021 年收購AAA Cooper 或在2023 年收購U.S. Xpress 時。導航週期和追求額外目標的靈活性。我們還將優先投資於我們業務的有機成長，我們相信我們可以在整個週期中產生兩位數的回報。

Organic LTL expansion is our near-term focus. But as the truckload market improves, we are willing to invest in additional capacity in terminals where we believe we can successfully grow. At Knight-Swift, we have had several successful large acquisitions, and we remain opportunistic with acting on M&A opportunities that drive value for our organization. Currently, our priority is building out our LTL network.

有機零擔擴張是我們近期的重點。但隨著卡車裝載市場的改善，我們願意投資於我們相信能夠成功成長的碼頭的額外容量。在 Knight-Swift，我們已經進行了多次成功的大型收購，並且我們仍然會抓住機會，抓住為我們的組織帶來價值的併購機會。目前，我們的首要任務是建立我們的零擔網絡。

As we strengthen our balance sheet, improve the margins of our core businesses and generate additional free cash flow, we will remain open to additional types of M&A outside of LTL. We also remain committed to reviewing our dividend policy on a regular basis and have increased our quarterly dividend $0.02 per share for 5 consecutive years now. A flexible balance sheet also gives us the ability to opportunistically repurchase our shares when we believe it is the best return option for our free cash flow.

隨著我們加強資產負債表、提高核心業務的利潤率並產生額外的自由現金流，我們將繼續對零擔運輸以外的其他類型的併購持開放態度。我們也繼續致力於定期審查我們的股息政策，並已連續 5 年將季度股息提高到每股 0.02 美元。當我們認為這是我們自由現金流的最佳回報選擇時，靈活的資產負債表也使我們能夠機會主義地回購我們的股票。

In summary, we are compelled by the outsized runway ahead of us for improving earnings of both our legacy and newly acquired businesses, driving significant free cash flow through cycles and leveraging a disciplined approach to deploying capital to further increase the capital generating power of our company through successive cycles.

總而言之，我們面臨著巨大的挑戰，需要提高我們傳統業務和新收購業務的盈利，在整個週期中推動大量自由現金流，並利用嚴格的資本部署方法來進一步提高我們公司的資本生成能力通過連續的循環。

Now on to our last Slide 13 for our earnings guidance. We have outlined in great detail our key assumptions to our guidance in this slide, which are also stated in the earnings release. I won't plan to read through them all because the timing of the inflection has proven especially difficult to predict during this cycle, we are not incorporating an inflection in market conditions for the purposes of these forecasts but rather are basing these ranges on expected seasonality and a continuation of existing market conditions, similar to what we've felt in March and April thus far.

現在來看最後一張投影片 13，了解我們的獲利指引。我們在這張投影片中詳細概述了我們對指導的關鍵假設，這些假設也在收益發布中得到了說明。我不打算通讀所有內容，因為事實證明，在這個週期中，拐點的時間特別難以預測，我們不會出於這些預測的目的而將市場條件的拐點納入其中，而是將這些範圍基於預期的季節性以及現有市場狀況的延續，與我們迄今為止在三月和四月的感受類似。

Based on these assumptions, we expect our adjusted EPS for the second quarter will be in the range of $0.26 to $0.30 and our adjusted EPS for the third quarter will be in the range of $0.31 to $0.35. Our expected adjusted EPS ranges are based on the current Truckload, LTL and general market conditions, recent trends and the current beliefs, assumptions and expectations of management, and actual results may differ.

基於這些假設，我們預計第二季調整後每股盈餘將在 0.26 美元至 0.30 美元之間，第三季調整後每股盈餘將在 0.31 美元至 0.35 美元之間。 我們預期的調整後每股收益範圍是基於當前的卡車裝載量、零擔和一般市場狀況、近期趨勢以及管理層當前的信念、假設和期望，實際結果可能有所不同。

Now that concludes our prepared remarks. And before I turn it over for questions, I just want to remind everyone to keep it to one question per participant. And John, we can now open the line for questions.

現在我們準備好的發言結束了。在我將其轉交提問之前，我只想提醒大家將每位參與者只提出一個問題。約翰，我們現在可以開通提問專線。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker from Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Ravi Shanker。

Congratulations to Adam, Andrew and Brad on your respective new positions. Adam, your commentary on the average margins being in line with kind of historical levels was interesting. Do you think that's a good benchmark for how we think about normalized mid-cycle margins in the next cycle and beyond that? And the same thing for EPS as well, obviously (inaudible) U.S. Xpress? Or how do you think of what normalized earnings look like?

恭喜 Adam、Andrew 和 Brad 就任各自的新職位。亞當，您對平均利潤率與歷史水平相符的評論很有趣。您認為這對於我們如何看待下一個週期及之後的周期中期利潤率正常化來說是一個很好的基準嗎？ EPS 也是如此，顯然（聽不清楚）U.S. Xpress？或者您如何看待標準化收益？

Yes, I think that's a great question, Ravi. And I think that's a good goalpost to use in terms of just trying to gauge what the performance will be across the next cycle. I do believe that we probably don't see the same highs as we saw in the COVID cycle or the pandemic and certainly hoping not the lows that we are currently experiencing right now. I do feel like it won't take long for the U.S. Xpress business to begin to align their performance with Knight and Swift. It may not be right in the first up cycle, but maybe the second one might be when we close that gap, but I think we will make some progress here in the first up cycle.

是的，我認為這是一個很好的問題，拉維。我認為這是一個很好的目標，可以用來衡量下一個週期的表現。我確實相信，我們可能不會看到新冠週期或大流行中看到的高點，當然也希望不會出現我們目前正在經歷的低點。我確實覺得，用不了多久，U.S. Xpress 業務就會開始與 Knight 和 Swift 的表現保持一致。在第一個上升週期中可能不正確，但當我們縮小差距時，第二個上升週期可能是正確的，但我認為我們將在第一個上升週期中取得一些進展。

I think we would also want to look at the performance of our LTL business when you think about earnings potential because we do believe that will continue to scale, and we've laid out the expectation of getting to $2 billion in the midterm here. And again, that may be another a cycle or 2 before we get there depending on how quickly we can move on M&A targets. And certainly, there's opportunity to improve the margin in that business. I think we're targeting now a mid-80s operating ratio, but there are certainly other companies out there performing much better than that and having a nationwide network, and it gives us the opportunity to expand those margins.

