Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Fritz Holzgrefe: Thanks, Todd. I mean, Frankly, I mean, as to emphasize our focus is on keeping that customer front and center. And I think in that kind of environment, you’ve got — and that’s — this continues to be an expensive business to operate. So you’ve got to continue to push making sure that we get paid for all the service that we provide. I think maybe the rates of change that we’ve seen over the last few years, it slows perhaps. But I think the position that we’re in right now around what we’re doing for the customer that is differentiated. And if I look across the landscape of what others service is being provided with that pricing looks like. I mean, I think that there’s an opportunity for us to continue to grow our business and develop the margin profile that this business deserves.

Todd Fowler: Sounds good. Thanks for all the help.

Operator: Our next question comes from Scott Group with Wolfe Research.

Scott Group: Hey, thanks. Good morning, guys. Few things. Can you just on the January tenants, do you have a sense on the sequential December to January and how that was trending?

Doug Col: Yes. Historically, we’ve seen a little bit of step up call it 1.5% 2% historically as you move into January, that’s always influenced by the weather you’re exiting and what you’re facing. But the step up was closer to 5.5% to 6% this year. But like Fritz said, that last week of December, man, it was tough with that cold front that went across the country and the pickups were really soft. So some of that could have been just catch up like Fritz said from customers. But it felt better given the first two weeks of January, it felt a lot better than the last two weeks of December for sure.

Scott Group: Okay, good. And then Doug, any help with how to think — I know you don’t give us intra quarter yield updates, but just directionally how to think about the yield trends gross of fuel and net of fuel, however you want to think about it in Q1 the year, however you’re thinking about?

Doug Col: Yes, I mean, like Fritz said, I mean, we’ve seen a lot of GRI announcements and our GRI went out this past Monday. Like I said, on an average of 6.5% and in a softer volume environment, you probably end up making some concessions in some lanes for example or with some really good operating customers. So historically, we say we hold on to about 80% of our GRI in terms of the yield that we capture. So in a softer and volume environment, maybe it’s a little less than that. I saw a couple of GRIs, I think on average, the GRIs even though they’re solidly mid-single-digits, there’s a couple that are lower than what we’ve seen over the last couple of years. So that’s — I think that’s just in line with probably what the shipper’s expectations are.

But it’s still a positive environment. I mean, the 7.4% contractual yield, I mean, as you know, I mean, it’s just kind of a forward-looking indicator to us of what the shippers expecting and it’s coming off the heels of several quarters of double-digit rate increases. So we’re lapping some of that. So I’d say pricing in January was still positive and I just think the expectation should be that you won’t get price at the same rate when volumes are running down like they’re running.

Scott Group: Right. And then just last thing, obviously, based on sequential margin being flat, so margin is down 0.5% year-over-year. Do you think you have the potential to improve margin over the course of the full-year?

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