Daseke, Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's conference call to discuss Dasky's financial and operational results for the quarter ended September 30th, 2023. With us today are Jonathan Shepko, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member, Aaron Coley, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Scott Hoppe, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Adrian Griffin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. I would like to hand the call over to Adrian Griffin. Adrian, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin. As indicated in the press release earlier today, participants may now download the third quarter 2023 presentation that will accompany the remarks made on today's call. You may access this presentation on Daske's website, www.daske.com, in the events and presentations portion within the investor relations section. Slide two of today's presentation contains our safe harbor and non-gap statements. Today's presentation also contains forward-looking statements 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 could affect our business, and not to place any 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 and not limited to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted operating ratio, adjusted operating income, and adjusted net income or loss. 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 on our website. In terms of the structure of our call today, I will first turn the call over to Jonathan Shepko, who will review our business operations and then progress that we're making as we execute our key strategic priorities. Aaron Coley will then provide an update on our third quarter results. Jonathan will conclude our prepared remarks with an updated 2023 outlook before we open the line for your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jonathan. Jonathan?

Thank you, Adrienne, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I provide our results for the third quarter and outlook for the final quarter of the year, I'd like to thank our team members for their ongoing service to our customers, our vendors, their fellow team members, and our company. Thus far, during a challenging year for the transportation and logistics industry, our team has achieved many successes. In fact, we have demonstrated improved performance during the cycle trough, including enhanced operational productivity, successful execution of our 2023 One Dasky initiatives, and the strengthening of our balance sheet. Our collective performance will advance our business for many years to come. During the quarter, we recorded 98 million total consolidated miles, a 2 million mile increase over the prior year period, with company miles reporting 8.5% growth. In concert with the additional mileage, our organization has taken decisive actions to improve our operating performance. Year-over-year consolidated productivity, as measured by miles per seated tractor per day, improved 0.6%. we added 10 percent to our company tractor fleet and concurrently improved utilization by 0.6 percent. Achieving operational improvement is materially more difficult in a softer environment. Thus, these results are a testament to our team's focused and deliberate execution. Simultaneously, our operating teams have also diligently allocated incremental and higher rate loads to our company-owned fleet for improved margin capture. We continue to advance our one-desk initiatives to improve our process and position ourselves for the upcycle. Earlier this year, for example, we launched a new platform that facilitates company-wide visibility for our recruiters to see and share open driving positions across the Dasky organization. With a holistic view of open driving positions, recruiters can efficiently collaborate to guide the best driving talent to the optimal fit anywhere within Dasky. Another encouraging success is the completion of our first phase integrations. In late 2022, we began integrating two smaller operating companies into our largest specialized operating company. At the inception of the integration, the two smaller opcos struggled with higher unseated truck count, operational challenges, and commercial opportunities collectively, driving each of these companies' operating ratios to exceed 100%. Over the last several months, as the benefits of these integrations have begun to offset the friction costs, we have seen a several hundred basis point improvement in operating ratio in a much more challenging environment. And on our August earnings call, we discussed taking actions to integrate an underperforming southeast flatbed fleet with one of our stronger core southeast flatbed platform companies. The once underperforming fleet is now delivering margins on par with a stronger platform company, helping offset some of the continued market weakness. Performer for these integrations, the combined operations are improving financial and operational metrics, and these integrations have absolutely contributed to improved adjusted EBITDA performance in 2023. In fact, with these cumulative actions, We are pleased to report achieving the $10 million in adjusted EBITDA contribution we set as a goal for this current year, and we would expect this post-integration value uplift to be even more pronounced in stronger market environments. These actions are concrete examples of the strategies we are employing to optimize our operations, improve consolidated performance, and deliver strong returns. For our final update on improved performance during the cycle trough, we have firmly adhered to our commitment to enhance our balance sheet, using excess cash to reduce higher cost components of our capital structure, reducing gross debt, and lowering ongoing cash costs, which Aaron will now detail in his prepared remarks. Aaron?