PACCAR Inc (NASDAQ:PCAR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jerry Revich: Okay. Super. And lastly, on parts, really strong performance in the fourth quarter and the outlook for the first quarter is certainly higher than what we had in our model and what we’re seeing for other companies. Can you just touch on how you folks have managed the parts delivery time frame in the first quarter of 2023 because I think for most companies, the first quarter is going to be a really tough comp that saw inventory stocking in the first quarter of 2023. It doesn’t sound like you folks have face that, but can you just spend a minute just addressing how you folks were able to avoid stocking in the first quarter of last year?

Harrie Schippers: So, you’re spot on, Jerry. We’ve 3% to 5% growth this quarter compared to the record quarter last year, a nice performance. It effect really reflects all the fantastic things our parts team is doing. Focusing on technology that makes it easy to the buyer from us, the e-commerce technology, the MDI, where we manage the dealer’s inventory, make sure the parts are available when needed. Our continuous investments in parts distribution centers. The strong performance of the PACCAR engine that provide us more proprietary part. So, it just all adds up, and we’ve been seeing some nice trends on parts over the years as a result of these and we expect those to continue into this year.

Jerry Revich: Great. I appreciate the discussion. Thank you.

Preston Feight: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Steven Fisher from UBS. Steven, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Steven Fisher: Thanks. Good morning. Just as we think about 2024. How much visibility do you have on the truck outlook? Like, how well are you booked into Q1 and Q2? I imagine Q1 is pretty solidly booked and maybe even Q2 at this point, but curious also about the second half. And what are your customers kind of telling you about later in the year?

Preston Feight: Yes, as you know, Q1 is effectively full and Q2 is filling in very nicely. As we look out, there’s obviously customers — lots of customers by full year with spread delivery. So we see some growing backlog in the second half as well, and things feel pretty healthy.

Steven Fisher: Okay. Great. And then can you talk about the cost inflation that you’re seeing, both on the direct and the indirect side. Is it safe to assume that, that maybe in line with the overall inflation in the economy, maybe you still have some puts and takes in various directions, but it kind of nets out to the overall level of inflation in the economy. And then, if that’s the case, is the pricing strategy to sort of just cover those costs? Or do you have maybe some additional cost reduction programs aimed at sort of trying to preserve margins in 2024. I know you always have some efficiency things that you have going on, but I’m curious if this is a year to sort of step up the cost reductions if you’re only able to cover inflation with your pricing.

Preston Feight: You think inflationary we’re experiencing is the same things as most people are with inflation as it’s moderated some, and we do see inflationary costs. And obviously, we try to acknowledge that in our pricing, and we do focus on reducing cost on the product as a continuous thing we do. And our teams are fully focused on it, and I think we can do a good job on it this year.

Steven Fisher: Okay. Thank you, very much.

Preston Feight: You bet.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Tim Thein from Citigroup. Tim, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Tim Thein: Hi, good morning. Just one for me and it’s just on the truck business and specifically on mix, and there was one asked earlier about geographic mix. But I’m curious about from the standpoint of kind of product and customer from an environment where you’re selling more straight trucks which is probably added in, but also medium duty and sleepers. If that — those become a bigger percentage of the delivery relative to the sleepers, is there a — is there much of a — should we think about that as being accretive headwind to margin neutral? Any comment on that? And then I guess just, I guess, part B of that is from a customer standpoint, if you have a dynamic where your larger carriers are representing more of the order board in ’24. How too does that — should we think about that presumably more of a headwind, but any way to kind of think about those two factors? Thank you.