Schneider National, Inc. (NYSE:SNDR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ravi Shanker: Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ken Hoexter with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Ken Hoexter: That’s a new one. It’s Ken Hoexter from BofA. Just following up on Intermodal, can maybe can we talk a little bit conceptually about revenue per load, given the softer market and the transition out West. You’re now competing with on that same network. Does that — do we see more pricing competition given they’re more moving on UP and the new environment or as fuel comes off, maybe you just talk about the pricing environment and how that’s going to impact, I guess ultimately, that margin question as well?

Jim Filter: Yes, yes, Ken, this is Jim Filter. Really, right now, when I think about the competition for our intermodal services, by far the largest company is from over the road and that’s the focus to be able to continue to grow that service offering. We’ve seen over the last few years that Intermodal has lost share to over the road and opportunity to be able to grow there is by providing overall value. And so some of that is based on service ability to provide more value there that’s competitive with truck and we’ve certainly seen an improvement in the rail partners that we’re working with, especially over the last couple months here on the Western network. So, we think we have a great opportunity to be able to sustain that value.

Ken Hoexter: Can you talk in terms of metrics to perhaps, I don’t know, maybe box turns or something that helps us understand the efficiency shift with the new network?

Jim Filter: Yes, so yes, on box turns, obviously, we have a huge opportunity to improve box turns. There’s an opportunity we’ve been below this – our expected level of box turns over the last couple of years, not from a matter of necessarily performance, but just overall demand. So there’s an opportunity to get back up to the 1.7 to 1.8 turns that we’re operating at previously. And both of the rail networks are operating efficiently as well as the way that they’re operating with our drivers, our ability to cycle in and over the ramps has improved dramatically over the last 18 months.

Ken Hoexter: Great, thanks Jim.

Jim Filter: Welcome.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jon Chappell with Evercore. Please proceed with your question.

Jon Chappell: Thank you, good morning. Mark you mentioned, how the Dedicated pricing environment was holding in pretty well. I think you even said you plan to be up this year based on early bid season. What’s customers’ willingness to kind of fully absorb some of these elevated inflationary costs? And given your service and your growth in that business, are you able to get kind of inflation plus pricing or are you just kind of trying to hold on to cover the cost inflation in Dedicated, normally?

Mark Rourke: One of the benefits of – good question, Jon, one of the benefits of Dedicated is we have less variability in that business, both from a demand standpoint and our overall cost structure, much more steady than sometimes we experience in the irregular route network side, hi, because that’s where their drivers want to participate in and we just have a better predictability there. That being said, it’s not immune to the inflationary pressures that have taking place in the industry from wages, maintenance costs, parts, equipment replacement, et cetera. And so, we have mechanisms in working with our customers there. We’re deeply integrated. We provide great value, and we have confidence, and we have seen confidence in our renewals in the second half of the year to recognize those inflationary pressures, and we’re confident that we’ll be able to – based upon how we’re structured there to achieve that as we enter the new year here.

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