美國廢棄物管理公司 (WM) 2026 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the WM third-quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

各位好，感謝您撥冗等候。歡迎參加 WM 第三季財報電話會議。(接線員指示) 請注意，今天的會議將被錄音。

I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host Ed Egl, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我將把會議交給今天的主持人——投資人關係副總裁 Ed Egl。請開始。

Thank you, Olivia. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me this morning are Jim Fish, Chief Executive Officer; John Morris, President; David Reed, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Tara Hemmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

謝謝你，Olivia。各位早安，感謝各位參加我們 2026 年第三季財報電話會議。今天早上與我一同出席的有：執行長 Jim Fish；總裁 John Morris；執行副總裁兼營運長 David Reed；以及執行副總裁兼營運長 Tara Hemmer。

Jim will cover high-level financials, Joe will cover an operating overview and provide a strategic update, and Dave will cover the details of the financials. Following our prepared remarks, each of these members of our leadership team will be available during the Q&A portion of the call.

Jim 將說明高層次的財務概況，Joe 將提供營運概覽並進行策略更新，Dave 將說明財務細節。在我們的準備發言之後，領導團隊的每位成員都將在問答環節中供各位提問。

Before we get started, please note that we filed a Form 8-K that includes the earnings press release and is available on our website at www.wm.com. The Form 8-K, the press release, and the schedule for the press release include important information.

在開始之前，請注意我們已提交一份 Form 8-K，其中包含財報新聞稿，並可於我們網站 www.wm.com 查閱。

During the call, you will hear forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, projections, or opinions about future periods. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

在本次電話會議中，您將聽到前瞻性陳述，這些陳述係基於對未來期間的當前預期、預測或觀點。所有前瞻性陳述均受風險與不確定性影響，可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。

Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in today's press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs. We will discuss our results in the areas of yield and volume, which unless stated otherwise, are more specifically references to internal revenue growth or IRG from yield or volume.

其中部分風險與不確定性已在今日新聞稿及我們向 SEC 提交的文件中討論，包括我們最新的 Form 10-K 與 Form 10-Q。

During the call, we will discuss operating EBITDA, which is income from operations before depreciation, depletion, amortization, and accretion. Beginning this year, landfill accretion expense was moved from operating expenses to depreciation, depletion, amortization, and accretion to enhance comparability and better reflect operating performance.

在本次電話會議中，我們將討論營運 EBITDA，其定義為營業利益扣除折舊、耗竭、攤銷與回填提列（accretion）之前的金額。自今年起，掩埋場回填提列費用已自營運費用移至折舊、耗竭、攤銷與回填提列項下，以提升可比性並更妥善反映營運表現。

For comparability purposes, 2025 actuals have been updated to reflect that change. Any comparisons, unless otherwise stated, will be with the prior year period. Net income, EPS, income from operations and margin, operating EBITDA on margin, operating expenses on margin, and SG&A expense on margin have been adjusted to enhance comparability by excluding certain items that management believes do not reflect our fundamental business performance or results of operations.

為了可比性，2025 年實際數已更新以反映該變更。除非另有說明，所有比較均以去年同期為基準。淨利、每股盈餘（EPS）、營業利益及其利潤率、營運 EBITDA 及其利潤率、營運費用及其利潤率，以及 SG&A 費用及其利潤率，均已進行調整以提升可比性，排除管理層認為無法反映我們核心業務表現或營運結果的特定項目。

These adjusted measures, in addition to free cash flow, are non-GAAP measures. Please refer to the earnings press release and tables, which can be found on the company's website at www.wm.com for reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures and additional information about our use of non-GAAP measures.

這些調整後指標以及自由現金流，均屬非 GAAP 指標。請參閱公司網站 www.wm.com 上的財報新聞稿與表格，以取得與最可比 GAAP 指標之調節表，以及我們使用非 GAAP 指標的更多資訊。

This call is being recorded and will be available 24 hours a day beginning at approximately 1:00 PM Eastern Time today. To hear a replay of the call, access the WM website at www.investors.wm.com. Time-sensitive information provided during today's call, which is occurring on October 28, 2026, may no longer be accurate at the time of a replay. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without expressed written consent of WM is prohibited.

本次電話會議將被錄音，並將自今日美東時間約下午 1:00 起提供 24 小時收聽。如欲收聽重播，請至 WM 網站 www.investors.wm.com。今日電話會議於 2026 年 10 月 28 日舉行，會中提供的具時效性資訊在重播時可能已不再準確。未經 WM 明確書面同意，以任何形式對本次電話會議進行再散布、再傳輸或再廣播均被禁止。

Now, I'll turn the call over to WM CEO, Jim Fish.

現在，我把電話交給 WM 執行長 Jim Fish。

Okay. Thanks, Ed, and thank you all for joining us today. As most of you know, after including 10 years as CEO, I'll be retiring in early January. At that time, John Morris will become WM's new CEO. John's promotion is the result of a thoughtful, deliberate succession planning process by our Board of Directors, and I have the utmost confidence that John is the right person to lead WM into its next chapter and build on the momentum that we've established.

好的。謝謝你，Ed，也感謝各位今天加入我們。如各位多數人所知，在擔任執行長 10 年之後，我將於一月初退休。屆時，John Morris 將成為 WM 的新任執行長。John 的晉升是董事會經過周全、審慎的接班規劃流程所做出的結果；我對 John 能帶領 WM 進入下一個篇章並延續我們已建立的動能，充滿信心。

Looking at the results. We're right on track to achieve our guidance for the full year with revenue and free cash flow expected to finish at the high end of our ranges. During my tenure as CEO, we've achieved or beaten our original operating EBITDA guidance every year except for 2020 during COVID, and we're on track to do that again this year.

來看一下業績表現。我們正按計畫達成全年財測指引，預期營收與自由現金流將落在區間的高端。在我擔任執行長期間，除了 COVID 期間的 2020 年之外，我們每一年都達成或超越原先的營運 EBITDA 指引，而今年也正朝著同樣的目標前進。

Taking a look at the third quarter, the company grew operating EBITDA by 5.8%, grew revenue by 6.3%, continued to reduce our SG&A down to 9.3%, maintained operating EBITDA margins at 31% in the face of strong headwinds from fuel, and grew free cash flow by 20%.

再看第三季，公司營運 EBITDA 成長 5.8%，營收成長 6.3%，持續將 SG&A 降至 9.3%；在燃料成本帶來強勁逆風的情況下，仍維持營運 EBITDA 利潤率在 31%，並使自由現金流成長 20%。

And lastly, I'm pleased that our Healthcare Solutions business is in such a good place after two years of hard work on the integration. For the first time since the acquisition, revenue was up year over year, and we grew operating EBITDA 33%. I believe this is going to prove to be one of the best acquisitions in the history of the company.

最後，我很高興我們的 Healthcare Solutions 業務在經過兩年整合的努力後，已處於非常良好的狀態。自收購以來首次，營收年增轉正，且營運 EBITDA 成長 33%。我相信這將被證明是公司史上最成功的收購案之一。

So I want to finish my brief remarks today with a thank you and a farewell. It's been a tremendous privilege to be in this role for 10 years at this great company and to work with such a fantastic team of 60,000 people. You are all truly amazing.

因此，我想以簡短的致謝與道別作為今天發言的結尾。能在這家優秀的公司擔任此職 10 年，並與一支由 60,000 名同仁組成的卓越團隊共事，是莫大的榮幸。各位都真的非常了不起。

I want to say to our many investors and to each of you on the sell side who cover our stock how much I've appreciated all of the support you've given me over the years. Your questions have been fair, your coverage has been comprehensive and intelligent, and your faith in us has been unwavering.

我也想對眾多投資人，以及各位在賣方端追蹤我們股票的朋友們表示，我非常感謝多年來各位給予我的支持。各位的提問公允、研究報導全面且睿智，而各位對我們的信任始終如一。

And I wanted to tell a quick story here. When I was just coming into my CFO role, at my first investor meeting, Ed and I were out in San Francisco, and we met with Charles Elwin at Capital World. And in my naive way, I told him that we had a plan to get SG&A down to 11%. I think at the time, it was at 12.7%. Charles, in a nice way, but in a firm way, said, Jim, I know you're new in the job. And just so you know, though, we've heard that from you guys for a long time. And to be honest, I don't believe you. I believe I want to see it.

我想在這裡分享一個小故事。當我剛接任 CFO 職務時，在第一次投資人會議上，我和 Ed 在舊金山，與 Capital World 的 Charles Elwin 會面。我當時天真地告訴他，我們有一個計畫要把 SG&A 降到 11%。我記得那時大約是 12.7%。Charles 以很客氣但很堅定的方式對我說：Jim，我知道你剛上任。但你要知道，我們已經聽你們講這件事很久了。老實說，我不相信你。我相信的是——我要看到結果。

And so a couple of years later when we actually did get SG&A down to 11%. I'll never forget, Charles called me and he said Jim, I didn't believe you at the time, but you did prove me wrong. So thank you for that and great job. And I don't know whether Charles is on the call today, but I have to say that no other call from an investor in more to me than that call that day from Charles. And now that we're at 9.3% and I expect that to drop below 9% at some point down the road, I do think back on that, so I want to tell that story.

於是幾年後，當我們真的把 SG&A 降到 11% 時，我永遠不會忘記，Charles 打電話給我說：Jim，我當時不相信你，但你確實證明我錯了。所以謝謝你，做得很好。我不知道 Charles 今天是否也在線上，但我必須說，對我而言，沒有任何一通投資人的來電比得上那天 Charles 的那通電話更有意義。而現在我們已經到 9.3%，我也預期未來某個時點會降到 9% 以下，我確實會想起那段往事，所以我想把這個故事分享給各位。

And then lastly, I want to tell you that I am leaving WM with tremendous confidence, not only in John, but in Tara, in David, and the rest of the senior leadership team and the entire leadership of WM.

最後，我想告訴各位，我將帶著極大的信心離開 WM；這份信心不僅在 John，也在 Tara、David，以及其他資深領導團隊成員與 WM 全體領導層。

The company is in such a great place strategically, financially, customer-wise, and when I'm no longer on the inside, I will have the greatest trust in this management team. I love the culture that we've built here at this company, and I strongly believe in the long-term strategy of the company. So I am truly a shareholder for the long term.

公司在策略、財務、客戶面等各方面都處於非常好的位置；當我不再身在其中時，我也會對這個管理團隊抱持最高程度的信任。我熱愛我們在這家公司所建立的文化，也堅信公司的長期策略。因此，我確實會是一位長期股東。

It's been a joy for me to work alongside so many amazing people over this 25 years. And I look forward to supporting John and the team through the transition and watching WM continue to create value for all of its stakeholders.

在過去 25 年裡，能與這麼多傑出的人並肩工作，對我而言是一段喜悅的旅程。我也期待在交接期間支持 John 與團隊，並見證 WM 持續為所有利害關係人創造價值。

And so with that, I'm going to turn the call over to John, and he can share his perspective on the quarter, on our outlook, and on the opportunities we have for WM.

那麼接下來，我要把電話會議交給 John，請他分享對本季表現、我們的展望，以及 WM 所擁有機會的看法。

Thanks, Jim. It's certainly an honor to have the opportunity to lead WM, and I appreciate the confidence that you and the Board have placed in me. Over the years, I've experienced firsthand the strong foundation we've built centered around our people, culture, and strategy. I look forward to building on that foundation and driving opportunities to deliver value for our customers, employees, communities, and our shareholders.

謝謝你，Jim。能有機會領導 WM，確實是一項榮幸；也感謝你與董事會對我的信任。多年來，我親身體會到我們以人才、文化與策略為核心所建立的堅實基礎。我期待在此基礎上持續深化，推動各項機會，為我們的客戶、員工、社區以及股東創造價值。

So now let's turn to our performance in the quarter and our outlook for the business. WM delivered another quarter of solid operating and financial performance. Operating EBITDA grew 5.8%, driven by strong price-to-cost spread in the Collection and Disposal business and growing contributions from our Healthcare and Sustainability businesses.

現在讓我們來看本季的表現以及對業務的展望。WM 再次交出一季穩健的營運與財務表現。營運 EBITDA 成長 5.8%，主要受惠於收運與處置業務強勁的「價格相對成本」利差，以及醫療保健與永續業務貢獻持續增加。

Our results reflect the earnings power of our diversified business as growth came from every one of our operating segments with operating EBITDA increases of more than 30% in each of the Healthcare and Sustainability segments in the quarter.

我們的成果反映出多元化業務的獲利能力；成長來自每一個營運部門，其中醫療保健與永續兩個部門在本季的營運 EBITDA 均成長超過 30%。

In Collection and Disposal, disciplined pricing and technology-enabled cost optimization continue to drive results. Core price again was strong at 5.8% for the quarter. And despite a 70-point headwind from higher fuel costs, total company operating expenses remain below 60% of revenue, demonstrating the increasingly important role technology, combined with process improvements, is playing in sustaining our performance and helping us to structurally lower our cost to serve.

在收運與處置方面，嚴謹的定價與科技賦能的成本最佳化持續帶動成果。本季核心價格再次維持強勁，達 5.8%。儘管因燃料成本上升帶來 70 個基點的不利因素，全公司營運費用仍維持在營收的 60% 以下，顯示科技結合流程改善在維持我們的表現、並協助我們結構性降低服務成本方面，扮演著日益重要的角色。

Growing the Collection and Disposal business through tuck-in acquisitions remains a strategic priority. We've completed $239 million of deals through the first nine months of the year and expect to close another $140 million in the fourth quarter. We've also signed a $250 million transaction that we expect to close early next year, and our pipeline remains robust, supporting continued acquisition activity into 2027.