我認為，當你考慮獲利潛力時，我們也想看看零擔業務的表現，因為我們確實相信零擔業務將繼續擴大規模，並且我們已經在此提出了中期達到 20 億美元的預期。再說一遍，在我們到達那裡之前，這可能還需要一個或兩個週期，這取決於我們實現併購目標的速度。當然，該業務還有機會提高利潤率。我認為我們現在的目標是 80 年代中期的營運比率，但肯定還有其他公司的表現比這要好得多，並且擁有全國性的網絡，這使我們有機會擴大這些利潤。

And I do believe in the next up cycle, Intermodal should perform better as we kind of reset how we're building up that business with a diverse portfolio of customers. And really Logistics with layering on U.S. Xpress Logistics with the Knight-Swift Logistics and the capabilities we have (inaudible) I tink there's more potential in that segment as well. But when I look at Truckload, I think that's probably a good gauge of what that kind of mid-cycle margin may be.

我確實相信，在下一個上升週期中，多式聯運應該會表現得更好，因為我們重新調整了與多元化客戶組合建立業務的方式。真正的物流是在 U.S. Xpress Logistics 和 Knight-Swift Logistics 的基礎上進行的，以及我們擁有的能力（聽不清楚），我認為該領域也有更大的潛力。但當我觀察卡車裝載量時，我認為這可能是衡量週期中期利潤率的一個很好的指標。

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

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

I appreciate the perspective on kind of how to think about cycles. I wanted to see if you could offer some thoughts on, I guess, in the prior 2 cycles, it seems like the amplitude of the step-up in rates has been even bigger in 2018 with ELD and then obviously, COVID, pretty unusual a big step-up. Do you think that -- I mean, I guess it's hard to know ahead of time, but do you think that the likely outcome is to find another catalyst that gives you a big step-up? Because -- or do you think its base case should be that it kind of ends up being like a slow grind-up?

我很欣賞關於如何思考週期的觀點。我想看看你是否可以提供一些想法，我想，在前兩個週期中，2018 年 ELD 的利率上升幅度似乎更大，然後顯然，新冠肺炎，非常不尋常。你是否認為——我的意思是，我想很難提前知道，但你是否認為可能的結果是找到另一個催化劑，讓你取得重大進步？因為——或者你認為它的基本情況應該是它最終會像一場緩慢的磨合？

And I guess the reason I ask is because we just -- as you point out, it's kind of a lower base. And so you think about getting to that mid-cycle margin, it seems like reasonably you get back to that, but it also seems like maybe that takes a long time to get to. So I don't know, my crystal ball is not so clear right now, Adam. So I was wondering if you could offer some more perspective on kind of how we get to that mid-cycle?

我想我問這個問題的原因是因為我們——正如你所指出的，這是一個較低的基數。因此，您考慮達到週期中期利潤，似乎您可以合理地回到這一點，但似乎也可能需要很長時間才能達到。所以我不知道，我的水晶球現在不太清楚，亞當。所以我想知道您是否可以就我們如何進入中期週期提供更多觀點？

Yes. I don't know that my crystal ball is any better than yours, Tom. When I think about the last few cycles, I think they've all had a unique catalyst that have kind of kicked them off. I think of 2013, early '14, we've been in a long period of kind of pressure on the carrier, and it was somewhat of a severe weather event to kind of kick that off and all of a sudden, it was tough to find a truck. And I think the capacity that had been coming out of the market finally caught up with where demand was. And that led to, I think, very healthy rate increases and very strong margins.

是的。我不知道我的水晶球比你的好，湯姆。當我思考過去的幾個週期時，我認為它們都有一種獨特的催化劑，可以推動它們的發展。我想到 2013 年，14 年初，我們的航空公司在很長一段時間內都承受著某種壓力，這是一場惡劣的天氣事件，突然間，我們很難找到一輛卡車。我認為市場上的產能最終趕上了需求。我認為，這導致了非常健康的利率成長和非常強勁的利潤率。

And then as you referenced in late '17, that was right when we closed the Knight and Swift merger, we saw the market take off, and I think that was attributed largely to the ELD mandate. And then obviously, we had COVID, that kicked off huge demand. So it's hard to know what's going to be the catalyst here. Clearly, we see capacity coming out of the market when we kind of track what the changes in DOT authorities and then we hear about the kind of anecdotal failures of companies that have been in business for a long period of time and just can't make it through the market dynamics today.

然後，正如您在 17 年末提到的那樣，就在我們完成 Knight 和 Swift 合併時，我們看到了市場的起飛，我認為這很大程度上歸功於 ELD 的授權。顯然，我們爆發了新冠肺炎疫情，引發了巨大的需求。所以很難知道什麼會成為這裡的催化劑。顯然，當我們追蹤交通部當局的變化時，我們會看到市場上的產能正在流失，然後我們會聽到一些已經經營了很長一段時間但無法生產的公司的軼事失敗。動態。

It's hard to know when that's going to finally be enough to balance out where the demand side is. I think it's going to be a combination of probably demand beginning to improve as customers are no longer destocking and are now replenishing inventories one for one. And eventually, they'll go -- they'll have a greater focus on top line sales, and that inventory may grow a bit while you have demand falling. And what we know is this industry rarely stays in balance at any point in time, it's just like an object in motion stays in motion, and that will most likely kick off an opportunity to raise rates.

很難知道什麼時候這最終足以平衡需求方的情況。我認為這可能是需求開始改善的組合，因為客戶不再去庫存，現在正在一對一地補充庫存。最終，他們會離開——他們將更加關注營收銷售，當需求下降時，庫存可能會略有增加。我們知道，這個行業很少在任何時候都保持平衡，就像一個運動的物體保持運動一樣，這很可能會引發加息的機會。

To what degree? I don't know, Tom. It's really hard to try to estimate what that could be. We may find ourselves in a spot where there's maybe a little more progress to be made on the cost side because that just has not been available in this freight recession because you just haven't had some of the other overall economic challenges that typically lead to relief on the cost side. So I think when you get back to margins, it won't all be rates. I think that will be obviously a large portion of it, but I think there's some cost help that I think our industry really needs here to get back to those historic margins.

到什麼程度呢？我不知道，湯姆。很難嘗試估計那可能是什麼。我們可能會發現自己在成本方面可能還需要取得更多進展，因為在這次貨運衰退中還沒有實現這一點，因為你還沒有遇到通常會導致的其他一些總體經濟挑戰。所以我認為當你回到利潤率時，它不會全是利率。我認為這顯然是其中的很大一部分，但我認為我們的行業確實需要一些成本幫助才能恢復到歷史利潤水平。

But what we do know is it will happen. It's just a matter of when. And right now, it's been really hard to predict when that could be. And so our strategy is, let's just not -- let's not try to make that prediction. Let's try to grind out better margins in all of our segments and control what we can control and position ourselves that when it does turn, we'll move quicker than anyone in the space. I don't know Andrew, did you have something to add?

