And we look for ways that we can continue to execute on a continuous improvement process, which is a central element of our foundation for success. So we’ve got a better service product than anyone else in our industry. We’re proud that we’ve won the Mastio Quality Award for 14 years in a row and the service gap between us and the others actually got wider in last year’s analysis. So that’s something that we’ll remain focused on and keep trying to do things that our customers are asking from us and to be able to deliver that superior service at a fair price to our customers as well. So the competition that is trying to emulate us. I guess that’s one to say about imitation being the most sincere form of flattery, we’ll continue to watch and see what they’re doing, but it’s something that people have been trying to emulate for years, and we’re not sitting steel to let someone try to come up and catch us.
We’re working hard every day to get better to make sure that, that service gap and the overall value gap that we had continues to get wider.
Joe Hafling: Great. And then maybe just on that point, have you heard any maybe anecdotes from customers lately on any service issues? Or is the environment just still too weak right now, so that could really become an issue?
Marty Freeman: Yes. I haven’t heard anything out of the ordinary, things that we wouldn’t normally hear. But the reporting – we’ve had some improvement in our – the national account reporting that we get with wins and losses and service issues are starting to increase, I would just say, generally, we’re starting to see those start to pick up. So just something that’s kind of on the press pace of one other item that’s kind of changing in our favor.
Joe Hafling: Got it. Thanks so much for the color.
Operator: The next question comes from Jason Seidl of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Jason Seidl: Thank you, operator. A couple of quick questions here. Number one, when we’re thinking about sort of either the tonnage or market share, it seems that pre-pandemic, it was more of a just-in-time supply chain, and that shifted a little bit to just in case now. It seems like we’re probably moving back a little bit more towards the JIT. Is this something that just sort of favors your operational model and service standards? And if it does, should we expect you to sort of get back to sort of the old ways of old Dominion of sort of being the market share leader?
Marty Freeman: Yes, I think so, Jason, I agree with you. And I felt like post-pandemic, we were going to stay in more of an adjusting case type of inventory management style. But once things get tight and you start managing cost, you have to look at all elements and managing tighter inventory is one way for shippers to improve their overall bottom line. And so we’ve seen that trend kind of work its way back to the JIT. And we’ve had anecdotal feedback from customers that have come in and visited us as well that may have had elevated inventory levels that they have now worked through. So hopefully, that will be a good thing for us. And it generally is, obviously, if you’re managing tighter inventory, you’ve got to rely on a shipper that can deliver on time and without damage.
If you don’t have excess inventory sitting around, you can’t afford to have a shipment come in that’s completely damaged and you’ve got to deal with return and reorder type of situation. And so that has supported our ability to win market share over time. It’s something that we think will continue to allow us to win market share as we go forward. And it works both with our industrial and our retail customers. But on the retail side, with the on-demand and in full programs that many retailers have put in place to manage their inventory. That’s a tremendous opportunity for continued growth in our business as well. And we’re able to meet the expectations of those retailers and take the vendor-controlled freight and make sure that we hit those delivery windows, and we’re doing it 99% of the time and without any type of damage.
So we’re minimizing in some cases, millions of dollars of chargebacks for retail-related customers that are delivering to those big-box retailers with those on-time and full programs in place. So a lot of good opportunity when we look down the long-term curve and it’s why we’re so confident in our ability to keep winning market share into the future. I feel like we continue to have a long runway for growth, and that’s what dictates and determines our capital expenditure program. We look at where we see growth coming from. A lot of that is based on customer conversations that we’re having for how their business levels are going to be changing into the future as well. And that dictates how we continue to expand out our network. So as long as we have line of sight into the next 5 years of growth, and that’s generally what we’re kind of pre-investing for.
We will continue to invest the money into our real estate program and further expand the service center network. But it’s all grounded on a line of sight into the market share opportunities. It’s not just a build it and hope they come.
Jason Seidl: Right. That makes sense. If I could just follow up with a clarification something you talked about your growth rates month-to-date in April. But did I miss — did you guys give how that compares to historical averages?
Marty Freeman: In terms of a sequential standpoint or…
Jason Seidl: Yes, because I think you mentioned the sequential gain in tonnage in April, but I don’t know if I missed the historical average comp.
Marty Freeman: Yes. So far, I mean, obviously, we’re not completely done, but we’re somewhere around 48,000 shipments per day. So just up slightly from where we were in March. And we’ll see, hopefully, that will increase a little bit that average count, if you will. But when we look at what normal seasonality, the 10-year average is a 0.4% increase from March into April for shipments. But recall that we had a good Friday is in there in March this year. So in years where that is the case, it would be a 2% increase from March to April. So right now, trending lower than that 2% growth. But when you look back at kind of what we were able to achieve in February and March, again, consistent growth on the tonnage side we saw the, just call it, 2% sequential growth from January to February and then about 2.5% from February to March, demonstrating a little bit of pickup in weight per shipment there that kind of help that metric.
