J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Darren Field: Yes. So, it’s a topic for us daily. Our box turns in the fourth quarter were 1.44, nowhere near where we expect them to be. The realities are, we’re in a bit of transition period when velocity, customer unloading, a host of challenges, created weakness in our turn ratio. As we come out of that scenario and get back into a more normalized velocity process, gain productivity with our dray fleet, look for productivity in the container fleet, we have lots and lots of capacity to grow into. That’s an opportunity for us. I mean in the fourth quarter, in the second half of the year, we’re extremely confident in our ability to serve our customers’ needs as there will be a return to a peak season shipping. I don’t have a number to give you in terms of how many containers come out of the improvement in velocity.

What I would say is, we’re probably on a long march and I’m not sure we can accomplish it in 2023, but we anticipate getting back to a turn ratio in the in the future. And that will be very direct effort on our part and we’ll be cautious with our container purchases, but we have to keep that supply chain open and moving and we need to be onboarding equipment at least some, but we’ll be looking to grow our volumes as fast as we can for sure.

Operator: We now turn to Scott Group from Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Scott Group: Hey, thanks. Good morning. So, stick with intermodal. So, you guys have more containers parked in 4Q than I think we’ve ever seen in a Q4 and it sounds like you’re expecting box turns to improve. So, I guess why aren’t you dialing back on some of the container adds for this year? And then Darren, I know you don’t want to give specific guidance, but maybe just directionally. Do you think you’re going to grow intermodal volume this year? And how do you think about overall revenue segment earnings? Do you think positive negative just directionally any thoughts? Thank you.

Darren Field: Well, I appreciate your attempts, Scott, to get me to give guidance. We’re not going to be able to do that. Certainly, I do expect intermodal to grow this year on all fronts, on revenue, on earnings, certainly on volume. I think that as we come out of the first quarter, there is a lag. You can see it in the import economy. I mean, there is a significant lag in demand at the moment. Most of our customers, if not all, are optimistic about summer and the rest of the year. There’s an inventory correction going on. We have real opportunities to grow our intermodal business and we’re working on that every day. Certainly, we’re not going to ignore the fact that right now the market is soft in Q1 and inventory is trying to correct.

As far as boxes, we really haven’t made any announcement about how much equipment we’re onboarding this year. What I would say is, it’s more than zero, but certainly we’re going to meter back a little bit over where we have been as velocity has really, really brought a lot of capacity to our market.

Operator: We now turn to Justin Long from Stephens. Your line is open.

Justin Long: Good morning. I’ll shift to a question on dedicated. So, Nick, maybe you could talk about how much of a headwind you saw in the fourth quarter from fleets reducing the size of their fleets? And then looking into 2023, we’ve got some moving pieces with new business you’ve won, but also cyclical pressure, how are you thinking about a reasonable target for both gross fleet additions and net fleet additions this year?

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