但我們所知道的是它將會發生。這只是時間問題。現在，很難預測什麼時候會發生。所以我們的策略是，我們不要嘗試做出這樣的預測。讓我們嘗試在所有細分市場中爭取更好的利潤，並控制我們可以控制的內容，並定位自己，當它確實發生轉變時，我們將比該領域的任何人都更快。我不知道安德魯，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

Maybe just add a couple of thoughts to what Adam shared, which I agree with. So yes, we're deeper than we've ever been. But I would say our operating leverage is higher than it's ever been for. If we truly look at, obviously, rates have been incredibly impactful in terms of getting to the position we're at right now on margins, but volume has also been equally impactful. So as we really look at our variable costs, we're performing kind of in line with where we've been in the past.

也許只需在 Adam 分享的內容中添加一些想法，我對此表示同意。所以，是的，我們比以往任何時候都更深。但我想說，我們的營運槓桿比以往任何時候都高。如果我們真正觀察的話，顯然，利率對於我們達到目前的利潤率水準有著令人難以置信的影響，但交易量也同樣具有影響力。因此，當我們真正審視我們的可變成本時，我們的表現與過去的情況一致。

In a significant way, there's a fixed cost absorption play here, which means with volume, our costs are going to grow slower on the ramp back up. So that leverage is going to see that curve move quickly north as well as it's gone down because of that lost volume. So as we've kind of modeled that, it gives us some encouragement that the path back could be maybe a little faster than you think if we can get volume and rate working together.

在很大程度上，這裡有一個固定的成本吸收作用，這意味著隨著產量的增加，我們的成本在回升時成長速度將會減慢。因此，槓桿作用將使曲線快速向北移動，並因成交量損失而下降。因此，當我們對此進行建模時，它給了我們一些鼓勵，如果我們能夠使交易量和費率協同工作，那麼返回的路徑可能會比您想像的要快一些。

Yes. It's just rare that you ever see the market move linearly. It's always a pretty rapid change, and we've seen it on the up and the down. So -- but we're watching all the signs, Tom. And again, we'll move quickly when we see any of those changes occur.

是的。您很少會看到市場呈現線性波動。這總是一個非常快速的變化，我們已經看到了它的起起落落。所以——但我們正在觀察所有的跡象，湯姆。再次強調，當我們看到任何這些變化發生時，我們將迅速採取行動。

It's a good point to consider the volume lever and utilization as well as the price. So yes, thank you for that point as well, Andrew.

最好考慮數量槓桿和利用率以及價格。所以，是的，也謝謝你的這一點，安德魯。

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

您的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Amit Mehrotra。

I think there was some maybe small signs of life as we progress through the end of March, but it was obviously uncertain that was the timing around when Easter fell or was it something real? Can you just maybe give us an update on that in terms of if you saw any of that actually carry over into April? And Adam, I think like I assume one of the reasons for the depths of the decline is because you aren't signing up for contracts and you're participating probably more so in company load boards than you have in the past.

我認為隨著三月底的進展，可能會出現一些微小的生命跡象，但顯然不確定這是復活節到來的時間還是真實的事情？您能否向我們介紹一下最新情況，看看您是否看到其中任何內容實際上延續到了四月份？亞當，我認為，我認為下滑嚴重的原因之一是因為你沒有簽署合同，而且你可能比過去更多地參與公司負載板。

And so that obviously has an implication for what the pivot could be. And if you could just talk about the concentration in the spot market and the company load boards today relative to what it is in history and maybe what that means for your ability to participate if the spot market gives you anything to participate with?

因此，這顯然對支點可能是什麼有影響。如果你能談談現在現貨市場和公司負載板相對於歷史的集中度，如果現貨市場為你提供了任何可以參與的東西，那麼這對你的參與能力意味著什麼？

Okay. I'll answer your three questions in one, Amit, that works. And that was, I think, the best pronouncement of your name, so credit to the operator there. So yes, in March, and I think we've talked about this, I think, in our preannouncement, I believe, with some of the analysts. We did see a little bit of seasonality going to the quarter end. And it's really the first time that we've really seen a change in volume and a few projects here or there in certain markets that first we've seen that at the quarter end in quite some time. That was short-lived and it's really a few weeks and then you hit April. And you usually -- and you have a little bit of a lull in April as you get through quarter end, especially as you mentioned, it was aligned with Easter.

好的。我會一次回答你的三個問題，阿米特，這行得通。我認為，這是對你的名字最好的發音，所以要歸功於那裡的接線員。所以，是的，在三月份，我想我們已經在我們的預告中與一些分析師討論過這個問題。到季度末我們確實看到了一些季節性因素。這確實是我們第一次真正看到數量的變化，而且在某些市場上，我們在相當長一段時間以來第一次在季度末看到了一些項目。那是短暫的，實際上只有幾個星期，然後你就到了四月。通常情況下，四月份季度末過後，你會有一點平靜，特別是正如你所提到的，它與復活節一致。

And so that's normal. But we are seeing some of those -- some of that volume come back. Now has it led to premium pricing, but it has led to additional volume. And so I think there is some encouragement there. And I think the read-through there is that there's not as much slack in the supply chain as there once was. And we're getting closer to a balance of supply and demand when we see just a little bit of an uptick and demand start to eat up capacity in certain markets. And again, we watch that very closely between all of our different brands and what happens in each individual market, and we can see shifts.

所以這很正常。但我們看到其中一些——其中一些數量又回來了。現在它帶來了溢價，但也帶來了銷售量的增加。所以我認為這有一些鼓勵。我認為，通讀後的結論是，供應鏈不再像以前那樣鬆弛。當我們看到略有上升並且需求開始消耗某些市場的產能時，我們就越來越接近供需平衡。再次，我們非常密切地觀察我們所有不同品牌之間以及每個單獨市場中發生的情況，我們可以看到變化。

And sometimes those are weekly, sometimes those are daily. But clearly, there are some markets that have firmed up when you see some seasonal lift. And we'll pay attention closely here as you get into the middle of May when the weather heats up. And as a country, we're moving and consuming a lot more beverage and you have (inaudible) heating up, that's when we'd expect to see some of that same seasonality pick up. And I think that again will be very telling of where the dynamic is between supply and demand.

