FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Vernon: Hey. Good afternoon. Look forward to seeing you guys in a couple of weeks. Raj or Mike, I’d like to talk — I’d like to ask you to talk a little bit more about the fleet strategy going forward. I know you mentioned the intention to park the MD-11s. We’re running 422 trunk aircraft right now. If we were to kind of run this volume in the new fleet design, how big of an aircraft fleet would you guys have? I’m just trying to get a sense for and find some way to answer the question that I often get from investors, which is how do we underwrite lower CapEx going forward? Aren’t they just going to need to replace those 60 aircraft? Thank you.

Raj Subramaniam: Thank you, David. Our fleet modernization strategy that we’ve been underway has allowed us to build a more agile and flexible fleet. And so, we come to a fork in the road here, are we going to see a high demand environment or a low demand environment? And the MD-11 was that flex fleet. And as we now look at the demand environment, we don’t see that high demand coming through. So, we look at opportunities to right-size the fleet, and this is the predominant planning cycle as happens over Q4, so we’ll update you on those plans as our entire fleets needs are finalized here.

Operator: Our next question is from Amit Mehrotra of Deutsche Bank.

Amit Mehrotra: Mike, I just wanted to ask a question on Express margins just coming back to it a little bit because if I look at the range of outcomes over the last couple of years, it’s been as high as 9.2%; it’s been as low as 1.2%, which you just reported. And it’s your biggest business. And I really don’t have any clue what Express margins could be next year. And I was hoping you can kind of help us think about that. If macro kind of stays where it is today and what’s the right way to think about the recovery in Express margins next year? And then kind of related to that, one of the criticisms from the Investor Day was the Q&A wasn’t really — didn’t have a lot of, how do I say, detail around the bottom-up strategy, the cadence of the pathway to the improvement.

So, as you guys think about DRIVE Day, is incorporated in DRIVE Day a cadence of margin improvement by each division so we can — everybody can be held accountable for the plan as it stands when you present it? Thank you.

Mike Lenz: Sure. Matt, let me address the aspects of that. So first, the way we have structured the DRIVE framework is that we have 12 domains with individuals assigned to each of those that are accountable and own the realization of the opportunities that are identified there. Now, of course, there’s multiple teams, and there’s multiple sub initiatives under that to enable those outcomes. But to the question of how do we measure and have accountability, that is definitely the structure and framework that we have in place. To your question about Express margin and profit volatility, that’s precisely what Raj was highlighting is a primary focus is to make the business more agile, more flexible with the various deployment of technology, making our fleet more flexible so that we can react and adjust. So, certainly realize that we need to build from here, and fully anticipate that going forward, and we will be relentlessly focused on that across the board.

Operator: Our next question is from Ravi Shanker of Morgan Stanley.