And so I see the opportunities really in the touches of the cars that we do today. So I see further incremental improvement. I see the ability with the capacity we’re creating with the locomotives that we’ve got added to the storage count to the capacity we created online by having less movements. I see us being able to handle incremental volume with what we have in many cases. But again, there are those key areas we want to make sure that we have the right head count for.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Ken Hoexter : Great, good afternoon. So just, I guess, thinking about the performance there, either Mike or Joe, it looked like your on-time origination is down at 71% on-time arrivals at 69%. What is still missing from the operations to get that efficiency improving? Have you changed the categories at all to see those sliding since the beginning of the year? Maybe just what are your thoughts on how that gets increased efficiency to get those additional operating leverage savings?
Mike Cory : Yeah, thanks, Ken. It just goes back to what I’m talking about in our yards and our terminal performance, and that’s where our focus will be. Again, I’ve been getting the folks to really focus on connecting cars, increasing train size. So we’re going through some growth periods in that sense. Yeah, it’s affecting the on-time performance. But at the end of the day, we’re counting on making sure we fulfill the trip plan of the customer, and in some cases, it’s going to change the way we design our network and the time the trains go. So I’m not concerned about that at this stage. It certainly isn’t anything to do with congestion or poor performance. These are the growing, the growth what I call, growth observations of a network that’s starting to change and really look to more maximize the assets that we have out there to create capacity.
So it’s not a cause of concern at this moment. Trust me, we look at it in a lot, measured at the minute. So this isn’t, it’s not like we’ve got trains that are late, late, late. These are fractions of hours. And so that’s fine. We know we have to operate on time. But at the end of the day, it’s the delivery to the customer. It’s their first mile, last miles, their pain points that we’re focused on. And at the same time, we’re driving efficiency through running a more condensed network.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Wetherbee from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Chris Wetherbee : Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Maybe I just wanted to follow up on the Resources question. I guess, as you think about the portfolio of the business opportunities ahead of you that informs the volume growth outlook. Can that be done? Or what are the resources required, I guess, as you think about the plans? When we think about headcount, maybe specifically, but maybe also locomotives, what is the growth associated with that that you guys have in the plan for 2024?
Sean Pelkey : Yeah. I mean, Chris, one thing to just think about is we added head count through the year in 2023, right? So if we just held everything flat to where we ended the year last year, would be up 2% year-over-year with a little bit more of that year-over-year growth in the first half than in the second half. I think our view right now is that, by and large, with a couple of exceptions, we should be able to hold head count flat and absorb the new growth that’s coming on in the network. And so we’ll be able to do that. First quarter, it won’t look like tremendous employee efficiency just because we added through the year last year, we get into the second half of the year. I think that’s where you’re going to see the labor productivity show up.
Mike Cory : Yeah. And just on top of that, too, Chris. Staying with locomotives, where we still have opportunity to use the locomotives we have out there working, use them harder. And so that’s a big focus for us, whether it’s dwell, whether it’s connection, whether it’s what they’re pulling, I believe we have the capacity to grow just of what we have out there right now.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Amit Mahrotra from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Amit Mehrotra : Thanks, Operator. Hi, everybody. So, Sean, can you just help us, I guess, calibrate 1Q expectations in terms of operating ratio. You talked about $30 million to $35 million of kind of one-timers in the fourth quarter. I think that’s like a point of OR. Volume is down, I guess, a little over 6%. So that’s obviously a headwind weather is tough. So just talk about that. And then on the cost side, PS&O costs, there’s a lot of focus on labor. Again, it’s your biggest cost bucket, but PS&O is a pretty large bucket. And if I look over the last three to four years, the rate of inflation in PS&O costs are like more than double revenue growth. What’s going on there? What’s the opportunity to kind of hold the line or bring that down? Because if I remember correctly, back in ’17- ’18 was really a great place to look for efficiency and opportunity. I just want to know if there’s an opportunity there in ’24 as well.