有時是每週一次，有時是每天一次。但顯然，當你看到一些季節性上漲時，有些市場已經變得堅挺。當五月中旬天氣變暖時，我們將密切關注。作為一個國家，我們正在移動並消耗更多的飲料，並且（聽不清楚）變暖，那時我們預計會看到一些相同的季節性回升。我認為這再次非常能說明供需之間的動態。

And so in the near term, we've gone through the bids or the early part of the bids. We're probably about 40% implemented on new pricing of our freight network, probably have been in some level of negotiation of about 75%. And there's been some puts and takes, and there's some where we've been able to get some rate increases to support the capacity we have and others where maybe we were starting at a more premium rate where we gave a little bit and others where we were flat. But there's just some places we just were not willing or not able to go where our customer want to take us.

因此，在短期內，我們已經完成了投標或投標的早期部分。我們的貨運網絡的新定價可能已經實施了大約 40%，大約 75% 可能已經處於某種程度的談判中。有一些看跌期權和看跌期權，有些地方我們已經能夠提高一些費率來支持我們擁有的產能，而另一些地方我們可能會以更高的費率開始，我們給予了一點點，而另一些地方我們可能會以更高的費率開始。但有些地方我們只是不願意或無法去客戶想要帶我們去的地方。

And we just weren't -- we couldn't commit to rates that weren't sustainable. And there's this dynamic right now where the public -- the large public carriers who (inaudible) return for their shareholders, who have some type of return expectations are limited on what they can do with rate where you have smaller private companies who right now are just trying to keep the doors open and hopes that they can survive to when there's a market inflection and they can make up some of the losses that they've taken on. And that gap is maybe a little bit wider than we've seen in quite some time.

我們只是不能承諾不可持續的利率。現在存在這種動態，公眾——那些（聽不清楚）為股東帶來回報的大型公共運營商，他們有某種類型的回報預期，他們能用利率做的事情受到限制，而規模較小的私人公司現在只是試圖保持大門敞開，希望他們能夠生存到市場出現轉折點的時候，並且能夠彌補他們所承受的一些損失。這個差距可能比我們在相當長一段時間內所看到的要大一些。

And so we get -- our customers have a responsibility to manage their budget and their costs just like we have a responsibility to return to our business. And so there's just places where we just decide that maybe it's not a good fit. And we'll work and be nimble and try to find other opportunities to support our network. Some of that may be on customer load boards. Some of that may be just winning in bids with other customers. And so where we have some gaps that have been created in our network, we still have -- have many bids that we can work through to try to fill those.

因此我們得到——我們的客戶有責任管理他們的預算和成本，就像我們有責任重返我們的業務一樣。因此，有些地方我們只是認為它可能不太合適。我們將努力工作並保持靈活性，並嘗試尋找其他機會來支持我們的人脈。其中一些可能會出現在客戶負載板上。其中一些可能只是贏得其他客戶的投標。因此，在我們的網路中存在一些空白的地方，我們仍然有許多出價，我們可以透過努力來填補這些空白。

So it's a pretty dynamic and fluid process as you work through the bid season. I think another one positive sign -- and again, it's just a very early sign is as we've seen some of these bids go live and implement, there's been a churn bid that comes to us, and we have an opportunity to maybe pick up some freight that wasn't awarded to us because of a failure of some sort of a carrier or a rejection of the award because of where the pricing is. And that gives us an opportunity to continue to repair our network.

因此，在投標季節期間，這是一個非常動態和流暢的過程。我認為另一個積極的跡象 - 再說一遍，這只是一個非常早期的跡象，因為我們已經看到其中一些出價已上線並實施，我們收到了流失的出價，我們有機會也許可以選擇提高一些由於某種承運人的失敗而未授予我們的運費或因定價而拒絕授予的運費。這使我們有機會繼續修復我們的網路。

Now it may not be at premium pricing today, but pricing that was closer to what we originally bid on. And so it's just been a real consistent theme, not huge, but I think another data point that would tell us that, that we're getting closer into balance.

現在它可能不是溢價，但定價更接近我們最初的出價。所以這只是一個真正一致的主題，不是很大，但我認為另一個數據點會告訴我們，我們正在接近平衡。

On the spot exposure complement to that question, we were high single digits late in 2023 and then through the churn on the contractual volume Adam talked about in the bid season. That's pushed up into the low double digits at this point. And depending on how bid season continues to play out, that could creep up further through the rest of the bid season or maybe it levels off here.

就該問題的現場曝光補充而言，我們在 2023 年末達到了高個位數，然後經歷了亞當在投標季節談到的合約量的流失。此時數字已上升至低兩位數。根據申辦季節的繼續進行，這種情況可能會在申辦季節的剩餘時間內進一步上升，或者可能會在這裡趨於平穩。

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

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

So I just want to focus on the guidance a little bit. So Q2 higher than Q1 and then Q3 earnings higher than Q2. Some years, Q3 is higher than Q2, but some years worse. So I guess, ultimately, I'm trying to understand here, are you assuming that truckload rates start moving higher in order to get to this guidance? Or is this assuming rates stayed flat? And then on the LTL side, you've got rev per hundredweight up low to mid-teens in Q2, Q3. That's just -- it's a lot of -- those are big increases. And just curious your visibility of that, particularly in Q3 once we start to (inaudible)?

所以我只想稍微關心一下指導。因此，第二季度的收益高於第一季度，然後第三季度的收益高於第二季度。有些年份，Q3 高於 Q2，但有些年份較差。所以我想，最終，我想在這裡理解，您是否假設卡車裝載率開始走高，以便達到這一指導？還是這是假設利率不變？然後在零擔方面，第二季、第三季每英擔轉速低至十幾歲左右。這只是——很多——這些都是大幅成長。只是好奇您對此的可見度，特別是在我們開始（聽不清楚）的第三季？

All right. Scott, I'm going to have Andrew, he'll kind of dive into some of those questions here.

好的。斯科特，安德魯將在這裡深入探討其中一些問題。

Thank you for the questions. So yes, I think there's a couple of dynamics that need to kind of be clear as we kind of look at the sequential numbers. So Q2 is going to be obviously our strongest quarter from an LTL perspective. It is typically seasonally and it is certainly in our business. So that's generating a significant uplift from Q2 to Q3. But from a rate perspective, we expect some additional rate pressure going from Q1 to Q2, not necessarily in our primary rates. But as we participate in spot rates, it's going to maybe put some additional pressure, not significant, but some downward pressure.

謝謝你的提問。所以，是的，我認為在我們查看連續數字時，需要明確一些動態。因此，從零擔運輸的角度來看，第二季顯然將是我們最強勁的季度。這通常是季節性的，而且肯定是我們的業務。因此，從第二季度到第三季度，這產生了顯著的提升。但從利率角度來看，我們預計從第一季到第二季會出現一些額外的利率壓力，但不一定是在我們的主要利率中。但當我們參與即期利率時，可能會帶來一些額外的壓力，雖然不是很大，但會帶來一些下行壓力。

And so we're not expecting any -- through either of these periods, any rate uplift at all between quarters. So I would characterize this -- the forecast we have to be capturing what we view as normal seasonality for our business with market conditions as we are experiencing now. So we're expecting some strengthening just seasonally in May and June. And then March will -- Q3 will follow a similar pattern to Q2. So no real strengthening in those numbers lead into Q3.

