Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Lance Fritz: cost.

Jennifer Hamann: Okay. Again, we do expect that they could be less year-over-year, but I don’t see that as a significant driver for us.

Walter Spracklin: Okay. Fair enough. And just on the coal side, there’s a lot of talk about deteriorating coal statistics, just understanding your catchment area, I know you got a plus on that outlook. How does that compare with what we are hearing from the EIA and what you are seeing in your catchment area?

Kenny Rocker: Kenny?

Kenny Rocker: Yeah. We feel good about being able to move coal in these natural gas prices and even the forward curve for the rest of the year. I will tell you, there’s still quite a bit of low inventories out there. So I can assure you, those customers are willing and able to receive that coal demand that’s out there.

Walter Spracklin: Okay. Thanks for the time.

Lance Fritz: Yeah. Thank you, Walter.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Bascome Majors with Susquehanna. Please proceed with your question.

Bascome Majors: Lance, thanks for taking my question. As the Chairman of UP, can you talk a little bit to the longer term transition plans? What skill sets do you think the Board really focused on for the next leader of the business? Any time line around that as we have seen some of the leadership at the other Class 1s start to change? Thank you.

Lance Fritz: Sure, Bascome. So we have not announced any leadership transition or timing. We do periodically as a Board review what our needs are, both the skills matrix of the Board and also the skills and development of our leadership team on the management team. And so, yeah, Board has a strong eye on that, knows on a running basis, what we are looking for, what we are thinking about and while we don’t have anything announced, I will make sure and we as a company will make sure that it is transparent when it does occur.

Bascome Majors: Thank you.

Lance Fritz: Yeah.

Operator: Next question is from the line of Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Jordan Alliger: Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Just sort of curious, what are customers, I mean, obviously, Intermodal is a big part of the longer term story and important near term, too. But what do customers tell you in terms of, hey, rails have had a tough time service wise the last year or so. When are they going to be open to really trying you guys again and maybe shifting some of that business back from truck and could that happen in an environment where truck rates are so beat up right now as well? Thanks.

Lance Fritz: Yeah. Kenny, you want to take that, because we are still winning business off of truck.

Kenny Rocker: Yeah. I mean we are definitely still winning business from truck, and what I would tell you is that, we haven’t seen any large pieces and I said that they are earlier move away from them. A lot of that is driven by the economy. Clearly, some of the service challenges we have, we may have seen some lanes move at versus via truck or maybe another mode. But our customers realize that this is a short-term phenomenon and that we are investing, we have been very transparent in our investment again in hiring and our investment in our CapEx, so that they can stay with us.

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