Yellow Corporation (NASDAQ:YELL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jack Atkins: I appreciate that color. And I guess maybe kind of shifting gears and kind of thinking about one Yellow for a minute. I mean, if we go back to the third quarter call, I think the idea was to be effectively wrapped up with phase two by this point. Can you maybe kind of walk us through what’s maybe dragging that process out a bit and kind of walk, kind of just explain that for a moment would be great.

Darren Hawkins: Jack, this is Darren. So for phase two, we’re working through a similar planning process as we did with the successful implementation of phase one. And that’s to ensure we have the best execution strategy. Phase two includes approximately 70% of our network and three of our legacy operating companies, compared to phase one and about 20% of the network and two legacy operating companies. We’re using the lessons learned from phase one to execute this much larger phase. The phase two recommended changes we’ve been through two mailings on that, the most recent mailing to the local unions. And we’re in the process of meeting with those unions and fielding any questions or concerns around the optimization. So we do plan to communicate externally when the implementation date is set.

But phase two is still moving forward. And with the number of employees, local unions, and also the importance of the number of customers involved, we’re certainly being very stable and focused in the way we’re approaching phase two.

Jack Atkins: Okay that sounds good. I guess Darren in terms of communicating externally at what point do you think you’ll be in a position to maybe communicate to the market, the impact that the one Yellow kind of cumulatively could have on the cost structure or your stability to kind of be more competitive in the broader market? I mean, do you think that’s something that this year, you guys will feel more comfortable talking about more broadly, just any sort of thoughts around that?

Darren Hawkins: Sure. The asset utilization we’re already seeing in phase one in the West, the customer convenience of not having the congestion of having to have our brands at their facilities at the same time, already seeing the reduction in pickup and delivery miles driven, the cost benefit on our dock and, of course, the pickup and delivery operation along with better customer on time service. All of those things together, along with the reduction in debt from freeing up facilities that are just creating redundancy and keep in mind, we’re not giving up any geography and we’re only improving transit times through this process. So absolutely, we will be able to lay out the benefits and all of those categories as we do this significantly larger change in the coming weeks.

Jack Atkins: Maybe we’ll maybe one last question for me, and I’ll hop back in queue. But Dan, can you maybe talk a little bit about interest expense this year. You’re paying down debt, which is good. You’ve been able to rework some things on the balance sheet in terms of refunding a couple of things. But overall interest rates are rising. How should we be thinking about interest expense on the P&L in 2023? Any kind of way to think about that broadly?

Dan Olivier: Yes, so I’ll start. The interest expense for the fourth quarter was 45.9 million, and was 162.9 million for the full year. Our current run rate right now is between 180 million and 190 million per year of interest expense. Our cash interest for Q4 was 24.6 million and 127 million for full year 2022. And our current run rate for cash interest is between 135 million and 145 million per year. The interest rates on our term loans, of course, have a LIBOR component with a floor 1%. So naturally, like you’ve called out we are incurring incremental interest expense right now and cash interest compared to the prior year, and that’s reflected in the annual run rates I just provided.