Jim Gattoni: Yes, unfortunately, I can’t speak for the next CEO about that if, you know, we haven’t changed our splits since I’ve been here pretty much, tweak them maybe a little bit. So I would probably defer that conversation for at least tomorrow or when, you know, you can call Frank when he’s here in the office and ask his opinion, but that one’s a tough. Going back to the 2020 move that we made, it was the suddenness of the drop in freight demand that actually had us react. It wasn’t this gradual slowdown in the environment. It wasn’t normal economics. So that’s why we, and what we did back then, what I believe is we added $50 per load to the BCO plus $50 per load to the agent to compensate them in an environment that basically the door closed on the freight environment suddenly.
So we did that for three or four, maybe six months. I don’t really remember. But that was a reaction to a very abnormal environment. This is kind of a trending downwards. And I think it’s a great discussion that the management team’s going to have with the new CEO coming in. I don’t want to say he won’t do it, and I’m not saying he will do it, but I think that’s a conversation we had later.
Bascome Majors: Thank you. And thoughts on the stock and your investment in that this year, just kind of where you are in the matrix and what we can expect from a buyback versus special dividend balance from where we sit today?
Jim Todd: Hey, Bascome, you know our preference. I think Gattoni put it best several years back when he said our two favorite things to do here are work card and buyback stock, and based on the conversations I’ve had with Frank so far and what I’ve read about him, I think he’s going to fit in just fine.
Bascome Majors: Thank you for the time.
Jim Gattoni: One thing to touch on too, is if you looked at the fourth quarter buybacks, we bought 239,000 shares back, we probably would have been in more, except for the confidential, the insider information about me departing, it was coming almost finalized, so we had to kind of get out of the market.
Operator: Thank you. We will move now to the next question coming from the line of Amit Mehrotra of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, thanks. This is Ben, calling in for Amit. Wanted to ask, how do you expect your cost structure to trend in 2024, including incentive costs? It looks like if you apply normal seasonality on loads and revenue per load for the balance of the year, we’re getting to 2024 EPS at below $6. Is that the right way to think about it? And can you provide any other color in costs?
Jim Todd: Ben, it’s hard enough for us to go 90 days out, than a full year out, so the big one that I call out is that $17 million discreet headwind on the G&A line, and the couple tailwinds I mentioned on the other operating cost line. Insurance 5.5 is the number we’re using, that’s our best guess, we’ll continue to revisit that each quarter.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay, appreciate that, and maybe just as a follow-up, we’re still seeing truck capacity based on DOT registrations very high, with only very minimal exits with the past couple of months, and some economists are projecting stimulus cash to last possibly through this year, maybe even into the next year, so we could be in for a very loose capacity for longer. Would you guys agree, and what are you seeing or hearing on this?
Jim Gattoni: Yes, Ben, I’ve watched the same net revocation data that you do, and I do think that the decline in the market for a capacity, it seems slow, but one of the things I don’t think it accounts for is, I don’t think it necessarily tracks carriers that have gone from 10 trucks to three trucks or two trucks. I think maybe there’s a little bit more end to this than we can count in just the DOT data, but I also agree that it’s hanging around longer than I think many, myself included, thought it would, just based on what we said earlier, the duration of the decline, and the severity of the decline, but I have no crystal ball to know how long it’s going to last, and people will stick around. It just doesn’t seem like with the cost pressures that exist that it could last another year, it doesn’t seem to ring true with me, but I guess we’ll see.
Jim Todd: Yes, and Ben, I would just add to Jim’s comments earlier, with respect to those net revenue spreads on brokers that we watch, first quarter of 2023 was the widest quarter I have on record, going back 52 quarters. We compressed gradually 1Q into 2Q, 2Q into 3Q, but ended up compressing 55 basis points, third quarter to fourth quarter. So again, that could be an early read that maybe things are starting to firm up a little bit.
Unidentified Analyst: Great, thank you very much. Appreciate the insights.
Operator: Thank you. We will now move to the next question coming from the line of Elliot Alper of TD Cowen. Your line is now open.
Elliot Alper: Great, thank you. This is for Elliot on for Jason Seidl. Revenue per load maybe on the ocean side, stepped up 13% sequentially. Curious if this was just some seasonality, or if you’re seeing some capacity tightness due to the situations in the Red Sea or Suez, it still would appreciate maybe your thoughts on how this could affect the business going forward, or maybe what you’re seeing through January?
