Covenant Logistics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVLG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 9 of 9

Paul Bunn: We have been — we have I think, Bert, that’s another piece of it. We didn’t — we were pretty far with a lot of these folks over the last 24 months when we could have taken advantage of some situations and we didn’t. And in turn, what we’re finding is our customers are being really fair to us back right now — and the 30% that aren’t — well, as Dave said, we’ll figure that out.

Bert Subin: Yes, that’s obviously great color. Maybe just all the things you guys talked about on the reduction of volatility. I think a lot of that has been some things you’ve done on the expedited side, and then obviously, improvement in dedicated. If we think about the 2 things that likely going to determine whether you end up at 25% down or plus 35% down in ’23, it’s going to be, I think, your ability to maintain that 92% or better or/and expedited. And I think it’s going to be your ability to keep managed freight at least the sales side of that in a reasonable range, not going back to where it was pre-pandemic. Can you just provide some color on those 2 items and maybe why you have confidence that both of those segments are going to hold up better because expedited historically a lot more cyclical and managed freight obviously very cyclical in a backdrop like this?

Paul Bunn: Yes. I would say managed freight from a confidence standpoint, remember, other cycles Bart, we didn’t have a lot of these long-term agreements. And we’re 60%-ish of expedited freights tied up in long-term agreements. And so plus the addition of AAT, which rolls up into expedited, I mean that’s just not our — it’s not your average expedited carrier and what they do and just the structure. And so we have a lot of confidence in how expedited is going to hold up in 2023. On the Managed Freight side, I mean, we said it, margins are going to be compressed but we’re still feeling really good about top line revenue. Our team there has got — as David said, they’ve still got a really robust pipeline, and expedite has a robust pipeline.

And I think on the dedicated side, you’re going to continue to see — over the last 24 months, you’ve seen incremental improvement in dedicated, and I think you’re going to see incremental improvement in Dedicated this next year. Not going to be — it’s going to be a little harder, but dedicated is going to continue to incrementally improve. You’ve got long-term agreements in AAT and expedited. Managed Trans margins are going to go way down, but they’ve been way high. But I think the revenue base will be there. And then on the warehousing side, I think we’ll — I think margins will start to rightsize as we continue to grow that business. And that pipeline is the best we’ve had since we entered that business in 2018.

Bert Subin: So Paul, maybe as a follow-up to that, you only saw a modest quarter-over-quarter impact on the sales side in managed freight. Are we getting closer to the bottom? Do you think you can remain that elevated? Or does that step down in the first quarter and also sort of increase off of the new base?

Paul Bunn: Yes. I think managed freight will step down in the first quarter, and that will kind of be your new base going forward versus Q4 margin same .

Operator: And gentlemen, at this time, there appears to be no further questions.

Tripp Grant: All right, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for attending.

Follow Covenant Logistics Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CVLG)

Page 9 of 9