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

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Judy McReynolds: Well, I mean, I think it’s a — I think all of this is really hard to read right now. I mean, I really do, but I think we’re better positioned than we’ve ever been to see what the opportunities are, and where we need to business and help customers navigate through that. And then also benefit ourselves as a result. So, but it’s an interesting environment to try to predict for sure.

Ken Hoexter: Great, appreciate the insights and look forward to the progress on the negotiations. Thanks Judy.

Judy McReynolds: Thank you.

David Humphrey: Looks like we’re going to go over just a few minutes, but I got a couple more that want to ask some questions. So, we’ll go ahead and proceed.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ari Rosa with Credit Suisse. Please proceed.

Ari Rosa: Great. Good morning. And I’ll just echo everyone else’s comments in saying congrats to David, on the pending retirement. So, one of the things and we’ve kind of been talking about it throughout the call, but one of the things I think that was noteworthy was in the context of a challenging volume environment, we saw your shipment declines less than competitors. It sounds like, maybe the reason for that was you were using some of these transactional opportunities to fill empty capacity. I’m just curious, could you kind of confirm whether or not that’s the case and then also, how easy is it to then clear out that business from the network when volume returns or when demand returns?

Danny Loe: Hey, this is Danny, I’m glad that you got our point. Yes, we are using transactional business to fill the empty capacity we have in our network. And again, I want to reiterate this profitable business, as Judy pointed out is market price business. We are making a shipment-by-shipment commitment on those. And so, as the ability to move that out of our network and bring on additional of the core business is by day basically, as we see the demand from our customers, we can turn our dials and we will pull back on some of the transactional business to fulfill the needs of our demands of our shippers as it comes back in.

Ari Rosa: Got it. That’s super helpful. And then just I wanted to ask one, I guess modeling question, perhaps. But you mentioned the profit sharing bonus that’s going to be paid to employees. How does that get reflected in results, should we expect to step-up in compensation expense than in first quarter or how should we model for that?

Danny Loe: We’ll just say that we were glad to be able to pay for 2022, the highest earn out on that bonus OR incentive. And so, we think that’s a good thing for our employees. And we’re glad to be able to do that. Typically as we — when we have those programs, we accrued for those throughout the year as we as earnings are made in a particular quarter relative to the full-year and so that’s the way we do that, it’s accrued throughout the year is the process.

Ari Rosa: Got it. Okay, very helpful. Thanks for the time.

Judy McReynolds: Thank you, Ari.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Kauffman with Vertical Research Partners. Please proceed.

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