ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ravi Shanker: Then yes, and that will be a good catalyst. So, just to follow-up on the previous question, how do you think about that algorithm between tonnage growth and pricing? Kind of at what point — like is there such a thing as too much price that you dial down to get some more volumes to drive up the operating leverage or just a little bit of some background with that process would be helpful.

Danny Loe: Sure. Ravi, this is Danny again. I’ll start, and maybe Dennis may have some more. We are seeking the right balance, but I think the key to that is we have more visibility than we’ve ever had. We’re able to make decisions. My yield team meets with the operations team with ABF really every week, but really conversations going on every day. And we’re able to make decisions about what we want into our network. And again, having the ability to have the core business, that committed long-term business and then fill in where we’re having capacity with transactional is really unique and gives us an advantage in how we approach the market place. And so, one of the biggest things that we’re able to do, we mentioned not — that we haven’t had a need to furlough or lay off employees.

That puts us in great position for our long-term targets. If the market turns with that, we can move from transactional to core business as our customers’ demand comes back, and they approach us. And that business is at a higher revenue per hundredweight than the transactional business. But the transactional business is profitable and puts us in a great position right now. So, that’s really how we’re thinking about it. We kind of adjust as the market goes. And so, the flexibility is the key there, that as the market dynamics change we’re able to bend and flex to the right answer for our company.

Dennis Anderson: Hey, Ravi, this is Dennis. Just adding there, when you look at what our pipeline looks like for LTL business, that’s strengthened. And we have more opportunity really than we’ve seen in a long time to grow that demand base. And we think about where we’re positioned as an integrated logistics company, we’re seeing more opportunities and able to manage, as Danny talked about, what business we really can take and want in that Asset-Based business. And so, we have the capability with that integrated logistics approach to be able to really optimize that answer for us.

Ravi Shanker: Got it, that makes sense. And maybe as a follow-up, can you just parse some of the differences in the outlook you are seeing out there between your retail customers and your industrial end customers. I think there’s some expectation that retail customers might see normalization fairly soon, but industrials might take longer. A, can you remind us of your mix of the two of them, and also what the outlook difference might be between them?

Dennis Anderson: Yes, certainly. The manufacturing is still the leading part of our customer base, and it’s about a little over a third of our customer base. And then retail follows behind that. But in the retail industry, we’re seeing some normalization of inventory levels. Certainly what we’re hearing from most of our customers is that they’re back either at or near pre-pandemic levels, but that does vary within the — that does vary within the retail space, certainly by the type of retailer. And so, we see some different — different trends within that. But on the manufacturing side of things, I mean certainly, as I mentioned, that that’s lagged a little bit, the retail weakness. And so, we saw retail weakness probably a little bit before we saw the manufacturing weakness that showed up early, as the fourth quarter progressed. So, that’s really what we’re seeing there.

Ravi Shanker: Sounds good. Thank you, everyone.

Judy McReynolds: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jason Seidl with Cowen. Please proceed.

Jason Seidl: Thank you, operator. Hey, Judy. Hey, team, good morning. David, congratulations.

Judy McReynolds: Thank you, Jason.

David Cobb: Thank you very much, Jason.

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