ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Chris Wetherbee : Yeah. Hey, thanks. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to ask a specific question around shipments. Is it 19,500? Where you are? The 10% step up is that the average over the month of July including a lower number earlier in the quarter, I just want to understand sort of, it sounds like you took some company specific actions to maybe reduce that number from June to July, and then maybe there’s an uptick, so any qualification that would be helpful?

Judy McReynolds : Yes, I’m going to let Christopher Atkins respond to that, Chris. And then I’ll follow up if there’s any other thoughts I have. But go ahead, Christopher.

Christopher Adkins: Hi, Chris. Good morning. This is Christopher Adkins. So, in terms of the 19,500 in June, we were handling around 21,000 shipments per day. We made the strategic decision to reduce that shipment count to improve profitable mix for our business. And that mix is handled really, through our dynamic pricing, we’re able to scale down that dynamic pricing. And as the core business is coming on stronger, we’re able to scale that back even more to make, to make additional capacity available for that core business. So really, the 19,500 is inclusive of all of our cores with that growth that we’ve been mentioning, as well as the transactional business.

Judy McReynolds : Well, but I would say, Christopher, that’s for the month of July, as we go forward, we’ll see what that becomes. I think that our discussion about what we can handle, I think your team is doing a great job along with sales and evaluating good business opportunities for us. And what’s good about the dynamic tool is it allows us, to use that lever to, both shift up and shift down, we’re awfully glad to be in a position where we have the capacity, we can shift that down. And we can take on better business from our core customers, and really serve them well in this time of disruption.

Chris Wetherbee : Okay, that’s very helpful. And then I guess, when you think about the dynamic pricing aspect, as the market, as market share shifts, and we potentially see more shipments coming onto the network, does that give you a relatively real time and ability to price that business to make it more appropriate for your network? I guess we want to get a sense of maybe is pricing responding to you’re in July to this very sort of real-time improvement in market share? Or does that take a little bit more time? How would that play out?

Christopher Adkins: Yeah, Chris, you got it. This is something that we manage daily or dynamic pricing. This is something that’s part of our normal daily business operation. And we’ve already been increasing prices on that transactional business to make space for but yeah, you got it exactly. It’s a daily decision that and we’ve already experienced price increases in that area.

Judy McReynolds : And well, and I’ll add one thing to it, because of the work that we do in our managed team, we’re also seeing the market, our competitive landscape respond in a similar way.

Chris Wetherbee : Okay, that’s very helpful. Thank you for the time.

Judy McReynolds : Thanks, Chris.

Operator: Our next question is coming from online of Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs, please go ahead.

Jordan Alliger : Yeah, hi, good morning.

Judy McReynolds : Good morning.

Jordan Alliger : In terms of the step up, I mean, presumably a meaningful amount is for right, that’s been diverted to you from Yellow, but I’m just curious to, aside from maybe sort of comment on that dynamic that’s going on, but then sort of also served from a core demand perspective. Were you seeing any positive signs separate from any diversionary benefits? Thanks,

Judy McReynolds : Steven. I’m going to ask Steven Leonard to respond to that just, just based on what we’re seeing from our other core customers, in addition to what we’re seeing from the Yellow disruption.

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