透過補強型併購（tuck-in acquisitions）擴大收運與處置業務，仍是我們的策略重點。今年前九個月我們已完成 2.39 億美元的交易，並預期在第四季再完成約 1.40 億美元的交易。我們也已簽署一筆 2.50 億美元的交易，預期於明年初完成交割；同時，我們的案源管線仍然強勁，支持併購活動可持續至 2027 年。

Turning to Healthcare Solutions, I am very pleased with the progress we've made in the business in the third quarter with revenue up by 3.7% and operating EBITDA increasing 33%. We had two year-end targets for the business as we exit 2026: core price at 5.5% and SG&A of between 15% and 16% of revenue.

談到醫療保健解決方案（Healthcare Solutions），我對第三季業務進展感到非常滿意：營收成長 3.7%，營運 EBITDA 增加 33%。我們針對該業務在 2026 年底退出時設定了兩項年終目標：核心價格 5.5%，以及 SG&A 佔營收比重介於 15% 至 16%。

We achieved both of those targets earlier than expected, with third quarter core price coming in right at 5.5% and SG&A at 15.2% of revenue. This progress reinforces our confidence that we can bring the same price and cost discipline to Healthcare that has driven our success in solid waste.

我們比預期更早達成這兩項目標：第三季核心價格正好為 5.5%，SG&A 佔營收比重為 15.2%。這些進展強化了我們的信心：我們能把在固體廢棄物業務中帶來成功的同等定價與成本紀律，導入到醫療保健業務。

The benefits of disciplined investment in execution are evident in our Sustainability businesses, where the projects we brought online are increasingly contributing to revenue and earnings growth. Recycling Processing and Sales segment operating EBITDA increased 40% to $91 million in the third quarter. That strong growth reflects the benefits of our investments in our automated network as well as year-over-year improvements in our blended average commodity price.

在永續業務方面，對執行力進行有紀律的投資所帶來的效益已清楚可見；我們已上線的專案正日益貢獻營收與獲利成長。第三季回收處理與銷售（Recycling Processing and Sales）部門的營運 EBITDA 成長 40%，達到 9,100 萬美元。這項強勁成長反映了我們在自動化網路上的投資效益，以及綜合平均大宗商品價格相較去年同期的改善。

On the renewable energy front, we added a new renewable natural gas facility in New York during the quarter, marking the 18th facility completed since 2022. Segment operating EBITDA grew more than 35% despite slightly lower RIN pricing as compared to the prior year. With more than 90% of our expected 2026 production and about 40% of our 2027 production already contracted, we are also improving earnings visibility and reducing commodity price exposure.

在再生能源方面，我們本季在紐約新增一座可再生天然氣（RNG）設施，這是自 2022 年以來完成的第 18 座設施。儘管 RIN 價格較去年同期略低，該部門營運 EBITDA 仍成長超過 35%。由於我們預期 2026 年產量已有超過 90% 完成簽約、約 2027 年產量的 40% 也已簽約，我們同時提升了獲利能見度並降低了大宗商品價格曝險。

As we move through the fourth quarter and prepare for 2027, our priorities remain clear: maintain disciplined price-to-cost spread, continue embedding technology and process improvement across our operations, execute additional tuck-in M&A and capture the earnings and free cash flow benefits of our strategic investments. Our focus on these priorities gives us confidence in our ability to deliver strong results in 2027.

隨著我們進入第四季並為 2027 年做準備，我們的優先事項依然明確：維持有紀律的「價格相對成本」利差、持續在營運中導入科技與流程改善、執行更多補強型併購（tuck-in M&A），並掌握策略性投資所帶來的獲利與自由現金流效益。我們對這些優先事項的聚焦，使我們對在 2027 年交出強勁成果的能力充滿信心。

Before I close, I want to thank our employees for their dedication and commitment they bring to serving our customers and communities every day. Our performance is a direct result of their hard work and strong execution, and I deeply appreciate all they do.

在結束前，我要感謝我們的員工；他們每天以投入與承諾服務客戶與社區。我們的表現直接來自他們的辛勤付出與強而有力的執行，我由衷感謝他們所做的一切。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to David.

接下來，我把電話會議交給 David。

Thanks, John, and thank you all for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of growth across each of our operating segments. The breadth of this performance underscores the durability of our business model and the consistent execution of our teams.

謝謝你，John，也謝謝各位加入我們。我們很高興報告：本季在各個營運部門都再次實現成長。這樣廣泛的表現凸顯了我們商業模式的韌性，以及團隊一貫且穩定的執行力。

In Collection and Disposal, favorable price-to-cost spread added 40 basis points of underlying margin expansion. Healthcare Solutions contributed another 30 basis points from cost management and pricing growth as we continue to realize the benefits from the integration and begin to see pricing traction.

在收運與處置方面，有利的「價格相對成本」利差帶來 40 個基點的基礎毛利率擴張。醫療保健解決方案則因成本管理與定價成長再貢獻 30 個基點；隨著我們持續實現整合效益，也開始看到定價動能。

These core business contributions were offset by primarily a couple of headwinds, 40 basis points from higher fuel cost and 40 basis points from increased risk management costs within our Corporate and Other segment. Even with those headwinds, the underlying performance of the business remains strong and demonstrated our ability to protect profitability while continuing to invest for long-term growth.

上述核心業務的貢獻，主要被幾項不利因素所抵銷：燃料成本上升帶來 40 個基點的不利影響，以及公司與其他（Corporate and Other）部門風險管理成本增加帶來 40 個基點的不利影響。即便面臨這些逆風，業務的基礎表現仍然強勁，並展現我們在持續投資長期成長的同時，仍能維持獲利能力的能力。

Turning to revenue. Strong pricing results were led by the commercial line of business. Collection and Disposal volume was modestly negative, primarily reflecting continued intentional residential losses, which have improved each quarter this year, and the national account broker losses in commercial that we discussed last quarter.

接著談營收。強勁的定價成果主要由商業（commercial）業務線帶動。收運與處置的量（volume）小幅為負，主要反映我們持續有意為之的住宅（residential）客戶流失——今年每一季都在改善——以及我們在上季討論過的商業業務中全國性帳戶（national account）經紀商（broker）流失。

Overall, our core price and yield are tracking to the high end of our guidance, with volumes still expected to be about negative 1% for the year or negative 50 basis points when excluding wildfire cleanup volumes from the prior year.

整體而言，我們的核心價格與收益率（yield）正朝向指引區間的高端推進；全年量仍預期約為負 1%，若排除去年野火清理量的影響，則約為負 50 個基點。

Our Energy Surcharge program continues to effectively recover higher direct and indirect fuel cost in both the solid waste and Healthcare businesses, even as diesel spiked to record highs in the quarter.

我們的能源附加費（Energy Surcharge）方案，持續有效回收固體廢棄物與醫療保健業務中較高的直接與間接燃料成本，即使本季柴油價格飆升至歷史新高亦然。

Finally, higher recycling and renewable energy volumes from completed growth projects and year-over-year increases in recycling commodity prices added to the top line.

最後，已完成的成長專案帶來更高的回收與再生能源量，以及回收大宗商品價格較去年同期上升，也共同推升了營收。

Turning to SG&A. Expenses improved 70 basis points to 9.3% of revenue in the third quarter. This improvement reflects disciplined cost management across the company, together with continued synergy capture from the Healthcare Solutions business. As John mentioned, Healthcare Solutions SG&A was 15.2% of revenue in the third quarter, reaching our year-end target ahead of schedule and representing a 390-basis-point improvement compared to the prior year.

接著談 SG&A。第三季費用率改善 70 個基點，降至營收的 9.3%。這項改善反映公司整體有紀律的成本管理，以及醫療保健解決方案業務持續實現的協同效益。如 John 所提，醫療保健解決方案第三季 SG&A 佔營收比重為 15.2%，提前達成年終目標，且相較去年同期改善 390 個基點。

This reinforces our confidence in the integration and earnings potential of the business as we continue to streamline support functions, drive operating leverage, and scale the platform.

這進一步強化了我們對該業務整合與獲利潛力的信心，因為我們持續精簡支援職能、推動營運槓桿，並擴大平台規模。

Our earnings growth continues to translate into robust cash generation. During the first nine months of the year, operating cash flow increased 12% compared to the same period in 2025. As planned, capital spending declined by more than 17% from the prior year, reflecting normalized investment in collection vehicles and lower sustainability capital as we approach the completion of our planned investment program.

我們的獲利成長持續轉化為強勁的現金創造能力。今年前九個月，營運現金流較2025年同期成長12%。如規劃所示，資本支出較去年下降超過17%，反映收運車輛投資回歸常態，以及隨著我們接近完成既定投資計畫而降低的永續相關資本支出。

Together, these results drove free cash flow of over $3 billion, up more than 42% through the first nine months of the year, with operating EBITDA conversion of more than 50%. We remain focused on converting earnings growth into cash efficiently while funding the investments that support safe, dependable operations, and attractive long-term returns.

綜合而言，這些成果推動自由現金流超過30億美元，今年前九個月成長逾42%，營運EBITDA轉換率超過50%。我們仍專注於有效率地將獲利成長轉化為現金，同時為支持安全、可靠營運以及具吸引力的長期報酬之投資提供資金。

We allocated more than 90% of that free cash flow to shareholder returns during the first nine months of the year, repurchasing $1.58 billion of our shares and paying $1.14 billion in dividends. That balanced approach reflects our confidence in the business and our commitment to returning capital to shareholders while maintaining the financial flexibility to invest in our strategic priorities.

今年前九個月，我們將超過90%的自由現金流配置於股東回饋，回購15.8億美元自家股票並支付11.4億美元股利。這種平衡的作法反映我們對業務的信心，以及在維持投資策略重點所需財務彈性的同時，致力於將資本回饋給股東。

We also remained within our target leverage of 2.5 to 3 times, ending the quarter at 2.92 times. Our strong cash generation, disciplined capital allocation, and continued focus on the balance sheet position us well to create sustained value.

我們也維持在2.5至3倍的目標槓桿範圍內，本季末為2.92倍。強勁的現金創造、嚴謹的資本配置，以及對資產負債表的持續聚焦，使我們具備良好條件以創造可持續的價值。

Finally, let me bring the pieces of our outlook together as we look to the balance of 2026. Strong pricing, cost optimization, and robust cash generation through the first nine months position us well to deliver our full year outlook. We expect operating EBITDA to be within the guidance range we established at the beginning of the year, and we anticipate revenue and free cash flow results to be at the high end of our prior ranges.

最後，讓我在展望2026年剩餘期間時，將我們的展望各項要素整合起來。前九個月強勁的定價、成本最佳化與穩健的現金創造，使我們具備良好條件以達成全年展望。我們預期營運EBITDA將落在年初所建立的指引區間內，並預期營收與自由現金流結果將位於先前區間的高端。

Our expectations include full year SG&A of about 10% of revenue, reflecting cost discipline across the organization and the success of our integration in Healthcare Solutions. Overall, the resilience of the solid waste business, continued progress in Healthcare Solutions and growing contributions from our sustainability investments reinforce our confidence as we close out 2026 and build a strong foundation for continued growth.

我們的預期包含全年SG&A約占營收10%，反映全組織的成本紀律，以及我們在醫療保健解決方案（Healthcare Solutions）整合上的成功。整體而言，固體廢棄物業務的韌性、醫療保健解決方案的持續進展，以及我們永續投資貢獻的提升，強化了我們在結束2026年並為持續成長奠定堅實基礎時的信心。

In closing, I want to thank the entire WM team for their hard work throughout the quarter. We entered the final months of the year with strong momentum, clear priorities, and confidence in our ability to finish 2026 on a high note.

在結語中，我要感謝整個WM團隊在本季的辛勤付出。我們以強勁動能、明確優先事項，以及有信心以亮眼表現完成2026年的能力，進入今年最後幾個月。

With that, Olivia, let's open the line for questions.

接下來，Olivia，我們開放提問。

(Operator Instructions) Tyler Brown, Raymond James.

(接線員指示) Tyler Brown，Raymond James。

Hey. Good morning.

嗨，早安。

Good morning.

早安。

Good morning.

早安。

Hey, Jim. It's been a pleasure, wishing you definitely all the best, and John, big congrats. But hey, David, just appreciate the guidance color, but I was hoping for maybe a little more color just on the Q4 EBITDA shaping. I mean, the range is still, call it $100 million at the EBITDA line. I mean, we typically see a slight step down in margins sequentially into Q4. Is that what we should expect? And would we maybe be shaping towards the lower end on EBITDA for Q4?

嗨，Jim。很高興與你合作，真心祝你一切順利；John，也要大大恭喜你。不過，David，感謝你對指引的補充說明，但我希望能再多一點關於第四季EBITDA走勢的細節。我的意思是，EBITDA那一行的區間仍然大概有1億美元。我們通常會看到第四季的利潤率相較前一季略為下滑。這是我們應該預期的情況嗎？而且第四季EBITDA會不會更偏向區間的低端？

Sure. I can give you some color here. We're obviously very pleased with the results through year-to-date and fourth quarter should be consistent with the results we've posted all year. And note that similar to last year, we did have improving margins sequentially through the year and we expect our best performance from a margin perspective in Q4.

當然。我可以補充一些說明。我們對今年迄今的表現非常滿意，而第四季應會與我們全年所呈現的結果一致。另外請注意，與去年類似，我們的利潤率在一年中呈現逐季改善，我們也預期從利潤率角度來看，第四季會是表現最佳的一季。

But having said that, if you think about the margin impact of fuel this year, which we are assuming is about a 40-basis point impact, our year-over-year margin comparison will likely be a bit lower than the fourth quarter of 2025, all else equal, so that probably helps give you a little bit of color.

