Mike Cory: Yeah, I can, thanks. Look, visibility of waste and getting it and collating that information so that I can — what I do is I try to teach and learn, learn and teach. That’s really what it’s about. So, we have a good group of people, many of them younger, haven’t been experienced in the positions they’re in. So that’s really where I’ve been focusing, first of all, to get a temperature read, but really start to share with them how to go about getting at that waste. And it’s not easy in a network like this. And it’s something that we will do as a team, but I’m not big on the next day looking at a report. I want it visible right away so they see their actions. And so, I see great opportunity in that. They’re hungry to do it.
They’re more than motivated. And it’s up to me to teach them and help them get there. And I have all the confidence in the world that’s where we’ll get. But we’ll see just through the waste exercise at first, and then it starts to allow you to get into understanding how to devise the network to Kevin’s point, to keep and even get better service and get the businesses out there.
Joe Hinrichs: Yeah, Ken, I just want to add a little thing. I think the timing of Mike joining us is perfect, because we’ve had a year of taking advantage of the operating model that we have, engaging with our employees, do a lot of things around culture and our ONE CSX. We’ve made tremendous progress, especially on the service metrics, as you’ve seen, and we have close industry-leading metrics across the board on the operating side. Now we have Mike coming in with his experience, fresh set of eyes, and all the opportunities that can now allow us to now step back and say, “Okay, we’ve come this far, great work. Proud of the team’s work. Now, here’s the opportunity that we have to advance even further.” And so, the timing is perfect, I think, for us.
Works out very nicely. Our team is excited and motivated. You’ve seen now, as Kevin has highlighted many times in his comments tonight, regarding the customers have acknowledged and they acknowledge that with me all the time, the service levels that we’ve sustained, almost reliably now and repeatedly for 12 months. And now we have the opportunity to get more efficient and to get even better. And Mike has come in with a great attitude and excited about how we can take it to the next level and still focus, of course, on improving our service metrics, but also teaching our team, which is a relatively young team, to understand what it takes now to take a next step forward. So, we’re excited about it. I’m excited about it, and I think we can continue to outpace the industry when it comes to progress on our efficiency metrics.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Bascome Majors from Susquehanna. Please go ahead.
Bascome Majors: Thank you. To follow up on that earlier question, can you roll that out a little bit further, not just on the service side, but Mike, your role from — in the mandate you’ve been given to focus on culture, sales, the integration of Kevin’s department with yours, what we, like, see different from CSX over the next three to five years versus what we’ve seen over the last three to five? Thank you.
Mike Cory: That’s a tough one, Bascome. I’m still out there trying to learn. And that’s important to me because I don’t want to block anybody or make them feel they can’t come forward with an idea. That’s number one. But going forward, I want to share the experience I have so that they’re incorporating that into the things they do today. And to me, we’ll see improvements in all our metrics. A bigger focus on — when I say velocity, I’m talking both trains and cars, but fluidity. And we run a pretty condensed network here. Everything is really close. We don’t have, in many cases, a lot of time to recover. So, it’s the plan we put into effect and the discipline about executing it. And so, what I’m trying to share with them is the availability of data and how to use it.
It hasn’t — I don’t see that they’ve had enough time. They’ve gone through a pretty tough period here over the last couple of years. They’ve rebounded extremely nicely. And to Joe’s point, this is to get to the next level, so where they’re self-sufficient. And I know they can be, they know they can be, but I’m here to show them that way. And maybe Kevin, if you have something to add.
Kevin Boone: Yeah, I would just — I would highlight that the teams, Mike’s team and my team, they coordinate daily. They’re speaking better than they ever have to each other. It’s important from a sales and marketing perspective. You talked about can we handle an upsurge in volume demand. Well, it’s up to us to communicate that real time so the team can work, make sure we’re prepared for that volume, communicate with a customer, and make sure it’s rateable and that we have the people in place to handle it. I think a lot of the discussions we’re having right now are around that. I don’t think it’s rocket science to figure out where things could come back very, very quickly. We’re having those discussions around creating resiliency in this network.
And we’re going to get together in a couple of weeks, our teams again, go through it market by market. What do we see for next year? What do we see over the next three years? And how are we going to prepare for that? And those conversations are better than they ever have been.
Mike Cory: Yeah, and I’ll just finish up. Bascome, like — I’ve been, like I said, pretty much to — well, not pretty much everywhere, but a lot of locations. And I really focus on bringing everybody that has a role in servicing the customer. I was up in Baltimore, Curtis Bay, everybody from facilities to Kevin and his marketing team, to the people that run the plant, to our engineering, mechanical, everybody has a role to play. And when they see their actions actually doing it together, they become more than customer advocates. They know and can respond to the customer much faster because they know exactly what they can offer. And so, going forward, this is not operations and marketing. No, this is CSX. This is how we approach this. This is how we build the business and keep it and drive it even better for the customer. That’s what I see in three to five years.
Joe Hinrichs: You guys can’t see it, but Mike has the shirt on, it’s ONE CSX. That’s what we’re talking about here. And that’s the vision that our teams are seamless enough that people see CSX as one entity, not a bunch of different functions and silos, all focused on, of course, safety first of our employees and the communities we live in and serve, but ultimately the service we provide our customers, which leads to the growth potential that we’ve all talked about. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out in this business what incremental margins come with growth in this business. But from my year-plus experience here now, we will realize the most potential when we have operations and marketing sales as described by both Kevin and Mike as one team, looking at every opportunity together with a can do, let’s find a way to make sure it’s profitable, let’s find a way to be able to serve the customer and do it efficiently.
And that’s the spirit of ONE CSX, focus on how on teaching and training our employees to be part of that team and to get excited by that opportunity and do it in a way that we’re proud of how we work together in service of the customer. That’s ONE CSX is what everyone’s talking about.
