Daseke, Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Daske's financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2021. With us today are Jonathan Shepco, Interim CEO and Board Member, Jason Bates, EVP and CFO, and Jonathan Michelle, VP of Treasury and Investor Relations. After their prepared remarks, the management team will take your questions. As a reminder, you may now download a PDF of the presentation slides that will accompany the remarks made on today's conference call, as indicated in this press release we issued earlier today. You may access the slides in the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Jonathan Michel, VP of Treasury and Investor Relations, who will read the company's safe harbor statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important caution regarding forward-looking statements. John, please go ahead.

Thank you, Cathy. Please turn to slide two for a review of our safe harbor and non-GAAP statements. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements as within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Projected financial information, including our guidance outlook, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, including those with respect to revenues, earnings, performance, strategies, prospects, and other aspects of Daske's business, are based on management's current estimates, projections, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. I encourage you to read our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of the risks that can affect our business and to not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. During the call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP, including but not limited to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating ratio, adjusted operating income, adjusted net income or loss, free cash flow, and net debt. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the investor presentation and press release issued this morning. both of which are available in the Investors tab of the Dasky website, www.dasky.com. In terms of the structure of our call today, Jonathan will start with a review of our business operations and the progress we are making as we execute against our key strategic priorities. Jason will then walk through a financial review of the quarter. And finally, Jonathan will come back to wrap up our remarks with a few closing comments before we open the line for your questions. I'd like to turn the call over to Dasky's interim CEO, Mr. Jonathan Schepko. Jonathan.

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to start off today's call by taking a moment to make mention of a noteworthy accomplishment by our company. This quarter will mark the fourth consecutive quarter in which our team has successfully executed against our internal and external expectations. What's more, this accomplishment has been realized in the midst of not only a comprehensive transformational overhaul within our organization, but also strong headwinds from the global pandemic. Our results continue to reflect the hard work and commitment of all of our employees and the benefit of our unique business model, which remains supported by diversity across our customer base, as well as the industrial end markets that we serve. Our unique model, which at its core is constructed around an asset-right fleet, serving a well-diversified portfolio of end markets, geographies, and customers, enables Dasky to better weather volatility across market cycles. It offers a unique advantage in that it allows us to reposition and flex our resources to take advantage of the highest and best use opportunities available to our fleet at any point in time. And our strong performance this last quarter was underpinned by these very attributes as we captured the reflation of numerous markets such as steel, glass, construction, and manufacturing that are approaching and in some cases exceeding their pre-pandemic levels. Let's begin our discussion on slide three where we outline a few of the notable takeaways from the first quarter. We had $334 million of revenue during the period and nearly $36 million in adjusted EBITDA. Gatsby's transformation over the last year and a half has been focused on operational excellence and improving our cost structure in order to drive performance, reduce costs, and achieve greater efficiency. We've held true to those lasting priorities, and we are working hard to ensure continuous improvement remains part of our culture. To that end, we believe we are making solid progress as evidenced in our results as our adjusted operating ratio of 95.6% was a 140 basis point improvement on a consolidated basis, and our free cash flow was $34 million for the quarter. Our business performance in Q1 was clearly supported by the improving economic landscape across the broader industrial economy, which is driving a healthy rate environment. For those of you not familiar with the seasonality of open-deck transportation, I would like to note that we have a slightly different seasonal pattern than our friends in dry vans. We traditionally see improved fundamentals in the second and third quarters, with the first and fourth quarters being seasonally slower. That said, the strength of the market for the last two quarters, which should have been our off-market quarters, has been unprecedented and has us highly encouraged about the continued prospect for stronger performance in the second and third quarters. With that, I will now turn the call over to Jason Bates to review our first quarter financial performance. Jason?