不過話雖如此，如果你考量今年燃料對利潤率的影響，我們假設約為40個基點的影響，那麼在其他條件相同下，我們的年對年利潤率比較可能會比2025年第四季略低一些，這應該能提供你一些參考。

And then in terms of a couple of things just to keep an eye out in terms of what would progress that performance up from there is really if you think about what we do have sequential improvement in our renewable energy business from Q3 to Q4, that will happen as most of our shortfall in RNG production related to start of activity that we alluded to last quarter actually occurred in the third quarter, so you'll see a pickup in the fourth quarter.

接著，就有幾點你可以留意，哪些因素可能會讓表現從那裡再往上推進：如果你看我們的再生能源業務，從第三季到第四季會有逐季改善；這會發生，因為我們上季提到與啟動活動相關的RNG產量不足，大多其實發生在第三季，所以你會在第四季看到回升。

But then if you think about our sustained strength in our pricing program, both in solid waste and in Healthcare along with any improvement in the volume landscape, particularly things like special waste, that would aid our relative performance.

另外，如果你考量我們定價方案持續強勁，無論是在固體廢棄物或醫療保健領域，再加上任何量的環境改善，特別是像特殊廢棄物這類，將有助於我們的相對表現。

And then finally, the last thing I'd point out is just obviously any incremental strength in recycling commodity prices would further improve our Q4 results towards or above the midpoint.

最後我想指出的是，回收商品價格若有任何額外走強，將進一步改善我們第四季的結果，使其更接近或高於中位數。

Okay. That's helpful.

好的。這很有幫助。

But stepping back, I would just say if we think about the guidance range in general, given where we started at the beginning of the year and the moving pieces and the dynamics, we're definitely impressed with the resiliency and the strength of the business.

不過退一步來看，我想說的是，如果我們整體來看指引區間，考量年初我們的起點以及各種變動因素與動態，我們確實對業務的韌性與強度印象深刻。

Yeah. Okay. Perfect. And then John, I think you mentioned that risk was a sizable headwind, so one, to be clear, was that in corporate; and two, was it accident or insurance premium related or what exactly is that? And then is that something that lingers into Q4 and into '27 or how should we think about that?

好，了解。非常好。接著，John，我想你提到風險是一個相當大的逆風，所以第一，確認一下，那是在公司層級（corporate）嗎？第二，那是事故或保險費率相關，還是到底是什麼？另外，這會延續到第四季以及2027年嗎？我們應該如何看待？

So, Tyler, it's a good question. I would tell you, first and foremost, it's not related to our safety performance. It has more to do with an out of period adjustment that happened in Q3. But if you look at our safety statistics and performance, that is not what's driving it.

Tyler，這是個好問題。我會先告訴你，最重要的是，這與我們的安全表現無關。它比較與第三季發生的一項跨期調整（out of period adjustment）有關。但如果你看我們的安全統計與表現，並不是它在驅動這件事。

In fact, across the broader business, including our Healthcare business, we're seeing a nice improvement in our recordable injury and our accident rate. So it's not that, but I'll let David comment on the actual number for the quarter.

事實上，在更廣泛的業務範圍內，包括我們的醫療保健業務，我們看到可記錄傷害（recordable injury）與事故率都有不錯的改善。所以不是那個原因；不過我會讓David就本季的實際數字做說明。

Yeah. There's an element that's in Corporate and Other and then an element outside of that. But for the company, in general, it's about a $63 million increase year over year for Q3.

是的。有一部分在「公司與其他」（Corporate and Other）裡，另外也有一部分在其之外。但就公司整體而言，第三季年對年增加約6,300萬美元。

The higher risk costs were attributed to three items, the first of which is we had a negative impact associated with our third quarter actuarial adjustment. It's always a little bit of a wild card, but I would point out that this follows six consecutive quarters of positive variances against our actuarial report.

風險成本上升可歸因於三項因素：第一，我們第三季的精算調整帶來負面影響。這一項一向帶有一些不確定性，但我也要指出，在此之前我們已連續六個季度相對精算報告呈現正向差異。

And so as John alluded to, it's not to be constrained as a trend or a fundamental change in terms of the frequency or activity of events.

因此如John所提到的，這不應被視為一種趨勢，或在事件發生頻率或活動方面的根本性改變。

Secondly, we had some cost estimate increases associated with a few large loss claims that were accrued during the third quarter. And then third, we had a tough comp versus last year where we had an insurance recovery in the third quarter of last year. So the expense was higher than we expected, but we don't expect that to have an outsized negative impact as we carry forward.

第二，我們在第三季針對幾筆大型損失理賠案件所提列的應計費用，相關成本估計有所上調。第三，與去年相比的比較基期較不利，因為去年第三季我們有一筆保險理賠回收。因此費用高於我們預期，但我們不預期在後續期間會造成不成比例的負面影響。

Tyler, just one important point, about $40 million of that was in Corporate and Other and $23 million was in Collection and Disposal. So that's something that's impacting the Collection and Disposal growth.

Tyler，只有一個重要重點，其中約4,000萬美元是在「企業及其他」(Corporate and Other)，2,300萬美元是在「收運與處置」(Collection and Disposal)。所以這是影響收運與處置成長的一個因素。

Okay. Excellent. Perfect. Great color. And then just last one, real quick. I just want to make sure that I'm reading the release correctly, which is always a little risky. But I think Healthcare revenue was up maybe 4%. But if I look at core price and volume, it only contributed maybe $1 million to revenue growth.

好的。很棒。完美。資訊很有幫助。然後最後一個，快速問一下。我只是想確認我對新聞稿的解讀是正確的，雖然這總是有點風險。但我認為醫療保健營收可能成長約4%。但如果我看核心價格與量，對營收成長的貢獻可能只有約100萬美元。

And I think, John, you said that core pricing was up 5%, so were volumes down about 5%? It seems that maybe most of that 4% was from fuel surcharges, but I guess we're. Regardless, it seems like good SG&A management and the core pricing is what's driving the EBITDA there. Just any color there would be helpful.

而且我想，John，你說核心定價上升5%，所以量大約下降5%嗎？看起來那4%的大部分可能來自燃料附加費，但我想我們……不管怎樣，看起來是良好的SG&A管理與核心定價在推動那邊的EBITDA。如果能補充一些說明會很有幫助。

Yeah, I think you hit some of the big pieces of that. We're really proud about where core price is at 5.5%. We said a handful of quarters ago, I think. I said we think that at some point that'll approximate what we do with the solid waste business. We had targeted to be at 5.5% at the end of the year, we're there at the end of Q3.

是的，我想你點到其中一些主要因素了。我們對核心價格達到5.5%感到非常自豪。我記得我們在幾個季度前說過，我說我們認為在某個時間點，這會接近我們在固體廢棄物業務的表現。我們原本目標是在年底達到5.5%，而我們在第三季末就達成了。

SG&A, we said 15% to 16% at the end of the year, we're closing on. At the end of Q3, so really good story there. I think the EBITDA comment you heard from Jim and from myself at over 30% improvement shows that we're taking a lot of what we would call the WMOA and working on price-to-cost spread and whatnot. There are still some volume headwinds that we've talked about.

SG&A方面，我們說年底要在15%到16%，我們現在已經接近了。在第三季末，所以這是一個很好的故事。我想你從Jim和我這裡聽到的EBITDA超過30%的改善，顯示我們正在把很多我們所謂的WMOA落實下去，並著力於價格對成本的利差等。我們之前也談過，量方面仍有一些逆風。

What I would tell you, Tyler, is when you look at the trends, I'm not putting a stake in the ground to say when they're going to get positive, but I will tell you both on the secure document side and on the Healthcare side, we're seeing improving trends as we go into 2027.

Tyler，我想告訴你的是，當你看這些趨勢時，我不會把話說死、去斷言它們何時會轉正，但我可以告訴你，無論是在安全文件那一塊，還是在醫療保健那一塊，我們在邁向2027年的過程中都看到趨勢在改善。

And lastly, there was some tailwind, too, from the fuel side in the Healthcare business. But overall, as Jim mentioned, it's been two years of hard work, and I feel like we're really starting to hit our stride here in terms of what it's doing for the business from a segment perspective and also what it's doing on the other side of the fence, if you will, with regard to the benefits on the core solid waste business.

最後，醫療保健業務在燃料方面也有一些順風。但整體而言，如同Jim提到的，這是兩年的辛苦工作，我覺得我們在這裡真的開始進入狀態了：不論是從事業部角度對業務的貢獻，或是如果你願意這麼說，從「另一邊」來看，對核心固體廢棄物業務帶來的效益。

Okay. Perfect. Excellent. Thank you, guys.

好的。完美。非常好。謝謝各位。

Jerry Revich, Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo的Jerry Revich。

Yes. Hi. Good morning, everyone. And Jim and John, congratulations. Jim, I think the stock is up 6x since you were appointed CFO are really fantastic.

是的，嗨。各位早安。Jim和John，恭喜。Jim，我想自從你被任命為CFO以來，股價上漲了6倍，真的非常了不起。

Thank you, Jerry.

謝謝你，Jerry。

I want to ask in terms of, we had some lumpier costs this quarter, obviously risk costs can move around on us. As you folks think about pricing heading into '27, are you thinking about pricing for potential additional one-off risk? Should we expect '27 to be an outsized year of the price cost spread for you folks given some of the variability that we see here?

我想問的是，就本季而言，我們有一些較為不均勻的成本，顯然風險成本可能會上下波動。當各位在思考邁向2027年的定價時，是否會把潛在的額外一次性風險納入定價考量？鑑於我們看到的這些波動性，我們是否應該預期2027年對你們而言會是價格—成本利差特別突出的年度？

Jerry, the one area that we are really focused on is landfill and transportation pricing. We think that we have an opportunity if you look at where our post collection assets are and how critical and advantaged they are within the network.

Jerry，我們真正聚焦的一個領域是掩埋場與運輸的定價。我們認為，如果你看看我們後端收運(Post-Collection)資產的位置，以及它們在整個網路中的關鍵性與優勢，我們有機會提升表現。

And also we are experiencing some increased landfill operating costs and we expect those to persist. A great example of that is in California where there's new legislation that will require enhanced monitoring and some other things that will flow and we know that we can pass along these costs through pricing and leverage that. So as we look to 2027 and beyond, we're going to look to continue to enhance our landfill and transfer station pricing.

此外，我們也正面臨掩埋場營運成本上升，而且我們預期這些成本會持續存在。一個很好的例子是在加州，有新的立法將要求更強化的監測以及其他措施，這些都會帶來成本影響；而我們知道可以透過定價把這些成本轉嫁出去並加以運用。因此，當我們展望2027年及以後，我們會持續強化掩埋場與轉運站的定價。

Super. Thank you, Tara. And then can I ask in terms of the update on the RNG development plans, it looks like those are coming along nicely, D3 win prices obviously a bit softer recently. Can you just talk about directionally the incremental earnings that you're expecting, '27 versus '26?

太好了。謝謝你，Tara。接著我想問一下RNG開發計畫的最新進度，看起來推進得很順利；D3的得標價格最近顯然偏軟。你能否就方向性談談你們預期的增量獲利：2027年相較於2026年？

I know you'll give us a wholesome update in about three months, but I'm wondering based on what you folks have been able to put into service. How does the growth '27 versus '26 compared to what you folks had laid out maybe six months ago?

我知道大約三個月後你們會給我們一個完整更新，但我想了解基於你們目前已投入商轉的項目，2027年相較於2026年的成長，和你們大概六個月前所規劃的相比如何？

Sure. When we look at the renewable energy business, what we reflect on is that we're through so much of the hard things. We have all of these plants, constructed 18 of them online. We'll another one come online in Q4, and the last one will come online in early Q1 of 2027.

當我們看再生能源業務時，我們回顧的是：很多最困難的事情我們都已經走過了。我們已建成這些工廠，其中18座已上線。第四季還會再有一座上線，最後一座將在2027年第一季初上線。

We've learned a lot of lessons along the way on what it takes to start these up and we have also gotten through a lot of the pipeline issues that we referenced that impacted really Q3 of this year.

一路走來，我們在啟動這些設施所需條件方面學到了很多，也處理了我們先前提到的許多管線問題；那些問題確實影響了今年第三季。

The other thing that we've demonstrated is our ability to navigate pricing. We had given an outlook of $26 as a long-term number. This year, we should land a little bit higher than that, more like $27 and that price impact from a flow-through perspective is being impacted by lower production, which we've already talked about.

另外一點是，我們也證明了自己有能力應對價格變動。我們曾給出長期價格為26美元的展望。今年我們應該會落在略高於此的水準，更接近27美元；而從傳導(Flow-through)角度來看，價格影響目前受到較低產量的影響，這點我們已經談過了。

So we're pleased with the progress, the rollover impact. We are going to see increased EBITDA from these plants, those that came online in '26 and also in '27.

因此我們對進展感到滿意，以及續約/展期帶來的影響。我們將看到這些工廠帶來更高的EBITDA，包括在2026年上線的，以及在2027年上線的。

And the last thing I will say is we gave this framework of 80-40-20 to have 40% of our volume locked up for next year, and we're at that number today. So we feel very confident about our ability to hit the $26 number. We'll give a little bit more color on the EBITDA ramp in early '27.

最後我想說的是，我們提出過80-40-20這個框架，目標是把明年40%的量鎖定下來，而我們今天已經達到這個數字。所以我們對達成26美元這個數字的能力非常有信心。我們會在2027年初就EBITDA爬坡提供更多說明。

Appreciate it. Thank you.

