Sean Pelkey : Sure, Brian. I’ll begin on the copper employees. So we did have some true-ups in terms of vacation and sick leave that I mentioned in the quarter. That was probably about $15 million. We also had work that moved from capital into OE. We typically have that in the fourth quarter. So those will both be tailwinds going into the first quarter on comp per employee. So I would expect if you’re modeling that a couple of percentage point improvement versus what we reported in Q4. Should be pretty steady in the first half. And then again, we have that 4% wage increase scheduled in July, so probably step up a little bit in the second half of the year. Notwithstanding the efficiency initiatives that Mike and the team are focused on.
Operator: Your next question —
Mike Cory : Sorry. I was just going to finish up. Look, overall asset use, whether it’s locomotives, trains we run, how productive all of us are, they’re front and center for what we look at. And so for me, it’s really, I’d say out of a scale out 1 to 10, I’m about a 4 in terms of where I am in understanding our network and understanding our people. However, we’re really starting to focus in on the things that aren’t working right. They aren’t working against what we think we can do with the franchise, with the network we have. So whether it’s size of trains, the state of the train, the use of the technology we have to get the most out of the locomotive. It’s just, right now, it’s blocking and tackling, and it’s everybody coming together.
So we’re learning, we’re teaching we’re sharing best practices. We’re doing the things that, in that fourth quarter was really the last couple of months that we really started to see the things we could do because, first of all, we had the head count. We had the reliability and the fluidity of the network. And so we’re just going to keep grinding that stone. But as I said in my remarks, we’re going to really get deep into the operating plans over every corridor over the next few quarters. And I’ll leave that charge, but I tell you what, I’ve got a lot of people that are that are out there ready to go and they’re very qualified to do this. So I see, to Sean’s point, we got further efficiency ahead of us, but never at the expense of safety and never at the expense of customer service.
So our hope is that we continue to provide this great product and the customers are going to come. And that’s how we’ll also get the efficiency that we need.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Justin Long from Stephens. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Justin Long : Thanks, good afternoon. So with the 2024 guidance being the same for volumes and revenue, low to mid-single digit growth. Is it right to think that your assumption for revenue per unit all-in is flattish? And either way, I was wondering if you could provide some more color on your expectations for coal RPU maybe for the first quarter and then the full year as well? Thanks.
Kevin Boone : Hey, Justin, this is Kevin. I think you hit on it right there on the coal RPU. Obviously, very healthy market right now, how much you embed that going forward? We’re optimistic, but we know this market can move around quite a bit. And so maybe a little bit of conservative outlook as we move through the year. Hopefully, there’s some upside to that, but that’s largely impacting it, as you mentioned, from an RPU perspective. The other thing that I would highlight is we do expect the intermodal market to bounce back here, and that’s a lower RPU business as well, but that will be contributory to our growth this year from a volume and revenue perspective. So lower ARPU overall. So that will mix it down a bit. But those are the two large factors that you just highlighted and you know about.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Scott Group from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Scott Group : Hey, thanks, afternoon. So I want to just dig into the cost side a little bit. So if I just look, I understand some noise with vacations and paid sick but cost ex fuel up about 3% to 4% from Q3 with volume up less than 1%. So it’s just, we’ve seen a lot of cost creep that continued in Q4. I guess, ultimately, I’m trying to figure out where do we go from here? Can we start to see overall cost levels stabilize? Do they still increase, but increase just at a slower pace? Is there any chance they could start to come down a little bit? I don’t know. I’m just struggling with how to think about the cost side. So any help there?