因此，我們預計在這兩個時期中，季度之間不會有任何利率上升。所以我想描述這一點——我們的預測必須捕捉我們認為是我們業務的正常季節性以及我們現在所經歷的市場條件。因此，我們預計五月和六月會出現季節性走強。然後三月——第三季將遵循與第二季類似的模式。因此，這些數字並沒有真正加強到第三季。

Scott, what I would add is from a rate perspective, I think it's very steady from Q2 to Q3. We don't see a lot of change there. I think some of the margin improvement will be driven more from some of our cost efforts. We're kind of leaning out our trailer fleet right now to get a tighter trailer detractor ratio. We're seeing better utilization on our seated trucks. And so typically, third quarter is one of your better utilization quarters. But I know that sometimes Q2 to Q3, it gets better, it gets worse. We're just thinking just marginally better, really driven by some of our cost initiatives, not expecting the market to really drive that change.

史考特，我要補充的是，從利率角度來看，我認為從第二季到第三季非常穩定。我們沒有看到太多變化。我認為利潤率的提高將更多來自我們的一些成本努力。我們現在正在傾斜我們的拖車車隊，以獲得更嚴格的拖車減持率。我們看到我們的坐式卡車的利用率得到了提高。因此，通常情況下，第三季是利用率較好的季度之一。但我知道有時從第二季到第三季度，情況會變得更好，也會變得更糟。 我們只是認為稍微好一點，實際上是由我們的一些成本計劃推動的，而不是指望市場真正推動這種變化。

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

您的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Ken Hoexter。

Adam and Andrew, congrats on the roles. Andrew, you mentioned back online in operating ratio for Intermodal in the second quarter. I don't know what back online means? What level is that? How much of the fleet is parked right now? And I guess, Adam, what do you eventually sell this or get out if you can't flip this to profitability? We've been hearing about this for years. And that goes back to, I guess, Knight's historic religious focus on costs.

亞當和安德魯，恭喜他們扮演的角色。安德魯，您在網路上提到了第二季多式聯運的營運率。不知道上線是什麼意思？那是什麼水平？目前有多少車隊停泊？我想，亞當，如果你不能將其轉化為盈利，你最終會賣掉它或退出什麼？多年來我們一直聽說此事。我想，這可以追溯到奈特歷史上對成本的宗教關注。

I just guess I'm not clear on what's been lost here. I get the fixed leverage. So do you just get rid of more tractors and get rid of more containers and bring it down if the industry is not doing it? What do you do to focus on those costs?

我只是想我不清楚這裡丟失了什麼。我得到固定槓桿。那麼，如果行業不這樣做，你是否會扔掉更多的拖拉機，扔掉更多的集裝箱，然後將其拆除？您會做什麼來關注這些成本？

Yes, Intermodal, specifically, Ken, is your question?

是的，聯運，具體來說，肯，你有問題嗎？

The first part was Intermodal. The second part is, I guess, just corporate with the religious -- the company used to be known for, that religious focus on costs. And I heard your leverage before, but I'm wondering why you can't get? Is there other things you can do in this down cycle to pull out cost to focus on that?

第一部分是聯運。我想，第二部分是與宗教的合作——該公司過去因宗教對成本的關注而聞名。我以前聽過你的槓桿，但我想知道為什麼你拿不到？在這個下行週期中，您還可以做其他事情來降低成本並專注於此嗎？

Yes. And so I'll hit Intermodal first, and then I think, Brad may have some things to touch on as well About Intermodal, so we were actually fairly profitable in Intermodal during the pandemic, and it was driven on a couple of larger projects we had that we believed were going to be longer term. And I think that prevented us from kind of building the more diverse portfolio of customers that would have allowed that profitability to be more sustainable through a challenging market. And so we lost some of that business that went away sooner than we expected about this time last year, and that led to the decline in margins.

是的。因此，我將首先談到多式聯運，然後我想，布拉德可能也有一些關於多式聯運的事情要談一談，因此，在大流行期間，我們實際上在多式聯運上獲得了相當可觀的利潤，並且它是由我們的幾個較大項目推動的我們相信這將是長期的。我認為這阻礙了我們建立更多樣化的客戶組合，而這種組合原本可以使獲利能力在充滿挑戰的市場中更加永續。因此，我們失去了一些業務，這些業務消失得比我們去年這個時候預期的要早，這導致了利潤率下降。

And by the time that business exited, we were kind of already through the bid season. So it's been more difficult to kind of build that volume back up. And so we've got a new leadership team that started in May of last year with great amount of experience from a rail perspective, and they've been working very closely with our sales team and our pricing team, and we've had some very good success here recently in the bids. And so there's a nice pipeline of freight that we believe will come on to get this business back on better footing and profitable.

當該業務退出時，我們已經度過了投標季節。因此，恢復這個容量變得更加困難。因此，我們從去年 5 月開始組建了一個新的領導團隊，從鐵路角度來看，他們擁有豐富的經驗，他們一直與我們的銷售團隊和定價團隊密切合作，我們已經有了一些最近在投標中取得了非常好的成功。因此，我們相信會有一個很好的貨運管道，讓這項業務重新站穩腳跟並實現盈利。

And so we've got some containers in stack that we've taken off just to manage costs in the meantime. But we believe we'll be able to bring those back on once we start to see the volume pick up in this business. We're anticipating we get closer to breakeven in the third quarter and then some small profitability into fourth and you really continue to build it from there. And so that's how we approach Intermodal. On the consolidated company, there's more that we can do with cost. We probably came into this market with a little more overhead and a bit more equipment than we needed. We invested heavily in trailers because power only was so such high demand and it was very profitable.

因此，我們已經卸下了一些堆疊的容器，以同時管理成本。但我們相信，一旦我們開始看到這項業務的銷售回升，我們就能夠恢復這些業務。我們預計第三季度我們會更接近盈虧平衡，然後第四季度會出現一些小幅盈利，並且你真的會從那裡繼續建立它。這就是我們處理多式聯運的方式。對於合併後的公司，我們可以在成本方面做更多的事情。我們進入這個市場時的管理費用和設備可能比我們需要的多一點。我們在拖車上投入了大量資金，因為電力需求如此之高，而且利潤非常豐厚。

And we found as the market changed that, that wasn't going to be as sticky as we anticipated and customers converted freight to live load, live load to pick up the savings. And it was less efficient for them, but they like the savings that came from that. And so we found ourselves with more equipment than we really need in this market. So we're in the process now of leaning that out from a trailer perspective. That's where we have the most opportunity, but there's even some tractors that we put to work during the pandemic from a lease perspective and was very profitable.