了解，謝謝。感謝。

Toni Kaplan, Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley的Toni Kaplan。

Thanks so much. I was hoping you could update us on some of the volume trends in the core business, including particularly the intentional shedding in resi. Are we through with that at this point or is that going to continue?

非常感謝。我希望你們能更新一下核心業務的一些量的趨勢，特別是住宅(resi)業務中刻意汰除的部分。目前這部分已經結束了嗎？還是會持續？

Yeah. Good morning, Toni. Thanks for the question. For the full year, we said we'll be about a 1% decline in volume or about 50 basis points if you take out the wildfire comp year over year.

是的。早安，Toni。謝謝你的問題。就全年而言，我們說量大約會下滑1%；如果把野火的比較基期影響拿掉，年對年大約下滑50個基點。

To your question, though, I would tell you, starting with residential, we're pleased with what we're seeing, which is what we told you folks is in the second-half of the year, we'd start to see this trend towards positive. And so while we're minus 3.5% year-to-date, we're 2.6% for the quarter, and so we're tracking along.

不過針對你的問題，我會先從住宅業務談起：我們對目前看到的情況感到滿意；正如我們先前告訴各位的，下半年我們會開始看到趨勢朝向轉正。因此，雖然年初至今我們是-3.5%，但本季是-2.6%，所以我們的走勢符合預期。

What I would also tell you is if you look at the core price yield and revenue bill for residential, we're up about $40 million just in revenue despite the volume loss. So we're tracking the right way there. We've said, again, not putting a stake in the ground on when it's going to go positive, but we feel good about the trend going into '27.

我還想補充的是，如果你看住宅端的核心價格、收益率以及營收帳單，即使量下滑，我們的營收仍增加了約4,000萬美元。所以我們在那方面的走勢是對的。我們也再次說明，我們不會釘死何時會轉正，但我們對進入2027年的趨勢感到樂觀。

To continue on volume, if you look at our industrial roll-off, it was flat slightly positive, which is frankly what we've been seeing through the year. That's probably a line of business got some indication of what's going on in the broader economy, in particular around construction. So even though that's been a headwind on the construction and disposal volumes, we're pleased that our roll-off volume has held up that tells you about the rest of the industrial line for us.

延續量的部分，如果你看我們的工業端到期流失（roll-off），基本持平、略為正成長，坦白說這就是我們今年以來看到的情況。這條業務線大概能反映更廣泛經濟的狀況，特別是建築相關。因此，儘管這對建築與清運量形成逆風，我們仍很高興我們的到期流失量能撐住，這也說明我們其餘工業業務線的表現。

Commercial down about 1.3%, which was slightly more negative than what we printed in Q2. I would tell you it's really two major things. One is what we talked about some national account and broker decisions that we made last year that we should lap right around the end of Q1, and then a little bit of pressure on the SMB business, but I would tell you where construction and housing are doing what they're doing.

商業端下滑約1.3%，比我們在第二季公布的略為更負面一些。我會說主要是兩件事。第一是我們去年談到的某些全國性客戶與經紀商的決策，我們應該會在第一季末左右完成年對年比較的消化（lap）。

It's not a total surprise that we're not seeing the same strength in the business formation. What I would tell you, though, is some of the metrics we keep an eye on, whether service increases and decreases, whether it's our churn rate, our ability to get pricing in commercial. Even in this high fuel environment, we are seeing no wavering in that. In fact, we've seen some positive trends there net of these two bullet points in commercial.

因此，我們沒有看到企業設立（business formation）同樣的強勁，其實不算完全意外。不過我想說的是，我們會關注的一些指標，不論是服務增減、流失率（churn rate），或是我們在商業端取得定價的能力。即使在目前燃料價格偏高的環境下，我們也沒有看到任何動搖。事實上，扣除商業端這兩個重點因素後，我們在那裡還看到一些正向趨勢。

That's great. And then shifting to technology investments. Hoping you could just give us some color on the benefits you've been seeing from maybe the pricing program and what's next on the technology side. Thanks.

很好。接著轉到科技投資。希望你能談談你們從定價計畫中看到的效益，以及科技面接下來的重點是什麼。謝謝。

Sure. Obviously, technology is something that we've leaned into as a company and we've been leaning into for some time, whether it's smart truck that we have on our trucks that helps us look at where we might have overages. That's something that we're continuing to enhance.

當然。顯然，科技是我們公司一直加碼投入的方向，而且已經投入一段時間了；例如我們車隊上的智慧卡車（smart truck）系統，能幫助我們辨識可能出現超量（overages）的地方。這項能力我們也在持續強化。

And then on the operating side, we have technologies in play that are helping us with the health and safety of our employees, some tools in our trucks and also routing algorithms. We have something called NBO on the industrial side of the business that's helping us route on a daily basis much more effectively and using it for traffic conditions in real time. And we're also looking at where we might have opportunities to leverage AI in some unique applications really into helping our dispatchers.

在營運端，我們也有一些技術正在使用，協助員工的健康與安全，包括車上的一些工具，以及路線規劃演算法。我們在工業業務端有一個叫NBO的系統，能幫助我們每天更有效地進行路線安排，並即時納入交通狀況。我們也在評估是否能在一些獨特的應用中導入AI，真正用來協助我們的調度人員（dispatchers）。

The way I would frame our technology journey is this is something that's been a part of our fabric for several years now and it's going to be what we lean into to continue to expand margins in that 50 to 100-basis point range consistently over time.

我會這樣描述我們的科技旅程：這幾年科技已經成為我們企業基因的一部分，而未來我們也會持續倚重它，讓利潤率能長期、穩定地擴張約50到100個基點。

That's a great answer, Tara. I think the one thing I would add, Toni, is on the Healthcare side, too, we're in a very early innings. And we've talked about the benefits of our technology applications over top of what Healthcare is.

這回答很棒，Tara。我想我唯一要補充的，Toni，是在醫療保健（Healthcare）這一端，我們也還在非常早期的階段。我們也談過，我們的科技應用能在Healthcare業務之上帶來額外的效益。

And it's the things Tara talked about, the operating expense benefits we can get from routing and the other forms of the technology we're embedding in the business. One example there is we've been upgrading a lot of the robotics capabilities inside some of the processing plants, which is helping us meet some of the challenges with the broader labor market.

也就是Tara提到的那些：透過路線規劃以及我們嵌入業務中的其他科技形式，帶來營運費用的效益。其中一個例子是，我們正在升級部分處理廠內的機器人能力，這有助於我們因應更廣泛勞動市場的一些挑戰。

And then I think on pricing, I mean, we've talked about this a good bit. I think the predictive analytical tools that we've built, Mike Watson and team have shown up and continue to show up in our ability to syndicate pricing across the broader business. And frankly, you're really starting to see it show up in the Healthcare business in the last few quarters.

另外我想在定價方面，我們其實談了不少。我認為我們建立的預測分析工具，在Mike Watson和團隊的推動下，已經並且持續反映在我們把定價能力擴散到更廣泛業務的能力上。坦白說，過去幾季你也開始看到這在Healthcare業務中逐步顯現。

Thank you. And I'll add my congratulations to Jim and John. Sorry about that. All right. Thanks.

謝謝。我也要向Jim和John致上恭喜。抱歉剛剛那樣。好。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Tami Zakaria, JPMorgan.

Tami Zakaria，摩根大通（JPMorgan）。

Hi. Good morning. Thank you so much. And congrats to both Jim and John. I wanted to follow-up on Toni's question. In hindsight, what are some of the key reasons or factors that drove your volume outlook to fall short this year versus your original expectation of it being up?

嗨，早安。非常感謝。也恭喜Jim和John。我想延續Toni的問題。事後回看，今年你們的量展望相較於原先預期會成長卻不如預期，背後有哪些關鍵原因或因素？

I think there's two places where it's probably, Tami, a tad softer than we originally than we originally anticipated. I mean, clearly, you see some of the volume declines in residential. A lot of that was planned, but it is contributing to the negative volume print. And I think when you look at there's a little bit of softness in some of the landfill volumes.

我想大概有兩個地方，Tami，比我們原先預期的稍微弱一些。很明顯，你看到住宅端有一些量的下滑。其中很多是計畫內的，但確實也在負向的量表現上有所貢獻。另外我想，當你去看時，部分掩埋場（landfill）的量也有一點偏弱。

I mentioned C&D. I think that's actually more a reflection of what's going on in the broader economy. And the other one was commercial. I know it's not far off what we predicted. I do think some of what we're seeing in the macro environment is impacting some of the business formation in the commercial line of business.

我提到過C&D（建築與拆除）。我認為那其實更反映的是整體經濟正在發生的事。另一個是商業端。我知道它離我們的預測其實不遠。但我確實認為，我們在總體環境中看到的一些情況，正在影響商業業務線的企業設立。

Understood. That's very helpful. And then excellent margin performance in the quarter on the Healthcare side. As we look into the fourth quarter, are you still expecting Healthcare growth exiting the year with a mid-single-digit percent type of growth rate?

了解。這很有幫助。另外，Healthcare端本季的利潤率表現非常出色。展望第四季，你們是否仍預期Healthcare在年底退出時，成長率會是中個位數百分比左右？

Well, listen, we're really proud about the progress we made in the first half of the year and then going into the second-half of the year. I know Brent and team are working hard to do two things. One is continue to make progress in the middle of the P&L, and you've seen the focus on the SG&A line and the progress that they've been able to deliver there in addition to the pricing progress through the end of Q3.

嗯，聽著，我們對上半年取得的進展，以及進入下半年後的表現都非常自豪。我知道Brent和團隊正努力做兩件事。第一是持續推進損益表（P&L）中段的改善；你也看到他們聚焦在SG&A（銷售、一般及管理費用）這一行，並在那裡交付了可觀的進展，此外還有截至第三季末的定價進展。

I would tell you we're not going to take our foot off the gas there. And as Jim mentioned, I think as we start to unpack more and more of this Healthcare business, we see there's a really good strategic investment going forward.

我想說的是，我們不會在這方面鬆油門。而且如Jim提到的，隨著我們開始更深入拆解這個Healthcare業務，我們看到未來這是一項非常好的策略性投資。

Understood. Thank you.

了解。謝謝。

Faiza Alwy, Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy，德意志銀行（Deutsche Bank）。

Yes. Hi. Thank you. Good morning and congratulations for me as well to both Jim and to John. I guess, John, I'm curious, if you step into the CEO role, how should we think about your strategic focus priorities? I know you've talked about potentially higher level of solid waste M&A, but curious if there's other areas of investment that you're thinking about? Just what your priorities are and if anything changes.

是的，嗨，謝謝。早安，我也要恭喜Jim和John。我想，John，我很好奇，當你接任CEO職位時，我們應該如何看待你在策略重點上的優先順序？我知道你談過固體廢棄物（solid waste）併購（M&A）可能會提高，但也想了解你是否還在思考其他投資領域？你的優先事項是什麼，以及是否會有任何改變。

I think what you've heard from Jim and David and I over the last couple of quarters is, one, certainly being focused on returning cash to shareholders, and we've talked a lot about that, and I'm sure David will get a chance to comment a little bit more on that.

我想你在過去幾個季度從 Jim、David 和我這裡聽到的重點是：第一，我們確實專注於把現金回饋給股東；我們也談了很多這件事，我相信 David 也會有機會再多補充一些。

We do think now that we feel like we've turned a corner, if you will, on Healthcare, we've got the ability to be a little more aggressive in terms of what we do on the core solid waste side, and we see that as a strategic priority. And as referenced in my prepared remarks, what we've done through the year-to-date, what we expect to close in Q4, we've already got teed up for the first quarter, suggest that we've got good runway.

我們確實認為，現在我們在醫療保健業務上可以說是「轉過彎」了，因此我們有能力在核心固體廢棄物業務方面採取更積極的作為，而我們也把這視為一項策略優先事項。而且如同我在事先準備的發言中提到的，我們今年迄今所做的、我們預期在第四季完成交割的，以及我們已經為第一季排定的事項，都顯示我們還有很好的成長跑道。

And listen, that's a core competency of the organization is to bring in those core solid waste businesses and tuck those in. At the same time, I think you'll continue to see us build on the Healthcare business and look for further ways to integrate and take the advantages of cross-selling in addition to some of the operating expense opportunities we have in that business.

而且你看，這也是組織的核心能力：把那些核心固體廢棄物業務納入並加以整合。同時，我認為你也會持續看到我們在醫療保健業務上深化布局，並尋找更多方式來整合，除了我們在該業務中可取得的一些營運費用機會之外，也能發揮交叉銷售的優勢。

And I think, other than that, I think you're going to see us continue. There's not going to be any big shifts in the way, I think just because Jim is going to retire here in a few months. We've all worked together for a long time and built this strategy collectively. So I feel like we've got a terrific path charted that we're going to continue to pursue.

除此之外，我認為你會看到我們持續推進。我不認為會有任何重大方向轉變，只因為 Jim 幾個月後就要退休。我們長期以來一直一起合作，並共同打造這個策略。所以我覺得我們已經規劃出一條非常好的路徑，接下來也會持續追求。

Great. Thank you. And then question for David regarding free cash flow. So I know you're saying you're not going to be at the high end of the free cash flow guide. You haven't been specific around where in the guide you land on EBITDA. So just curious what's driving that higher free cash flow? Is it timing and any thoughts or whether that impacts next year?

很好。謝謝。接著想請教 David 關於自由現金流。我知道你說自由現金流不會落在指引區間的高端。你也還沒有明確說明 EBITDA 會落在指引的哪個位置。所以我想了解，是什麼在推動較高的自由現金流？是時點因素嗎？以及這是否會影響到明年，有沒有任何想法？

Sure. I mean, we're very pleased looking three quarters at the end of the year with printing over $3 billion of free cash flow and then obviously the strong, almost aspirational number, but hitting the strong EBITDA to free cash flow print of 50%, which was really great to see.

