ArcBest Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the ARCBEST 1Q22 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in the listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Friday, April 29, 2022. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Humphrey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us. On today's call, we will walk you through the details of our first quarter 2022 results. Joining me today are Judy McReynolds, Chairman, President, and CEO of Artbest, and David Cobb, Chief Financial Officer of Artbest. And we'll have additional commentary from Dennis Anderson, Artbest's Chief Customer Officer, and Danny Lowe, ARTBEST President of Asset Light Logistics and Chief Yield Officer. To help you better understand ARTBEST and its results, some forward-looking statements could be made during this call. Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to uncertainties and risk. For more complete discussion of factors that could affect ARTBEST's future results, please refer to the Forward-Looking Statements section of our earnings press release, and our most recent SEC public filings. To provide meaningful comparisons, certain information discussed in this call includes non-GAAP financial measures as outlined and described in the tables in our earnings conference press release. Reconciliations of the GAAP financial measures to the related non-GAAP measures discussed in this call are also provided in the additional information section of the presentation slides. As a reminder, the slides that we will be reviewing here can be found on the ARCBEST website, arcb.com, in Exhibit 99.3 of the 8K that was filed earlier this morning, or you can follow along with us on the webcast. We will now begin with Judy.

Thank you for joining me today to talk about our first quarter of 2022 results. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the world events that have transpired since our last call. including the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Our hearts go out to everyone affected, and we join those calling for a peaceful resolution to this conflict. We do not have direct operations in Ukraine or Russia. While it is hard to anticipate the long-term impact of the conflict on macroeconomic conditions and our operating environment, we are confident in our strategic direction and our prospects for continued growth and success. Turning now to the quarter. Our three-point strategy remains our North Star for creating sustainable values, shaping how we do business and how we deliver for our customers and employees. It also guides how and where we invest resources to ensure we continue to grow our business while unlocking new opportunities to help drive the global economy. Our strong first quarter 2022 results, including record profitability and improved operating margins across the business, are a testament to the merits of our strategy and to the team's relentless and outstanding execution of it. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the outstanding work of ARCBEST's talented and dedicated employees. Thank you for everything you do, day in and day out, to meet and exceed the needs of our customers and business partners while creating value for our shareholders. Our exceptional performance in the first quarter of 2022 and over the last several quarters has enabled us to continually make smart investments back into the business, including our people, our solutions, and our technology to advance our vision and adapt to the marketplace while driving revenue growth. I'd like to begin by walking you through the progress we are making in each of these three areas through our reinvestment efforts. Starting with our people. Our people are at the heart of our success, and we want to ensure they have the tools and resources and means needed to excel in their jobs every day. This commitment is exemplified by ABF's current labor contract, which offers one of the highest paying wage and benefit packages in the logistics industry, as well as the landmark capital commitment we have made to investing in ABF facilities and equipment. Next, our solutions. We differentiate ourselves from others in our industry with the breadth of our solutions and our proven ability to serve customers across modes without switching service providers. And our ongoing investments in our asset-based and asset-light business ensure we are positioned to win. By introducing solutions like dynamic pricing, which helps fill empty capacity, we offer customers more sustainable ways of meeting their transportation needs. Finally, our technology. By dedicating time and resources in new and innovative solutions, we're able to improve efficiencies, lower costs, and overcome operational disruptions. Our work on improving digital channels is a great example of this, as we've been able to provide customers a better experience through their ability to digitally interact while lowering our costs. Investments such as this will help drive continued growth for years to come as we solidify ARCBEST's position as a leader in logistics innovation. Our organic initiatives and commitment to embracing new technologies while investing in our people will also help us continue to deliver excellent returns for investors. As we look ahead, we remain grounded in our core business imperatives and continue to invest in these three key areas because we know there is tremendous opportunity in front of us. The last several quarters have proven that the strategy we have in place is the right one to deliver impressive performance and significant returns. As we move forward, we remain confident that continuing to successfully execute our strategic plan will advance and accelerate ArcBest's positive growth trajectory and ensure ongoing efficiency gains and sustainable value creation. And now I'd like to take some time to highlight additional details of our first quarter 2022 results and continuing business momentum. Then David Cobb will take you through the specifics of the quarter in greater detail. Dennis will then elaborate on our customer-led strategy. And Danny will speak to our yield management efforts. And finally, I'll offer a few additional comments before we open it up for questions. In the first quarter, we continue to see strong customer demand for all solutions, achieving record first quarter revenue and a triple-digit percentage increase in non-GAAP consolidated operating income. The MOLO integration has clearly moved the needle for us. It is progressing as expected, and we're already seeing deeper customer relationships. We're pleased with the progress we are making toward the financial goals we laid out when we announced the acquisition and having more than doubled our number of carrier partners to provide more resources for serving our customers. Our customers and employees have validated the benefits of having access to additional capacity. We are finding that in many cases, it is helping us to cover customer loads faster and it aids in business growth on accounts that are already integrated. Beyond the recent acquisition, we are growing our business and positioning our best for the future in other ways as well. The partnership we announced in January with Phantom Auto, the leading provider of human-centered remote operations software, also aligns well with our long-term goals. It complements our existing innovation pipeline, technology roadmap and partnerships, and builds on the important work already underway to support our customer success. We are on track to begin piloting our remote-enabled solutions in customer locations later this year. In our nearly 100 years of business, we've consistently experienced seasons of volatility in the freight market, and the first quarter was no different. However, thanks to our balanced mix, customer-led strategy, people-centric culture, and strong yield management and expertise, we are uniquely well positioned to successfully navigate unpredictable market conditions as evidenced by our first quarter results. In short, ArcVest is firing on all cylinders, and I'm incredibly pleased and excited that our company is poised to continue growing, meeting customer needs, and delivering superior and sustainable results for investors, even during periods of market volatility and uncertainty. And now I'll turn it over to David Cobb.