我們發現，隨著市場的變化，情況不會像我們預期的那麼黏性，客戶將貨運轉換為活載，活載以節省成本。這對他們來說效率較低，但他們喜歡由此帶來的節省。因此，我們發現自己擁有的設備比我們在這個市場上真正需要的更多。所以我們現在正在從預告片的角度來分析這一點。這是我們機會最多的地方，但從租賃的角度來看，我們甚至在疫情期間投入了一些拖拉機，利潤非常豐厚。

And when they have come back, we just haven't had the freight to support that equipment. And so we'll be leading that as well. And I think there's some nice cost savings that come from that. And really, we've got our teams just focused on just the fundamentals, the core. And we're -- the goal is we can't have -- the plan can't be that the market is going to solve our problems. We have to control what we can control and cost is going to be the biggest focus for us. And that's what's going to drive, I believe, the improvement here into the later part of this year. And we get the markets help, then great, we'll take it, but we're not going to relinquish anything on the cost side of the business.

當他們回來時，我們只是沒有足夠的貨運來支援該設備。因此，我們也將在這方面發揮領導作用。我認為這可以節省一些不錯的成本。事實上，我們的團隊只專注於基礎、核心。我們的目標是我們無法實現的計劃不可能是讓市場來解決我們的問題。我們必須控制我們能控制的事情，而成本將是我們最關注的焦點。我相信，這將推動今年下半年的改善。我們得到了市場的幫助，那就太好了，我們會接受它，但我們不會放棄業務成本方面的任何東西。

Yes. And then I was just going to add, Ken, that initial comment that your question was referring back to was actually a comment to our LTL business, not Intermodal, where we stated that we expected while our operating ratio was (inaudible) in the first quarter, that it will get back in line on a year-over-year basis in the second quarter.

是的。然後我要補充一點，肯，您的問題所提到的最初評論實際上是對我們零擔業務的評論，而不是多式聯運，我們在其中表示，我們的運營比率在第一年是（聽不見清）的季度，它將在第二季度恢復同比增長。

Right. Because I think we said we ran at 90 on the LTL and there were some factors with weather and then a little bit of additional cost as we rolled out some facilities, but we expect to get back to the mid-80s, similar to what we would have run last year.

正確的。因為我想我們說我們的零擔運輸速度是 90 左右，有一些天氣因素，然後在我們推出一些設施時產生了一些額外成本，但我們預計會回到 80 年代中期，類似於我們的情況本來會在去年運行的。

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

你的下一個問題來自高盛的 Jordan Alliger。

Just sort of talking about LTL for a second. Obviously, pretty strong expansion plans for the balance of this year. Can you talk to the ability to get the staffing headcount needed both in terms of drivers and the terminal folks? And is there much wage inflation to sort of get these people? And then maybe just an update on how you expect the rollout of the next '25 to go?

稍微談零擔運輸。顯然，今年剩餘時間的擴張計畫相當強勁。您能否談談獲得所需的司機和碼頭人員數量的能力？薪資上漲是否足以吸引這些人？然後也許只是更新一下您預計下一個 '25 的推出將如何進行？

Yes. I mean, thus far, we haven't had a challenge of staffing those buildings. I mean there was obviously a terminal there before and labor that supported those locations, now maybe different labor that we'd be looking for. But thus far, that hasn't been the biggest challenge for us. As we kind of manage the rollout of these locations where we want to be very deliberate and not put too much pressure on the cost side of our business. But typically, you're going to have some labor and some start-up costs to get a building operating.

是的。我的意思是，到目前為止，我們還沒有遇到為這些建築配備人員的挑戰。我的意思是，顯然之前那裡有一個終端和支持這些地點的勞動力，現在我們可能正在尋找不同的勞動力。但到目前為止，這還不是我們面臨的最大挑戰。當我們管理這些地點的推出時，我們希望非常謹慎，不要對我們業務的成本施加太大壓力。但通常情況下，您需要一些勞動力和一些啟動成本才能使建築物正常運作。

But because we have great relationships with some larger shippers and some of these locations fill out territories that they would have needs in, we're already connected in and can plug those ZIP codes in those territories in. And very quickly, we start to see freight come our way. So our goal is how quickly can we ramp up the shipping count to cover the cost to get those buildings operating and then certainly to be profitable. And we believe we've got several of them that are going online or have gone on online in April, and we'll have -- I think it's what another '24 of that for the full year that we'll roll out. And some of that may be done near the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter.

但是，由於我們與一些較大的托運人有著良好的關係，並且其中一些地點填寫了他們需要的區域，因此我們已經建立了連接，並且可以插入這些區域中的郵政編碼。到貨物來了。因此，我們的目標是我們能夠多快地增加運輸數量，以覆蓋這些建築物運營的成本，然後肯定能夠盈利。我們相信，其中有幾個即將上線或已經在 4 月份上線，而且我們將會——我認為這是我們將在全年推出的另一個 24 週年。其中一些可能會在第三季末或第四季初完成。

And so our team has been executing on this. And so far, it's gone as planned. And if we see anything shift in the market or we see challenges from a cost perspective, we can slow that down if we want to. But right now, we're excited about being able to expand this network and move into territories that we don't serve today and find opportunities to grow with existing customers and new customers.

所以我們的團隊一直在執行這個任務。到目前為止，一切都按計劃進行了。如果我們看到市場發生任何變化，或從成本角度看到挑戰，如果我們願意，我們可以放慢速度。但現在，我們很高興能夠擴展該網路並進入我們目前不服務的領域，並找到與現有客戶和新客戶一起成長的機會。

I'll just add that we can really rightsize the costs. We can grow into the cost. There's very little cost to kind of stand up one of these facilities at the beginning, and so we can build into them as we get density. But I think maybe just one other perspective that might be helpful to you as we've watched this network effect on our LTL business.

我只想補充一點，我們確實可以調整成本。我們可以成長為成本。一開始建立這些設施的成本非常低，因此我們可以在密度增加時對其進行建造。但我認為也許另一種觀點可能對您有所幫助，因為我們已經看到了這種網絡對我們零擔業務的影響。

So as you recall, we acquired MME and AAA Cooper in 2021. We integrated them onto the same system about a year later, so early 2023. As we look back now and we look at Q1 volumes between those brands from Q1 of 2023 to Q1 of 2024, it's up 90%. So what it takes, you get some volume initially. But once you can get into the bid processing and capture that national freight, the slowdown across our network is great. And we've been -- the pace of our (inaudible) facilities is growing, but we've been adding them throughout this period. And so that's creating kind of this own momentum in the network. And that's just going to escalate even further as we add these new facilities.

