Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Lance Fritz : So Jennifer, it’s for all agreements?

Jennifer Hamann : And it’s for all agreements, which, again, we’re going to be implementing over not just the back half of this year but well into 2024.

Eric Gehringer : I think we also pointed out in our commentary that, that number is going to be highly impacted by the behavior that comes from these agreements. And we’re not ready today to say exactly what that will look like. We’ll continue to look to it, though.

Jennifer Hamann : Absolutely.

Lance Fritz : But he had the back half of his question there, which was about offsets and…

Eric Gehringer : Yes. The offsets really haven’t changed from the ones that I answered a few moments ago. They really focused on the availability on the 11 and 4 and they focus on the brake person about actually removing brake persons off of positions that are no longer needed.

David Vernon : So if you were to say like how much of the 400 to 600 is in this year versus coming into next year, is it a quarter, is it half? Is there a way to directionally sort of indicate how much is going to be in this year?

Jennifer Hamann : Again, it does depend on what the behavior is. But there will be some amount, maybe 0.25 to 0.50. That’s probably not a bad estimate. Sick leave, obviously, that part we have fully done now. So any heads that we think that we need to add for that, that’s done. Obviously, we get offsets this year too with the brake person agreement. So there’s a bit of a netting effect. And then it really is pace and timing of the BLET work rest, getting SMART-TD. And of course, we will — because it’s really the training piece of it, right? So we’re going to need to — for BLET, we need to put more engineers in the training pipeline. And with that, you need to continue to hire some conductors. So there will be some portion, 50% might be at the max side, I would say, but probably somewhere in there is a safe bet.

Lance Fritz : And Jennifer, I think you had said this, but your total guidance sequentially for the back half labor being flattish includes all that.

Jennifer Hamann : Yes, it absolutely includes all of that.

Operator: Our final question is from the line of Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs.

Jordan Alliger : More of an operational question. Curious, trip plan compliance, where do you think that needs to go both at the manifest intermodal level, but specifically on intermodal. Is the way to think about intermodal conversion accelerating tied to a certain level of trip plan compliance for that? And if so, where do customers really take note and you start to see an acceleration of market share gains?

Eric Gehringer : Yes. Thank you for the question, Jordan. So when you — we’ve been very consistent. And when you think about the intermodal TPC, you’re talking about a number that starts with an 8. And when you’re thinking about manifest and autos, it starts with the 7. Now that’s highly informed and continues to be evolving. We went through a very large engagement with our customer base through Kenny’s team towards the back end of last year that is informed this year and how we think about that, more specifically to segments within those customers. Now that work continues because — and as we’ve reinforced before, we know that our customers are sensitive, in fact, very sensitive to our service. That’s why we’re encouraged by the progress we made. And in no way are we saying that our service is where it needs to be now. It was a great step in the right direction. We’ve got more work to do.

Lance Fritz : Thank you, Jordan, and thank you all for your questions, and thank you for joining us on the call today. We appreciate your interest and your ownership in Union Pacific, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Take care.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you.

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