Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Adam Miller: And Ravi, I’d just add to that. Again, the bid season hasn’t kicked off, we had so maybe just early discussions with some of the shippers that would have a bid coming out in the next quarter or so. The sentiment is, a lot of our customers have enjoyed the low rates that they’ve had in the spot markets, even some of the contract rates. And I think they probably moved a disproportionate amount of their volume than they historically have to brokers where they’re able to capture some of that discount. And our shippers know just like carriers know that the market if not it will turn, it’s when. And they — they’re concerned about ensuring that they’re going to have sustainable capacity. And so, some of the commentary is even though the market may not bare today, they know six months, they could be in a tough position if they don’t have capacity with asset-based carriers, especially in light of some of the failures that we’ve seen as of recently.

So we’re in dialog with our customers, we want it. We’re partners with them. We know we need for a sustainable capacity, and we feel like we’ll be able to work through what we believe would be fair rates moving forward.

Ravi Shanker: Very helpful. A very quick follow-up. Kind of speaking of failures on the logistics side, we did hear headlines that a large digital player may have paused or stopped operations today. What kind of impact do you think that has in the marketplace? And kind of what do you think this tells us about where we are in the cycle and kind of what the brokerage model going forward? Like it was a good thing or a bad thing, kind of — yeah, what does it mean for the industry?

Adam Miller: So [indiscernible] we will answer that Ravi, because I think everybody on the call would like to appreciate the comment, but it’s one question because I think last fall, we had the first — the first analyst asked two, then everyone decided to ask two. So one question.

David Jackson: Ravi, I’m [indiscernible] to that and if we don’t jump in that queue, we will answer that question. Thanks, Ravi.

Ravi Shanker: Understood. Thanks guys.

Operator: Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Scott Group from Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Scott Group: Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. So can you just give us some color on the revenue and OR for U.S. Xpress in the quarter? And where that goes from here? And how important is the market? How important is it for the market to get better and pricing to get better to get the U.S. Xpress OR better? Or can you do it without — like can you get to the profitability that you want without getting the pricing up for the market?

Adam Miller: Scott, just given where that business started once we finalized the acquisition. I mean, there is going to need to be improvement in both the cost side and the revenue side of the business. Now on the cost side, we don’t really have to wait for the markets to change. We can move forward on a lot of activities there. On the procurement side, we’re working on building out the terminal network that we expect will help safety, turnover, recruiting, and those all can be — have a meaningful impact to the cost side of the business. Now we’ve made — probably I think we said mid-single-digit improvement in our cost per mile, which we’re excited for. We know that there is more there. On the revenue side, it’s low-single digits and that’s in a market where most are taking hits on the revenue per mile front and we haven’t had a bid season to be able to address where the current rates are for U.S. Xpress.

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