正如您所記得的，我們在2021 年收購了MME 和AAA Cooper。季度的第一季銷量到 2024 年，這一數字將成長 90%。所以，首先你需要獲得一定的成交量。但是，一旦您可以進入投標處理並捕獲全國貨運量，我們網路的速度就會大幅放緩。我們的（聽不清楚）設施的建設步伐正在加快，但我們在此期間一直在增加它們。因此，這在網路中創造了一種自己的動力。隨著我們添加這些新設施，這種情況只會進一步升級。

So we've got great conviction based on our experience thus far about how adding density and opening new ZIP codes creates a momentum that builds on itself.

因此，根據迄今為止的經驗，我們對增加密度和開放新郵遞區號如何創造自身動力有著堅定的信念。

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

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Brian Ossenbeck。

Just one for you, Adam, maybe you can just talk about. I know it's probably a question you get to the bottom of the cycle -- was hopefully at the bottom of cycle. But as we look up and figure out how this can play out, do you think anything has really structurally changed, this might not be for permanent, but maybe elongating the trough here? And you think about things like there's more guaranteed payout there, there's more trailer pools that have more capacity, should present more data. Obviously, you got the COVID earnings carryover. But I just want to get your perspective on that and also just more near term, like why are we seeing in some of this (inaudible) data that there's actually truckers coming in on a net basis? I wanted to get your thoughts on that as well.

亞當，只給你一個，也許你可以談談。我知道這可能是一個你到達週期底部的問題——希望是在周期底部。但當我們向上看並弄清楚這將如何發揮作用時，您認為有什麼東西真的發生了結構性變化嗎？你會想到這樣的事情：那裡有更多有保障的支付，有更多容量更大的拖車池，應該提供更多數據。顯然，你得到了新冠疫情收益結轉。但我只是想了解您對此的看法，以及更近期的看法，例如為什麼我們在一些（聽不清楚）數據中看到實際上有卡車司機是透過網路進入的？我也想聽聽你對此的想法。

Yes. Well, I think any structural changes. I really -- I don't see anything that has maybe structurally changed in our space or maybe impaired the ability to achieve margins that we typically achieve as we go through different cycles. I think from a trailer perspective, many added trailers during COVID, but it was really the large players who did that. And so you would hear about it, we would see the new headlines around it, but the small guys were purchasing tractors and those were extremely expensive and trailers were expensive as well.

是的。嗯，我認為任何結構性變化。我真的 - 我沒有看到我們的領域發生任何結構性變化，或者可能損害我們在經歷不同周期時通常實現的利潤率的能力。我認為從預告片的角度來看，許多人在新冠疫情期間添加了預告片，但實際上是大玩家這樣做了。所以你會聽到它，我們會看到與之相關的新頭條新聞，但是小型企業正在購買拖拉機，這些拖拉機非常昂貴，拖車也很昂貴。

So I don't think we saw the same growth from a trailer perspective with the small players. That was maybe largely -- the larger players who have already a large asset footprint. And I think you're going to see the trailer orders or we already have seen trailer orders really dip as I think there was an oversupply. So I think that will correct itself over time as we've seen the demand from customers has lessened from a trailer pool perspective.

因此，我認為從預告片的角度來看，我們並沒有看到小玩家的相同成長。這可能主要是那些已經擁有大量資產的較大參與者。我認為你會看到拖車訂單，或者我們已經看到拖車訂單確實下降了，因為我認為供應過剩。因此，我認為隨著時間的推移，這種情況會自行糾正，因為從拖車池的角度來看，我們已經看到客戶的需求減少。

What was your other part of the question? Sorry, (inaudible). We track that as well. And it's really hard to know what that's telling you because we look at it directionally, but you can have a trucking company of one start or a trucking company of 100 could go out of business and they're somewhat counted the same because it's just a DOT number. And I think what we're finding is you probably have a lot more of capacity exiting not from DOTs failing, but from companies just shrinking their fleet.

你問題的另一部分是什麼？抱歉，（聽不清楚）。我們也對此進行追蹤。很難知道這告訴你什麼，因為我們是從方向性角度看待它的，但是你可以擁有一家新創的貨運公司，也可以擁有一家擁有100 家的貨運公司可能會倒閉，它們在某種程度上被算是相同的，因為它們只是一家點號。我認為我們發現，可能有更多的產能不是因為 DOT 失敗而退出，而是因為公司只是在縮減其機隊。

And we saw that with -- because of the visibility that we had in our insurance business, that may have been one of the few values we got in that over time was that we had visibility to what's happening in the -- with the smaller fleets. And yes, we saw them shrinking dramatically, not going out of business completely, but just pulling down their truck count because of the inability to keep the trucks productive enough to support the payments.

我們看到，由於我們在保險業務中的可見性，隨著時間的推移，這可能是我們獲得的為數不多的價值之一，那就是我們可以了解較小車隊中正在發生的事情。是的，我們看到他們急劇萎縮，並沒有完全停業，只是減少了卡車數量，因為無法保持卡車的生產力足以支持付款。

So that's just -- the net (inaudible) is one data point, but it really doesn't tell the full story. There really isn't anything out there that we -- that really can tell you what's happening fully across the board. But that's just a data point that we look at. But there's a lot of other things that we look at internally that give us a perspective of what's happening on the demand and the capacity side.

所以這只是——網路（聽不清楚）只是一個數據點，但它確實沒有講述完整的故事。我們確實沒有任何東西可以真正告訴您全面發生的事情。但這只是我們查看的一個數據點。但我們內部也研究了許多其他事情，使我們能夠了解需求和產能方面發生的情況。

And that perspective on the capacity side is it is shrinking just not fast enough (inaudible)?

從容量方面的角度來看，它的收縮速度不夠快（聽不清楚）？

Yes. I mean if you look at just how much was added during COVID because of where the spot rates were and how much -- how lucrative it was for small truckers. It was -- how low the barriers to entries were. Yes, a lot was added. And so we have a lot to work through. And at the same time, you saw demand fall off because of what customers are doing with from an inventory perspective. So we've got both demand and supply that have to come back in line to see this thing flipping.