當然。我的意思是，我們很高興在年末前三個季度就已經產生超過 30 億美元的自由現金流；而且很明顯地，EBITDA 轉自由現金流接近 50% 這個很強、幾乎可說是具指標性的數字也達成了，看到這點真的很棒。

A lot of that was expected. We've talked a lot about this year being harvesting, so the strong earnings growth, the lower capital spending that we've been alluding to for a number of quarters now are playing out as we anticipated.

其中很大一部分是符合預期的。我們談了很多，今年是「收成」的一年，因此強勁的獲利成長、以及我們過去幾個季度一直提到的較低資本支出，都如我們預期般正在發生。

I will say a couple of other areas that have been pleasant surprises. Cash taxes was a bit favorable relative to what we thought we were going to have for this year, and then we've had a nice improvement, a nice sustained improvement in working capital, particularly around accounts payable, and that's been driven by some of our active strategies and vendor management, so that's given us a little bit of extra push in terms of our results and expectations for the year.

我也要說，另外有幾個領域算是令人驚喜的正面因素。現金稅負比我們原先預期的更有利；此外，我們在營運資金方面也有不錯且持續的改善，特別是在應付帳款上，這主要是由我們一些積極策略與供應商管理所帶動，因此在今年的成果與預期上，給了我們額外一些推力。

As we look into the fourth quarter, I do anticipate that we'll sequentially higher CapEx spending, which is common as we close out the year, and so for my -- while we're going to be within our guidance range for capital spending, we're probably going to be more toward the higher end, thinking at that $2.75 billion number as well.

展望第四季，我確實預期資本支出會較前一季增加，這在年底結束時很常見；因此就我來看——雖然我們仍會落在資本支出指引區間內，但可能會更接近高端，也就是大約 27.5 億美元那個水準。

So, again, really good result for the year. We talked about this being the year of harvest and then returning cash to shareholders, and that's how it's playing out.

所以，再次強調，今年的結果非常好。我們說過今年是收成的一年，接著把現金回饋給股東，而目前的發展正是如此。

Okay. Thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Bryan Burgmeier, Citi.

Bryan Burgmeier，花旗。

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. And yeah, congratulations to both Jim and John on the next phase of your journeys.

嗨，早安。謝謝讓我提問。也恭喜 Jim 和 John 兩位即將邁入旅程的下一個階段。

Thank you, sir.

謝謝您。

Yes. Just on the quarter, obviously a really big step up in Healthcare margins as you flagged. Can you just maybe remind us how much of a benefit you have in 2026 from cost synergies and maybe how much is remaining there? And then, do you see this low 20% EBITDA margin as an achievable run rate going forward?

是的。就本季而言，如你們所提到的，醫療保健的利潤率顯然大幅提升。能否請你們再提醒一下，2026 年成本綜效能帶來多少效益，以及目前還剩多少尚未實現？另外，你們認為 EBITDA 利潤率在 20% 出頭這個水準，未來是否可以作為可達成的常態運行水準？

Yeah, Bryan, we're super pleased with where we are on the margin front. And to answer your question, I think we still have some room to go there. To your first part of your question, I think mid-'27 right now looks like we're on track to hit the synergy target, which would be a little bit ahead of what we originally planned, which credit to the team.

是的，Bryan，我們對目前的利潤率表現非常滿意。回答你的問題，我認為我們在這方面仍有進一步提升的空間。就你問題的第一部分而言，目前看起來我們有望在 2027 年年中達成綜效目標，這會比我們原先規劃的時間稍微提前一些，這要歸功於團隊的努力。

I mean, some of the challenges we faced in the 1st year, 18 months, we've certainly weathered the storm. And now the team, like I said, has really seen to hit their stride and gain momentum. So I think mid-year '27 is when we should be right around that synergy target we've talked about.

我的意思是，我們在第一年到 18 個月期間面臨的一些挑戰，確實已經挺過去了。而現在團隊如我所說，真的已經進入狀態並累積動能。所以我認為 2027 年年中，我們應該就會非常接近我們談過的那個綜效目標。

Got it. Got it. Thanks for that. And then, John, I think base CapEx for WM was down to maybe 9.5% this year. Just curious if a similar question, if you see that as a sustainable level or is there maybe a little bit of a catch-up going forward? Any thoughts around fleet age or technology investments could be helpful. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

了解。了解。謝謝你的說明。接著，John，我想 WM 的基礎資本支出今年可能降到大約 9.5%。想請教類似的問題：你認為這個水準是否可持續，還是未來可能需要一些追趕式投入？若能談談車隊車齡或科技投資方面的想法會很有幫助。謝謝。我把問題交給你。

Yeah. I think, Bryan, on technology, we've got that baked into our capital run right now. On the fleet side, obviously, we talked about the fact that we've caught up and you'll see more steady state there.

是的。我想，Bryan，在科技方面，我們目前的資本支出規劃已經把這些納入。至於車隊方面，很明顯地，我們先前談過我們已經追上進度，接下來你會看到更接近穩態的水準。

But I think long-term capital run rate is still probably 10%, 10.5%. It's a little bit it's down a little bit this year relative. I mean, I think it's down 17% for the quarter, I think, or year-to-date, excuse me. Some of that has to do with we're slowing. We're completing the spending and a lot of sustainability investments. The fleet spend has come down a little bit, but I think long-term, 10%, 10.5% is still going to be the right range for us.

但我認為長期的資本支出運行率大概仍會在 10% 到 10.5%。今年相對來說確實低了一點。我的意思是，我想本季或今年迄今（抱歉，是今年迄今）大概下降了 17%。其中一部分原因是我們正在放緩。我們正在完成許多永續投資的支出。車隊支出也稍微下降了一些，但我認為長期而言，10% 到 10.5% 仍會是對我們來說合適的區間。

Konark Gupta, Scotia Capital.

Konark Gupta，豐業資本。

Thanks, and congrats. Best wishes to both John and Jim. First question on M&A opportunities. I mean, you guys laid out obviously some near-term opportunities in the fourth quarter and maybe early 2027. But I'm curious, on your thoughts, in the event of one of the larger players spinning off some assets over time, would you guys be interested in any specific pockets of the markets or any specific types of assets in that spin-off potentially or I mean, you guys have probably already a lot of density in various markets you want to be in, so you probably would pass on some of those opportunities.

謝謝，也恭喜。祝 John 和 Jim 兩位一切順利。第一個問題是關於併購（M&A）機會。我的意思是，你們顯然提到第四季以及可能 2027 年初的一些短期機會。但我想了解的是，如果未來某個大型同業隨時間推進而分拆出售一些資產，你們是否會對該分拆中的特定市場區塊或特定類型資產有興趣？或者我的意思是，你們在許多想要布局的市場可能已經有很高的密度，所以你們可能會放棄其中一些機會。

Yeah. I think the way I would answer, Konark, is if it's certainly solid waste core assets, we'd be interested in. It's hard to pick a geography where we wouldn't be more interested.

是的。我想我會這樣回答，Konark：如果確實是固體廢棄物的核心資產，我們會有興趣。很難挑出一個我們不會更感興趣的地理區域。

And even on the house side of the industrial side where we've got assets and services that we could wrap those assets around, we'd be interested in that as well. I think the good news is that credit to David and the team that the balance sheet's in great shape. So regardless if it was a smaller one or a larger one, if it fit our strategic lens, it'd be something we'd certainly be able to pursue.

即使是在工業端的「場內」業務這一側，我們擁有資產與服務，能夠把這些資產包裝成解決方案，我們也會對此感興趣。我想好消息是，要歸功於 David 和團隊，我們的資產負債表狀況非常好。因此，不論是較小的案子或較大的案子，只要符合我們的策略視角，都是我們肯定有能力去追求的。

Okay. Thanks for that. And then just as a follow-up --

好的。謝謝你的說明。接著再追問一下——

The current environment right now, obviously, the fuel prices and energy prices keep like tricking up. We don't know when the inflation ends and all that. But I mean, do you think we are in a sustainably, maybe more sustainably than before, higher for longer pricing environment and weaker for longer volume environment? I mean, is that the trade-off that we are playing for the next another one year or two maybe?

目前的環境顯然是燃料價格與能源價格一直在往上走。我們也不知道通膨何時結束等等。但我的意思是，你們是否認為我們正處於一個可持續、也許比以前更可持續的「高價維持更久」的定價環境，以及「量弱維持更久」的環境？也就是說，這會不會是我們接下來一到兩年左右要面對的取捨？

Well, I would tell you, we've obviously historically been able to price through the ebbs and flows of inflationary pressures, whether you look at CPI or WST more recently, I think you look at what we've been able to do is certainly maintain a cost of price spread and actually improve that.

嗯，我會告訴你，我們過去一直能在通膨壓力起伏之間把價格調整過去；不論你看 CPI，或是最近的 WST。

Now, specific to $6 and 37-gallon diesel, let's hope for everybody that that's not the case long-term and the short-term, as you heard from us in our prepared remarks and some of the Q&A that we're finding our way to recover that cost broadly across the portfolio.

至於每加侖 6 美元、以及 37 加侖柴油這種情況，希望對大家而言，長期不會如此，短期也不要如此。

We appreciate the color. Thank you.

感謝補充說明。謝謝。

Seth Weber, BNP Paribas.

Seth Weber，法國巴黎銀行（BNP Paribas）。

Hi, guys. Good morning. I just wanted to follow-up on your comments about the SMB market. Given the strong core pricing, I'm wondering if you're seeing any fatigue or higher churn on the just the consumer side. Thank you.

嗨，各位。早安。我想追問一下你們對 SMB 市場的評論。在核心定價很強的情況下，我想知道你們是否在消費者端看到任何疲態或更高的流失率。謝謝。

That's a good question, Seth. Part of what I mentioned is some of the headwind is some, I would call it, deliberate actions we took with some of our national account broker business, and as you can imagine, that's more pronounced when you have a loss there just because of the scale of it, but we feel like we're going to lap that right around the end of Q1.

這是個好問題，Seth。我剛才提到的一部分逆風，是我們在部分全國性客戶的經紀業務上採取了一些我稱之為「刻意」的行動；而你可以想像，因為規模很大，一旦有流失就會更明顯。

To your point, our churn actually improved about 30 basis points year over year to 9.3%. And when you look at our pricing, it has not impacted our pricing. And we're seeing, like I said, indicators of the commercial line of business actually having a little bit more momentum once we lap the national account work.

就你提到的點，我們的流失率年增其實改善了約 30 個基點，降到 9.3%。

I do think, though, as I mentioned, when you think about what's going on with commercial business formation related to housing construction, et cetera, I do think it's putting a little bit of pressure on that line.

不過我確實認為，如我提到的，當你想到與住宅建築等相關的商業新設立（business formation）正在發生的事情時，我確實覺得這對那條業務線帶來了一些壓力。

Okay. Thank you. And then just a quick follow-up on Healthcare. I think last quarter you gave us a cross-selling number, $32 million of EBITDA. I'm just wondering if there's an update on that. Thank you.

了解。謝謝。再快速追問一下醫療保健（Healthcare）。我記得上季你們給了我們一個交叉銷售的數字，EBITDA 為 3,200 萬美元。我想知道這部分有沒有更新。謝謝。

I think it was -- you're correct. $38 million, I think, was the number we restated last -- for the full year. And we're still good about where we're at now moving into 2027.

我想是——你說得對。我們上次重述的數字，我記得全年是 3,800 萬美元。而且就目前往 2027 年推進的進度來看，我們仍然對現況感到滿意。

Got it. Okay. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

了解。好的。謝謝各位。感謝。

Noah Kaye, Oppenheimer.

Noah Kaye，Oppenheimer。

Thank you for the questions, Jim. Wishing you the very best. And John, congratulations and same to you. We'll miss you, Jim. It's been a pleasure.

Jim，謝謝讓我提問。祝你一切順利。John，也恭喜你，你也是。我們會想念你，Jim。很榮幸。

Thank you, Noah. Thank you.

謝謝你，Noah。謝謝。

So maybe a question for David here. I must have misheard. Were you saying in answer to the first question asked on the call that you expect EBITDA margins to be up sequentially, but modestly down year over year?

那也許這裡有個問題想問 David。我可能聽錯了。你是在回答本次電話會議第一個問題時說，你預期 EBITDA 利潤率會季比上升，但年比小幅下降嗎？

That's correct.

沒錯。

Because if I plug that in and just take the revenue number, then that actually puts me just below the low end of the EBITDA range. So there may be something wrong we're doing here, but I think that would suggest that you're heading towards the lower end of the guide for the year. So anything that we're getting wrong?

因為如果我把這個假設代入、再只用營收數字去推算，那其實會讓我算出來的 EBITDA 略低於 EBITDA 區間的下緣。所以可能是我們哪裡算錯了，但這似乎表示你們今年會更偏向指引區間的下緣。有什麼是我們理解錯的嗎？

Well, that's just on the -- I'm just making the assumption on the fuel, the 40 basis impact of fuel, but I did highlight some of the items that, depending on how they play out in the quarter, will push us up higher in that range as well. That's just fuel isolating.

嗯，那只是——我只是基於燃料的假設，也就是燃料帶來 40 個基點的影響。

Yeah. Meaning that revenues can possibly be higher versus the high end of the range. I'm sorry, I'm just getting a little bit confused here.

是的。也就是說，營收有可能高於區間上緣。抱歉，我這裡有點搞混了。

Whether it's improvement in volumes or strengthen our pricing or recycling commodity prices, those would be the things that would move us up the range.

不論是量的改善、定價走強，或是回收商品價格（recycling commodity prices），這些都是會讓我們往區間上緣移動的因素。

Okay. Thank you. Very helpful. And then I think the commentary on increase the landfill costs. Coming in the context of AB 28 is interesting. Just broadly, how are you thinking about the landfill operating cost profile and risk mitigation and risk planning strategies going forward? What do you think that means in terms of overall industry pricing trends, especially given not only those cost pressures, but increasing disposal scarcity in certain parts of the country?

了解。謝謝。非常有幫助。另外我想你們提到掩埋場成本上升的評論，放在 AB 28 的背景下很有意思。更廣泛地說，你們未來如何看待掩埋場營運成本結構，以及風險緩解與風險規劃策略？你認為這對整體產業的定價趨勢意味著什麼，特別是在不僅有這些成本壓力、而且在美國某些地區處置容量日益稀缺的情況下？

Well, first and foremost, when you look at landfill operating costs and we are seeing them tick up a bit in California and in other places, a lot of it is driven by leachate.

嗯，首先，當你看掩埋場營運成本時，我們確實看到在加州以及其他地方有些上升。

We know how to handle those from an environmental perspective, we know how to process them, and we're going to continue to do that in an environmentally responsible way. We also know how to pass those costs along to our customers through price increases and recognizing the strategic nature of our assets.

從環境角度來看，我們知道如何處理這些問題，也知道如何進行處理流程；我們會持續以對環境負責的方式來做。我們也知道如何透過漲價把這些成本轉嫁給客戶，同時也會認知到我們資產的策略性本質。

We have always used a next best alternative analysis on how to price and that's part of an evolution of our pricing analytics. And we're going to use that as we navigate increased operating expenses at our landfills.

我們一向會用「次佳替代方案」（next best alternative）的分析來做定價，而這也是我們定價分析能力演進的一部分。在我們因應掩埋場營運費用上升時，也會運用這套方法。

And by the way, it's not just us. This is an industry-wide issue and so everyone is going to be faced with some of these same issues across the board. So we're in a strong position, like I said, to deliver on price increases to recoup our costs.

順帶一提，這不只是我們的問題。這是全產業的議題，因此大家都會在各方面面臨一些相同的問題。所以我們處於很強的位置，正如我所說，能夠透過漲價來回收成本。

Makes sense. Thank you very much.

合理。非常感謝。

Sabahat Khan, RBC Capital Markets.

Sabahat Khan，RBC 資本市場。

Great. Thanks, and good morning, and congrats both to Jim and John on the chapter ahead. Just on the question, I guess, there's been a bit of discussion on the Healthcare side. As you contemplate '27, not looking for guidance, but maybe if you can talk about the pipeline that you've been building that gives you confidence on maybe accelerating on the growth front there.

很好。謝謝，早安，也恭喜 Jim 和 John 即將展開下一個篇章。我想問的是，關於醫療保健（Healthcare）這一端，最近有一些討論。當你們展望 2027 年——我不是要你們給指引——但也許你們可以談談你們正在建立的案源（pipeline），是什麼讓你們對那邊可能在成長面加速更有信心。

And just in terms of how the years played out on the top line, what you're initially thinking would be a bit more late in the year, heavy on the top-line growth? Maybe you can just talk through what's the revenue outlook for that business at this point. Thank you.

就年度在營收端（top line）的走勢而言，您一開始的想法是否是會在年內較後段才會更明顯、並且更偏向由營收成長帶動？也許您可以談談目前對該業務的營收展望。謝謝。

I think what you saw is some real significant progression from the end of last year through the first half and then in Q3. So as I mentioned earlier, us being close to the solid waste pricing we talked about several quarters ago for us to be there earlier than anticipated is certainly terrific.

我認為你們看到的是，從去年年底一路到上半年、再到第三季，確實有非常顯著的進展。如我先前提到的，我們已經接近幾個季度前談到的固體廢棄物定價水準；能比預期更早達到，當然非常好。

I think a lot of that is translating into obviously the significant EBITDA growth that we built from the first half going into Q3 and the momentum we built into Q4. And from a volume perspective, as we said, the one unique aspect of some of the volume challenges we've had is when you gain or lose a customer, the tail going in or going out is a little longer, so what we're weathering is honestly some losses that we've known about.

我想其中很大一部分也轉化為——很明顯地——我們從上半年進入第三季所建立的顯著 EBITDA 成長，以及我們延續到第四季的動能。從量（volume）的角度來看，如我們所說，我們面臨的一些量的挑戰有個獨特之處：當你新增或流失一個客戶時，進入或退出的尾端效應會拉得比較長；所以我們正在承受的，老實說，是一些我們早就知道會發生的流失。

As I mentioned, though, I'm not ready to put a stake in the ground on positive volume for the medical waste side of the house or the secure document destruction, but the trends are improving. So as we move into 2027, we know that we're going to continue to see benefits there. When it gets to positive, it's still a little bit yet to be determined, but we're really happy with the progress the team is making.

不過如我提到的，我還沒準備好就醫療廢棄物業務或機密文件銷毀業務的量轉正下定論，但趨勢正在改善。因此，隨著我們邁入 2027 年，我們知道會持續看到那方面的效益。至於何時會轉為正成長，仍有待觀察，但我們對團隊取得的進展非常滿意。

Great. And then just a quick one on the broader volume side. With a lot of the construction activity commentary being positive across some of the industrial machinery type names, are you seeing some positive momentum in some underlying markets, maybe offset by perhaps housing?

很好。另外快速問一個關於整體量的問題。由於一些工業機械類公司對建築活動的評論相當正面，你們是否在某些底層市場看到正向動能，可能被住宅市場所抵銷？

Maybe you could just break out some of the volume details, particularly on the solid waste side, and where there might be some green shoots and where maybe there are the more meaningful offsets that are driving it to be more negative. Thanks.

也許你可以拆解一些量的細節，特別是在固體廢棄物這一塊，哪些地方開始出現一些復甦跡象（green shoots），以及哪些較顯著的抵銷因素使得整體仍偏負面。謝謝。

Well, I would say that's a good question, because I think when you look market by market, there's plenty of markets we're in, and I could rattle them off. You could probably come up with some of the same geographies that are still showing really positive growth trends. And that's where Tara and the team were looking to make sure that we got the right assets and we're investing the right way to take advantage of that.

嗯，我會說這是個好問題，因為我認為當你逐一看各個市場時，我們所在的市場很多，我可以一一列舉。你大概也能想到一些仍呈現非常正向成長趨勢的地區。而那正是 Tara 和團隊在關注的重點：確保我們配置了正確的資產，並以正確的方式投資，以把握那些機會。

Housing is still, last time I looked, it's a $1.2 million and change, which is well down from where it has historically been, and that's part of what you're seeing on balance, I think, through our construction and demo volume, I commented that, which is down about 4.5% year to date. The good news is that we're not tethered to that as much on the roll-off side, and I think that's one of the reasons you're seeing our overall roll-off or industrial volume continue to be slightly positive.

住宅市場仍然——我上次看——大約是 120 萬左右（以及一些零頭），相較於歷史水準明顯偏低；我認為這也是你在我們建築與拆除（construction and demo）量上所看到的部分原因。我提過，年初至今大約下滑 4.5%。好消息是，在翻斗箱（roll-off）這一塊我們沒有那麼被綁住；我想這也是為什麼你看到我們整體翻斗箱或工業量仍維持小幅正成長。

And the interesting thing, we spend a week every quarter with our areas and 16 of them pretty much across the board are saying their special waste pipelines are very strong. It's just some of these special waste pipelines haven't yet hit.

另外一個有趣的點是，我們每季都會花一週時間和各區域（areas）一起檢視；16 個區域幾乎一致表示，他們的特殊廢棄物（special waste）案源管線非常強。只是其中一些特殊廢棄物管線尚未真正落地。

So it's not a question of if; it's more of a question of when, and that really speaks again to where our assets are located and the types of materials that we can take. So we're in a strong position when some of these things start to pop.

所以問題不在於會不會發生，而是在於何時發生；這也再次說明我們資產所在的位置，以及我們能處理的材料類型。因此，當其中一些案子開始爆發時，我們會處在很強的位置。

Certainly, with diesel pricing being what it is and some of the other things that are talked about in the economy, we think that some are just taking a wait-and-see approach and might see some of them later in Q4 or early '27.

當然，考量柴油價格目前的水準，以及經濟中其他被討論的因素，我們認為有些客戶只是採取觀望態度；可能會在第四季較晚時點或 2027 年初才看到其中一些案子。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

Kevin Chiang, CIBC.

Kevin Chiang，CIBC。

Hey. Thanks for taking my question and just echoing everyone's congratulations, Jim and John, onto your new chapters here.

嗨，謝謝讓我提問，也呼應大家的恭喜，Jim 和 John，祝你們在這裡開啟新的篇章。

I know there's been a lot of questions on Healthcare, but I'm just wondering, when you look at the volume trends you're seeing versus the strong pricing you're pushing through, are you seeing an increase in customer churn or is churn holding, I'll call it flat or static, as you push through this pricing and really the volume situation is more, maybe more cyclical.

我知道大家對醫療保健（Healthcare）問了很多，但我想問的是，當你看你們看到的量的趨勢，對比你們強力推進的定價，你們是否看到客戶流失率（churn）上升？還是說在你們推進這些定價時，流失率大致持平、相對穩定，而量的狀況可能更偏向景氣循環因素？

So it's a good question, Ken. I think it's interesting because I mentioned the long tail on some of the losses we endured at the end of '25 and '26. So I almost bifurcate churn between like the historical churn we're still fighting our way through and the near-term churn, and as I mentioned, we're seeing good trends.

Ken，這是個好問題。我覺得有趣的是，我提到過我們在 25 年底和 26 年所承受的一些流失有較長的尾端效應。所以我幾乎會把 churn 分成兩塊：一塊是我們仍在努力消化的歷史性 churn，另一塊是近期 churn；如我提到的，我們看到不錯的趨勢。

Like I said, we're not saying when we're going to go positive, but the one thing I would point to is if you look at the hospitals, in particular, which is a big piece of that revenue on the medical waste side and you look at what's happening in that same-store sales basis, a lot of the secular trends that we talked about are showing up in that hospital group where we're seeing the growth there.

如我所說，我們沒有說何時會轉正，但我想指出的一點是：如果你看醫院，特別是醫療廢棄物端營收中很大的一塊，並且以同店銷售（same-store sales）的基礎來看，許多我們談過的長期結構性趨勢（secular trends）正在那個醫院客群中顯現，我們在那裡看到成長。

It's been a little bit of a mixed bag when you folks have looked at it because we've had other things that have been impacting that number. But again, that's probably one area we feel we have a lot of -- we feel encouraged by because those hospitals are growing in and of by themselves.

你們在看這個數字時之所以覺得有點參差不齊，是因為還有其他因素在影響該數字。但再說一次，那可能是我們覺得很受鼓舞的一個領域，因為那些醫院本身就在成長。

So it's probably two answers to your one question, but there's the legacy churn and then there's a near-term churn and that's why you hear probably a more level of confidence in terms of the trends we're seeing.

所以對你一個問題可能是兩個答案：一個是既有（legacy）churn，另一個是近期 churn；這也是為什麼你可能會聽到我們對目前看到的趨勢有更高的信心。

No. That's very helpful. Maybe a second one for me, like I said, as you guys approach the midterm here, just anything that you're watching out for that we should be thinking about, whether it's changes in the regulatory environment. There's been a lot of headlines on the waste sector looking for a broader exemption on PFAS as a passive receiver.

不，這很有幫助。我再問第二個：如我所說，當你們接近中期（midterm）時，有沒有什麼你們正在留意、我們也應該納入思考的事項？例如監管環境的變化。廢棄物產業最近有很多新聞，提到希望在 PFAS 議題上，作為被動接收者（passive receiver）能獲得更廣泛的豁免。

Maybe the M&A environment and maybe even special waste volumes that Tara talked about. Like, do you think the upcoming election cycle maybe impacts some of the trends you're seeing today or maybe the trends you think will happen in the coming quarters or two?

也許還包括併購（M&A）環境，甚至 Tara 提到的特殊廢棄物量。例如，你是否認為即將到來的選舉週期會影響你們今天看到的一些趨勢，或影響你們認為未來一兩季可能發生的趨勢？

Boy, Kevin, that's a loaded question right there, my friend. I think on the regulatory front, we've said this, whether it's Canada or here, it's more provincial or state-run other than PFAS, right? And I think Tara commented earlier, we've been closely watching that while the rules haven't been totally formulated yet. We feel like it could be a little bit of a cost headwind to us.

哇，Kevin，這問題很有份量啊，我的朋友。我想在監管面，我們一直說，不論是在加拿大或在這裡，除了 PFAS 之外，更多是由省級或州級來主導，對吧？而且我想 Tara 先前也提到，我們一直密切關注，雖然相關規則尚未完全定案。我們認為這可能會對我們形成一些成本逆風（cost headwind）。

But again, as Tara mentioned, relative to the landfill side, we think that's cost we can pass on to our customers. We also still believe that there is a big opportunity on the other end of the PFAS calculation, depending on how the regulations fall.

但同樣地，如 Tara 所說，相較於掩埋場（landfill）端，我們認為這些成本可以轉嫁給客戶。我們也仍相信，在 PFAS 的另一端——取決於法規最後如何落地——存在很大的機會。

I'll leave it there, and I appreciate you taking the opportunity to answer that question. Again, congrats, Jim and John.

我就先說到這裡，也謝謝你給我機會回答這個問題。再次恭喜，Jim 和 John。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Trevor Romeo, William Blair.