是的。我的意思是，如果你看看新冠疫情期間由於即期費率而增加了多少，以及對小型卡車司機來說有多少利潤。這是——進入的門檻有多低。是的，添加了很多。因此，我們還有很多工作要做。同時，您會看到需求下降，因為從庫存角度來看，客戶正在做什麼。因此，我們的需求和供應都必須恢復一致才能看到這種情況的翻轉。

And again, it will eventually, just a matter of when that will be. And we're hunkered down trying to manage the cost of our business and do what we can that doesn't -- it helps our margins, but doesn't impair our ability to react to the market and really drive the best returns when we see an inflection.

再說一次，它最終會發生，只是時間問題。我們正努力控制我們的業務成本，並盡我們所能——這有助於我們的利潤，但不會削弱我們對市場做出反應的能力，並在我們真正實現最佳回報時看到一個詞形變化。

And I would just add there, Brian, on the -- in the earlier days of the pandemic, a lot of that swelling of capacity, the one and 2 truck operators made up an outsized share of that swelling of capacity as compared to the complexion of the industry prior to the pandemic.

布萊恩，我想補充一點，在大流行的早期，在運力膨脹的過程中，與膚色相比，一兩個卡車操作員在運力膨脹中所佔的份額過大。

Your next question comes from the line of Bascome Majors from Susquehanna.

你的下一個問題來自薩斯奎哈納的巴斯科姆梅傑斯隊。

Adam, thank you for that strategic high-level overview, and it feels like the traditional Knight approach of a cost focus and cyclically aware management and capital deployment and both expanding the portfolio and growing the existing services is very much how you plan to run the business. If we took a more nuanced view into how you plan to lead versus how the business has been led in the last 20 years, is there anything you'd want to highlight that you feel that you might do a little differently that we should pay attention to?

Adam，感謝您的策略性高層概述，感覺傳統的奈特方法（注重成本、具有週期性意識的管理和資本部署以及擴大產品組合和發展現有服務）正是您計劃運營的方式。如果我們更細緻地了解您計劃如何領導以及過去 20 年如何領導企業，您是否想強調一下您認為您的做法可能會有所不同而我們應該注意到？

Well, look, I think our overarching strategy is still intact, right? I've been -- I've worked very closely with Kevin Knight over the last 20 years, with (inaudible) over the last 20 years. And we kind of view things very similarly. When I think about our strategy on the truckload side, it's -- we got to be an industry leader in the market regardless of the market conditions.

嗯，看，我認為我們的整體策略仍然完好無損，對嗎？在過去 20 年裡，我一直與凱文奈特 (Kevin Knight) 密切合作，在過去 20 年裡（聽不清楚）。我們對事物的看法非常相似。當我考慮我們在卡車裝載方面的策略時，無論市場狀況如何，我們都必須成為市場的行業領導者。

So in a good time, we have to have the best operating ratio, be the most efficient. And in more challenging times, we again have to have the best operating and be the most efficient. And I think there can be times when the market is really good that you can sometimes take your eye off the ball in a couple of areas on the cost side of the business, and it's easy to do that. And so we have to remain disciplined through good times and bad times to ensure that we always keep that cost advantage over the -- over our peers in the industry.

所以在好的時候，我們必須要有最好的運作率，做到最有效率。在更具挑戰性的時代，我們再次必須擁有最佳營運和最高效。我認為，有時市場真的很好，你有時可以把注意力從業務成本的幾個領域轉移開，而且很容易做到這一點。因此，無論順境或逆境，我們都必須保持自律，以確保我們始終保持相對於業內同行的成本優勢。

We're going to continue to build out the LTL network. I think everyone here is very aligned with that and sees the value in that, and we're going to do that organically where we can and where we think it speeds up the process and we can get good returns, we will look at M&A as an opportunity. I think from a Logistics standpoint, we found that we really have invested in power only, but we found that we can do that business. We can operate it with fewer trailers than we have today.

我們將繼續建造零擔網絡。我認為這裡的每個人都非常認同這一點，並看到了其中的價值，我們將在力所能及的情況下有機地做到這一點，並且我們認為這可以加快進程並且我們可以獲得良好的回報，我們將把併購視為一個機會。我認為從物流的角度來看，我們發現我們確實只投資了電力，但我們發現我們可以做這項業務。我們可以用比現在更少的拖車來運作它。

And I think that's one of the major adjustments that we're making currently is rightsizing that trailer to tractor ratio without impairing our ability to do power only, and we think there's quite a bit of opportunity to do that. And we want our Logistics business to complement what we do on the asset side. And in many cases, it's there to support from a service perspective. But in some cases, it's giving freight back to truckload. Now certainly, we have direct relationships with logistics with our customers, and we like doing that as well.

我認為我們目前正在進行的重大調整之一是在不損害我們僅提供動力的能力的情況下調整拖車與牽引車的比例，我們認為有很多機會做到這一點。我們希望我們的物流業務能補充我們在資產方面的業務。在許多情況下，它可以從服務角度提供支援。但在某些情況下，它會將​​貨物退回卡車。當然，現在我們與客戶在物流方面建立了直接的關係，我們也喜歡這樣做。

But our Logistics business can really ride the wave of being part of one of the best operated truckload businesses in the industry, and we need to make sure that we create that alignment. And then I already talked a lot about Intermodal and what we need to do to build the profitability back up there, and that's underway. And it will take some time, but we feel confident with the agreements we have with our rail partners and the leadership we have there and the progress we're making in some of the early bids this year that we'll have a pathway to see that profitable.

但我們的物流業務確實可以順勢而為，成為業界營運最好的整車業務之一，我們需要確保實現這種一致性。然後我已經談了很多關於多式聯運以及我們需要做些什麼來建立那裡的盈利能力，而這一切正在進行中。這需要一些時間，但我們對與鐵路合作夥伴達成的協議、我們在那裡的領導力以及我們在今年一些早期投標中取得的進展充滿信心，我們將有機會看到那個有利可圖的。

But really, again, we want to keep the nimbleness in the market to be able to react to changes. We've got to have a cost discipline and again, leverage the unique position we're in as an industry leader.

但實際上，我們希望保持市場的靈活性，以便能夠對變化做出反應。我們必須遵守成本紀律，並再次利用我們作為行業領導者的獨特地位。

And I think, John, I think our time has expired here. So I think we'll go ahead and conclude the call. And for those of you who weren't able to get a question or want to follow up, you can call (602) 606-6349, and we'll try to return your call as quick as possible. I appreciate everybody who joined the call, and we'll look forward to talking to you later if you have a question.

我想，約翰，我想我們的時間已經到了。因此，我認為我們將繼續結束通話。對於那些無法得到問題或想要跟進的人，您可以致電 (602) 606-6349，我們將盡力盡快回電。我感謝所有加入通話的人，如果您有疑問，我們期待稍後與您交談。

Thanks, everyone.

感謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。