Trevor Romeo，William Blair。

Good morning and thank you and my congratulations as well to Jim and John. I will just ask one, I think for the sake of time, on M&A. So it sounds like you've had some good activity on a new deal that you've signed recently. So maybe are there any details you can give us in terms of regions asset types, et cetera, on those deals?

早安，謝謝，也恭喜 Jim 和 John。我想為了節省時間，我只問一個問題，關於併購（M&A）。聽起來你們最近簽下了一筆新交易，活動相當不錯。那麼，針對這些交易，在區域、資產類型等方面，你們是否能提供一些細節？

And then, if we think about maybe higher interest rates having impact on potential M&A, how does that influence both your preference to do M&A versus maybe the willingness of small operators to sell if that's an incremental headwind to them?

另外，如果我們思考較高利率對潛在併購的影響，這會如何影響你們偏好做併購、相較於小型業者在面臨額外逆風時出售意願的變化？

So the thing that I would just say on M&A and just to emphasize is these are core solid waste deals where we're going to bring our machine to bear on driving synergies, whether it's internalization into our landfill assets or routing synergies. So as John always uses golf analogies, but straight down the middle of the fairway.

關於併購，我想強調的是，這些都是核心的固體廢棄物交易，我們會運用我們的能力來推動綜效，不論是把業務內部化導入我們的掩埋場資產，或是路線整併的綜效。就像 John 常用高爾夫的比喻一樣，就是直直打在球道正中央。

Not usually right.

通常不會偏右。

And the other thing I would mention is that there is a lot of room across the US and Canada geographically for us to do deals. And so we do have a robust pipeline right now of deals that we're looking at. David can speak to the interest rate environment and how that's potentially a positive for us.

另外我想提的是，從地理分布來看，我們在美國與加拿大各地都有很大的空間可以做交易。因此我們目前正在評估的交易案來源（pipeline）相當充足。David 可以談談利率環境，以及這可能如何對我們有利。

Yeah. I think we're in a really good spot, obviously. We have deep access to capital. Our balance sheet is in really good shape. Close to 90% of our interest rate exposure is fixed. And so from that standpoint, we're obviously well positioned.

是的。我認為我們顯然處在非常有利的位置。我們有很深的資本取得能力。我們的資產負債表狀況非常好。我們接近 90% 的利率曝險是固定利率。因此從這個角度來看，我們顯然具備很好的條件。

And then from a seller mindset, I do think just higher interest rates might make them more prone to potentially look at exiting. Just if they're thinking about recapping or funding growth in their business, the rates that they're probably going to see are probably pretty high at this point. So I do think that's why we see a fair amount of activity in the market and in the pipeline right now.

再從賣方心態來看，我確實認為較高利率可能會讓他們更傾向考慮退出。如果他們在思考資本重整或為其業務成長籌資，他們目前可能看到的利率水準大概都相當高。所以我認為這也是為什麼我們現在在市場上以及在案源管道中看到相當多的活動。

All right. That's really helpful. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

好的。這非常有幫助。我就先到這裡。謝謝。

Adam Bubes, Goldman Sachs.

Adam Bubes，Goldman Sachs。

Hi. Good morning and congrats both Jim and John. I know we're only in 3Q here, but maybe just conceptually, how are you thinking about the margin algorithm next year? Seems like there's a lot of moving pieces between fuel, landfill gas continuing to ramp higher, the strong synergy realization in Healthcare. Can you just help us think about that algorithm there?

嗨，早安，也恭喜 Jim 和 John。我知道我們現在才到第三季（3Q），但概念上，你們如何看待明年的利潤率演算法（margin algorithm）？看起來有很多變動因素，包括燃料、掩埋場氣體持續爬升，以及醫療保健（Healthcare）強勁的綜效實現。你們能否幫我們理解一下這個演算法？

Yeah. I mean, obviously, we're not providing guidance until next quarter and the visibility as we've been discussing is obviously quite low. But you did highlight on a couple of things that will be a bit favorable for us if I think about some of the carryover and rollover impact from RNG and from recycling as those plants are -- we get the full run rate benefit from those.

是的。我的意思是，很明顯我們要到下個季度才會提供指引，而如同我們一直在討論的，可見度顯然相當低。不過你確實點出了幾個對我們稍微有利的因素：如果我想到一些來自 RNG 與回收業務的遞延與續延影響，隨著那些工廠——我們會取得完整的運轉率（run rate）效益。

But just given the price and cost dynamic that we've demonstrated really well this year. We've been north of the $250 million that we highlighted for this year. You'll continue to see us focus on maintaining that price-to-cost spread.

但就如同我們今年在價格與成本動態上展現得非常好。我們已經高於今年所提到的 2.5 億美元。你們會持續看到我們專注於維持價格相對成本的差距（price-to-cost spread）。

It really comes down to fundamentally just the volume growth and expectations in the business because, again, I think on the pricing side, we're going to be able to pass along our cost. And so as I think about that, it's really more of a call on the macro environment, which as we've been highlighting is low visibility, it's a bit muted, but if there's any catalyst there, that would help spur that growth algorithm.

歸根結底，主要還是取決於業務的量（volume）成長與預期，因為再說一次，我認為在定價端，我們能夠把成本轉嫁出去。因此當我這樣思考時，更多是對總體環境的判斷；如同我們一直強調的，可見度低、環境偏溫和，但如果有任何催化因素出現，將有助於推動那個成長演算法。

Yeah. The only thing I'd add, David, is again, we talked a lot about Healthcare, but that also, as we exit Q3 and go into Q4, clearly that's going to be a benefit to us, Adam, next year.

是的。David，我唯一想補充的是，我們談了很多醫療保健（Healthcare），但當我們走出第三季、進入第四季時，很明顯那也會在明年對我們有利，Adam。

Great. All clear. And then on the pricing side, I think core price was strong at 5.8% this quarter with yield of 3.4% in collection disposal. I think that spread is just a little higher than the recent range and it ticked up sequentially. What's the mix impacting that and what do you view as more of like a sustainable level of that core price yield spread going forward?

很好。都很清楚。另外在定價方面，我認為本季核心價格（core price）在 5.8% 很強，而在收運與處置（collection disposal）的收益率（yield）是 3.4%。我覺得這個差距比近期區間略高，而且環比也上升了一點。是什麼組合（mix）因素在影響？你們認為未來這個核心價格與收益率差距較可持續的水準大概會是多少？

Yeah, I think we've said we've generally been like low 60%s to 70%, we've ticked up a little bit higher from time to time. But to your point, if you break it up and you look at collection, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of the mid 60%s, which is about the norm. Where it's been a little bit more pressured, it's been on the disposal side.

是的，我想我們之前說過，一般大概在 60% 出頭到 70% 的區間，我們偶爾會再高一點。但如你所說，如果拆開來看收運端，大概在 60% 中段左右，這差不多是常態。壓力比較大的地方是在處置端。

And what I would tell you is not to get into the weeds where we've looked at some of the volume mix with a few small landfills that we closed, which we had planned to close, think ADS, there were a few of the sites that we closed in the quarter.

我想告訴你的是，不必鑽得太細：我們看過一些量的組合變化，與我們關閉了幾座小型掩埋場有關，而這些本來就是計畫要關閉的，像是 ADS，我們在本季關閉了其中幾個場址。

And then some volume shifts out on the West Coast, where it tends to be a higher price volume, doesn't necessarily mean higher profit volume. That's where I see you see a little bit of the pressure on the disposal side of the equation.

另外在西岸也有一些量的移轉，那裡通常是較高價格的量，但不一定代表較高獲利的量。我認為你看到處置端方程式出現一些壓力，就是在這裡。

Great. Thanks so much.

很好。非常感謝。

Will Grippin, Barclays.

Will Grippin，Barclays。

Great. I appreciate you squeezing me in here. I did want to come back to some of the volume discussion around the Healthcare Solutions business. I think as of the end of the second quarter, I think you've made significant progress toward getting all your customers a clean bill, and we had anticipated that that might help drive a deceleration or an easing of some of this customer churn you've been seeing.

很好。感謝你們讓我插個問題。我想回到醫療保健解決方案（Healthcare Solutions）業務的量（volume）討論。我記得截至第二季末，你們在讓所有客戶拿到乾淨帳單（clean bill）方面已取得顯著進展，而我們原本預期這可能有助於降低或緩解你們看到的一些客戶流失（churn）。

I'm just curious, maybe if you could parse out just some of the trends on the volume side between churn versus just overall market volume trends and if customers starting to get those clean bills has had the desired impact.

我想請教，你們是否能拆解一下量的趨勢：流失（churn）相較於整體市場量的趨勢各自如何？以及客戶開始拿到那些乾淨帳單是否達到預期效果？

Well, I think what you heard, Will, on the pricing side, clearly they're seeing a value in the services we're providing across the portfolio. Again, in terms of the volume trends, what I would tell you is both, if you bifurcate the business between the healthcare side, traditional healthcare, and the secure document destruction, we're seeing improving trends in both.

Will，我想你在定價端聽到的很清楚：他們顯然看到了我們在整個產品組合所提供服務的價值。再說到量的趨勢，我會告訴你的是兩者都有：如果你把業務分成醫療端（傳統醫療保健）與安全文件銷毀（secure document destruction），我們在兩邊都看到趨勢改善。

I would tell you the SID business is probably tracking a little bit quicker than the medical waste business, but the important point is that they're both trending in the right direction, and as I said, half joking. I'm not ready to tell you we're not ready to say when those will go positive, but we feel good about the trajectory on both of those segments within Healthcare.

我會說 SID 業務的走勢可能比醫療廢棄物業務快一些，但重點是兩者都朝正確方向發展；而且如我所說，有一半是在開玩笑。我還沒準備好告訴你——我們也還沒準備好說它們何時會轉正，但我們對醫療保健內這兩個分部的走勢都感到樂觀。

I think what's important is the way that we're looking at this is looking at quarter-over-quarter sequential improvement, and that's what we're expecting moving forward.

我認為重要的是，我們看待這件事的方式是觀察逐季（quarter-over-quarter）的環比改善，而這也是我們對未來的預期。

Got it. Appreciate that. And then just switching over to the RNG business, EBITDA margin, just a bit weaker sequentially quarter on quarter, was that just driven by, I guess, some of the start-up and slightly lower revenue you had flagged or was it just contribution from the New York facility that was brought online diluting overall margin and how should we think about the right range for that business going forward?

了解。感謝。接著切換到 RNG 業務，EBITDA 利潤率按季（逐季）略為走弱，這主要是因為您先前提到的一些啟動成本以及略低的營收所致，還是因為紐約設施上線後的貢獻稀釋了整體利潤率？未來我們應該如何看待該業務合理的區間？

The two reasons for the sequential drop from Q3 '26 versus Q2 is two things one, we sold more volume in the voluntary market in Q3, which would be at a lower price per MMBTU. That's the first item.

Q3 '26 相較 Q2 的按季下滑有兩個原因：第一，我們在 Q3 於自願市場賣出了更多量，而該市場每 MMBTU 的價格較低。這是第一點。

And the second is we did have some startup costs that flowed through the P&L. So it's one of the reasons why I always point you to looking at margins in this business for the full year because we can have some lumpiness from quarter to quarter.

第二，我們確實有一些啟動成本流入損益表。因此這也是我總是建議你以全年角度來看這項業務利潤率的原因之一，因為季度之間可能會有一些波動。

Makes sense. Appreciate it. Thank you, and congrats on retirement, Jim.

了解。感謝。謝謝，也恭喜你退休，Jim。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jim Schumm, TD Cowen.

Jim Schumm，TD Cowen。

Hey. Thank you. Most of my questions have been asked, but I just wanted to echo my congrats to Jim and John. And maybe just one for me. So you hit the goal for G&A for WM Healthcare at around 15%. Can you speak to what the updated goal would be now?

嗨，謝謝。我大部分的問題都已經有人問過了，但我想再次向 Jim 和 John 表達恭喜。然後我這邊可能只有一個問題。你們把 WM Healthcare 的 G&A 目標達到約 15%。能否談談現在更新後的目標會是什麼？

I would say it'd be better than 15.2%. Credits to the team, they worked really hard and I will tell you when we set that goal a handful of quarters ago to get there, it seemed like a taller hill to climb and credit to the whole team. They've done a really nice job and what I can tell you is where we're going to land, I don't know. We've talked about could it get as low as the core business, is it going to stay at 15%?

我會說會優於 15.2%。要歸功於團隊，他們非常努力。我也要說，當我們在幾個季度前設定要達到那個目標時，看起來像是一座更難攀的山；這要歸功於整個團隊。他們做得非常好。至於最終會落在哪裡，我現在還不知道。我們也討論過：是否能降到跟核心業務一樣低？還是會維持在 15%？

I would tell you we still have room to go and I think we'll a probably a better view of that as we get into the beginning of the year and give guidance for next year, but better for sure.

我可以告訴你的是，我們仍有進一步改善的空間。我想等到年初、並提供明年指引時，我們會有更清楚的看法，但肯定會更好。

Okay. Right. John, I don't know, maybe it was two years ago. I think Devina said there's no structural reason why WM Healthcare's G&A as a percentage of sales wouldn't or couldn't approach the level of the corporate level of 9% to 10%. You've had the business for two years. Do you still believe that to be the case?

好的，了解。John，我不確定，大概是兩年前吧。我記得 Devina 說過，從結構上沒有理由 WM Healthcare 的 G&A 佔銷售比不能或不會接近公司層級的 9% 到 10%。你們持有這項業務已經兩年了。你仍然相信這點嗎？

What I would tell you is, I do think that's all joking aside, there's certainly opportunity there and yet I remember Devina's comments a handful of years ago. I would tell you the only place that I see a structural difference is really when you look at some of the customer level attention that is required. I mentioned the hospitals for instance. There is probably more of a customer service intensity there than other parts of the core solid waste business. So that would be the one area.

我會說的是，撇開玩笑不談，我確實認為那裡有機會；而且我也記得 Devina 幾年前的評論。我會說我看到唯一的結構性差異，主要是在某些客戶層級所需要的關注度。例如我提到的醫院。那裡的客戶服務強度可能比核心固體廢棄物業務的其他部分更高。所以那會是其中一個面向。

But if you look at it -- if you look at, James, like in the field business, I think, yes, that probably is a true statement where you see a little bit of a premium is obviously the unique nature of some of the services and the regulatory challenges that we're helping to provide services for these customers would be one difference.

但如果你看——James，如果你看現場端的業務，我認為是的，那大概仍是正確的說法；你會看到稍微有溢價的地方，顯然在於某些服務的獨特性，以及我們協助這些客戶因應的法規挑戰，這會是其中一個差異。

And I think just from an investment thesis, the synergies that we underwrote with the deal, we're going to get us to 17% and we're past that. So I think from that goalpost that we look really well, but to John's point, we see further room to go.

我想就投資論點而言，我們在這筆交易中承諾（underwrote）的協同效益，原本會把我們帶到 17%，而我們已經超過了。所以以我們所設定的那個目標來看，我認為表現非常好；但如 John 所說，我們也看到還有進一步改善的空間。

Stephanie Moore, Jefferies.

Stephanie Moore，Jefferies。

Great. Really appreciate it. Two for me real quick. Your internalization rate reached just over 72% this quarter. That's pretty much near record levels. In the past, I think you talked about a mid 70% range was the historical ceiling. Just wanted to get your thoughts on structurally higher internalization rates and what this can mean in terms for, I guess, overall disposal margin assumptions.

很好。非常感謝。我這邊很快兩個問題。你們本季的內部處理率（internalization rate）達到略高於 72%。這幾乎接近歷史新高。過去我記得你們提到過，歷史上的上限大約在 70% 中段。想請教你們對結構性更高的內部處理率有何看法，以及這對整體處置利潤率假設可能意味著什麼？

Well, there's two things that are driving our internalization rate higher. And one of them we talked about last quarter related to recycling. Our recycling volumes are up and we're seeing more volumes being really directed to our recycling plants. So that's a key piece as we brought those investments online.

推動我們內部處理率提高的因素有兩個。其中之一我們上季談過，與回收有關。我們的回收量增加，並且看到更多量確實被導向我們的回收廠。因此，隨著這些投資上線，這是一個關鍵因素。

We also are continuing to look at -- through our routing algorithms. Are we routing our material to the best spot? And we're able to then redirect some material into our own assets that we might have otherwise been sending to third parties. So this is something that we're constantly looking at and will definitely have a broader positive impact on pricing, too.

我們也持續透過路線規劃演算法來檢視——我們是否把物料送到最佳地點？因此我們能把原本可能送往第三方的一些物料，重新導向到我們自有資產。這是我們持續在看的事情，而且也肯定會對定價帶來更廣泛的正面影響。

Understood. And then I did want to follow-up on a prior question just in terms of labor and productivity savings. So I think in the past you've talked about, I think close to 5,000 and position reductions through, essentially, not having to rehire or fill the exit positions.

了解。另外我也想就先前關於勞動力與生產力節省的問題追問一下。我記得過去你們談到，透過基本上不必再補聘或填補離職職缺，已經接近 5,000 個職位的減少。

Given all that you've done in terms of investing in productivity and technology, AI opportunity, how can you think about just incremental labor demand over time? Thanks. Appreciate it.

考量你們在生產力與科技、AI 機會方面所做的各項投資，長期來看，對於新增勞動力需求應該如何思考？謝謝。

This is something we spend a lot of time talking about especially our collection business. Our collection business is very labor intensive when you look at our drivers and helpers and it's one of the reasons why we made the transition to automated side loaders from rear loaders for safety reasons and also labor reasons.

這是我們花很多時間討論的議題，特別是在我們的收運（collection）業務。從司機與助手來看，我們的收運業務非常勞力密集；這也是我們基於安全與人力因素，從後裝車（rear loaders）轉向自動側裝車（automated side loaders）的原因之一。

We're absolutely looking at how can we bring technologies to the forefront of our operations to reduce labor dependence given that there's going to be a labor shortage long term.

我們確實在思考如何把科技帶到營運前線，以降低對人力的依賴，因為長期來看將會有人力短缺。

And the best example of that is the work that we're doing with the Caterpillar pilots on our landfills, piloting remote heavy equipment, and we're doing that at one of our hazardous landfills and a facility in Arizona. And if we can expand on that, you can imagine where we can improve the overall experience for new employees and really tap into another labor pool that we might not have otherwise been able to tap into and then, over time, continue to look at structurally lowering our costs.

最好的例子是我們與 Caterpillar 在掩埋場進行的試點計畫，測試遠端操作重型設備；我們在其中一座有害廢棄物掩埋場，以及亞利桑那州的一處設施進行這項試點。如果我們能擴大推行，你可以想像我們如何改善新進員工的整體工作體驗，並真正觸及另一個我們原本可能無法觸及的勞動力來源；然後隨著時間推進，持續在結構上降低成本。

So we're looking at a whole host of things. This is something that's incredibly important to us and something that is going to help us transform how we operate over the next 10 years.

所以我們在看一整套的措施。這對我們極其重要，也將在未來 10 年幫助我們轉型我們的營運方式。

Thank you. Appreciate it.

謝謝。感謝。

Toby Sommer, Truist.

Toby Sommer，Truist。

Thank you. In the Healthcare arena, what does the pricing outlook appear to be like this year and in the next as hospitals are seeing an increase in uncompensated care pressuring margins? Thanks.

謝謝。在醫療保健領域，當醫院因無償照護（uncompensated care）增加而使利潤率承壓時，今年以及明年的定價展望看起來如何？謝謝。

Well, I think, Toby, we worked hard, obviously, as I mentioned, to get to where we are. And we think over the long-term, we think the pricing algorithm for the Healthcare business can approximate the solid waste business.

嗯，我想，Toby，我們顯然很努力地工作，正如我提到的，才走到今天這一步。而我們認為從長期來看，醫療保健業務的定價演算法可以近似於固體廢棄物業務。

And I think we are taking the same view and will continue to take the same view about where we can build spread between our cost to serve and price. And I think what you saw in the quarter was almost 500 basis points of margin expansion, partly fueled by SG&A coming down, partly fueled by pricing.

而我想我們採取相同的看法，並將繼續採取相同的看法，關於我們如何在服務成本與價格之間建立利差。我想你們在本季看到的是將近500個基點的利潤率擴張，部分來自SG&A下降，部分來自定價。

And as I mentioned, I think we're starting to see some volume trends that are encouraging, still negative. And the one thing I would add to that is when you think about the Healthcare business and the acquisition of what was Stericycle.

如我提到的，我想我們開始看到一些令人鼓舞的量的趨勢，雖然仍為負值。我還想補充的一點是，當你想到醫療保健業務以及收購原本的Stericycle時。

There's obviously the short-term gains that we're making but the more secular benefits of owning that business, particularly on the medical side, are more long-term, right?

顯然我們正在取得一些短期成果，但擁有該業務更具結構性的效益，特別是在醫療端，則更偏向長期，對吧？

And if you look at -- one of the things that attracted us to the business a handful of years ago was the fact that that was an area where we think we're going to see outsized growth over the longer-term. And in that regard, we're going to be patient, and that volume we think is going to accrue to our benefit.

如果你回頭看——幾年前吸引我們關注這項業務的原因之一，是我們認為這會是一個在更長期內出現超額成長的領域。在這方面，我們會保持耐心，而我們認為這些量最終會累積成為對我們有利的因素。

Thank you. The landfill requirements that are increasing expenses in California, do you anticipate those changes proliferating nationally or being confined to that market?

謝謝。加州掩埋場要求提高而增加費用，你是否預期這些變化會在全國擴散，還是僅限於該市場？

Well, to clarify, the legislation was just passed, so they need to go through some rulemaking, so it's still early innings there and what's going to happen in California.

嗯，先澄清一下，該法案才剛通過，所以還需要進入一些規則制定程序，因此目前仍在早期階段，關於加州會發生什麼還言之過早。

We don't anticipate that being widespread, but it's something, obviously, that we're tracking and if it does get traction in other states, we're well positioned to respond.

我們不預期它會廣泛擴散，但這顯然是我們正在追蹤的事項；如果它在其他州獲得推進，我們也具備良好的條件來因應。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel.

Shlomo Rosenbaum，Stifel。

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I want to ask a little bit on the diesel fuel assumptions that you might have in your guidance. What are the prices that you're expecting for the fourth quarter? And just in general, how are you thinking about the general inflationary impact as it goes into 2027?

嗨，早安。謝謝讓我提問。我想問一下你們在指引中對柴油燃料的假設。你們對第四季預期的價格是多少？以及更一般地說，對於通膨影響一路延伸到2027年，你們是怎麼看待的？

Are you seeing anything or are you expecting that to creep into your labor costs in terms of how you're thinking of positioning the business and what you're going to need for pricing? If you can just address those two issues and then I have one follow-up.

你們是否看到任何跡象，或是否預期這會逐步反映到勞動成本上，關於你們如何定位業務以及定價需要做什麼？如果你能回應這兩點，然後我還有一個追問。

Sure. In terms of Q4 for diesel prices, we're assuming about a 40% increase over Q4 of last year. I think it's around 5 -- a little over $5.50 per gallon for diesel.

當然。就第四季柴油價格而言，我們假設相較去年第四季約增加40%。我想大約是——每加侖柴油略高於5.50美元。

But in terms of your comment about inflation that's trickling down outside of just fuel, we are seeing it in third-party cost, but that is our fuel surcharge program is designed to recover from that aspect as well. It's not just recovering our direct fuel costs.

但就你提到的、除了燃料之外逐步傳導的通膨而言，我們確實在第三方成本上看到，但我們的燃油附加費計畫也設計用來回收這部分影響。它不只是回收我們的直接燃料成本。

The only thing I would just say on that is when you see increased diesel costs like we did from August to September, a spike at $0.80 a gallon, you've heard from us that there is approximately on average a one month lag in our fuel surcharge. So you will see some timing differences on recovery. And this is something I think that we're all learning to navigate and how this has been interesting to follow related to what's happening with diesel.

我唯一想補充的是，當你看到柴油成本像我們從8月到9月那樣上升、每加侖暴增0.80美元時，你們也聽我們說過，我們的燃油附加費平均大約有一個月的落後期。因此在回收上會出現一些時間差。我想這也是我們都在學著如何因應的事情，而追蹤柴油的變化也很有意思。

Okay. And then maybe just shifting back to the Healthcare side, in terms of the improvement in the EBITDA and the SG&A, could you talk a little bit more about how much of the improvement came from actually getting the technology to work and removal of the manual processes that were in place and how much might have come from other areas? Maybe you can just give us a little bit of an insight as to what got improved so much in the course of the quarter.

好的。那再把話題拉回醫療保健端，關於EBITDA與SG&A的改善，你能否多談一些：改善中有多少是來自讓技術系統真正運作、移除原本的人工流程，又有多少可能來自其他面向？也許你可以讓我們稍微了解一下，本季過程中到底有哪些改善幅度這麼大。

Well, I think first and foremost, I think the fact that we're getting pricing that's more commensurate with our cost to serve and trying to build a spread there would be one big move we made. I think to the point, and Jim made this comment on many calls going back to the acquisition, that there was a lot more manual effort being put in the early days to make sure that we were improving and getting to the point where folks were getting an accurate bill.

嗯，我想首先也是最重要的，是我們取得了更能反映我們服務成本的定價，並試圖在其中建立利差，這是我們做出的重大調整之一。另外，正如Jim在多次電話會議中、從收購開始就提到的，早期為了確保我們在改善並達到讓客戶拿到正確帳單的狀態，投入了更多人工處理。

And obviously, while there's still a little bit of that happening, the most important thing is our folks are getting an accurate bill, they're paying their bills at a normalized rate as opposed to what it was. And to your point, we have taken out some of that SG&A, and we're getting closer to automating more of that process. But that's certainly a piece of it, Shlomo, we've been able to gain some traction.

而且顯然，雖然現在仍有一小部分這樣的情況，但最重要的是，我們的客戶拿到的是正確的帳單，他們以正常化的速度付款，而不是先前那樣。如你所說，我們已經削減了一部分SG&A，也更接近把更多流程自動化。但這確實是其中一部分，Shlomo，我們已經取得一些進展。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you. I will now send the call back over to Mr. Jim Fish, WM CEO, for his final remarks

謝謝。我現在把電話交回給WM執行長Jim Fish先生，請他做最後結語。

Okay. Well, just a couple of quick comments here. Thanks -- first of all, thanks for joining us, as always, today, and I truly appreciate all the well wishes and the congratulations. I really do. I hope that maybe I'll run in some of you up in Jacksonville flyfishing, we'll see. But I would normally say at the end of this call, I'll talk to you next quarter. And today, I'm going to say John and Tara and David will talk to you next quarter. Thank you very much.

好的。我這裡就簡短說幾點。首先，一如既往，感謝各位今天加入我們，也非常感謝大家的祝福與恭喜。我真的很感激。希望也許我會在傑克遜維爾飛蠅釣魚時遇到你們其中一些人，我們再看看。但我通常會在這通電話最後說，下季再跟各位聊。而今天我要說的是，下季將由John、Tara和David跟各位聊。非常感謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

各位女士先生，我們今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與。您現在可以掛線。