Forward Air Corporation

Thank you for joining Forward Air Corporation's first quarter 2021 earnings release conference call. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that both the press release and web cap presentation for this call are accessible on the investor relations section of Forward Air's website at www.forwardaircorp.com. With us this morning is CEO Tom Schmidt. By now, you should have received the press release announcing our first quarter 2021 results, which was furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K and on the wire yesterday after the market closed. Please be aware that certain statements in the company's earnings press release announcement and on this conference call are making forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements which are based on expectations, intentions, and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends, and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not guaranteed future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For additional information concerning these risks and factors, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the press release and webcast presentation relating to this earnings call. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. And now I'll turn the call over to Tom Schmidt, CEO of Forward Air.

Tom Schmidt Thank you, Tani, and good morning to all of you on the call. I think it's fair to say we are hitting our stride. On our last call, which was February 12th, I shared five observations where we showed and pointed towards momentum. Well, this momentum is continuing and it's accelerating. Let me double click on those observations and refresh them. The first one I shared was we were looking at Q4 and we said this actually looked like an operational beat, if not for the cyber attack. So it ended up actually being a miss. Now you fast forward to Q1, this was a beat. It was a beat despite significant professional services fees, in the wake of the cyber attack, and also making sure we had a strong roadmap in place, standing up to a comparison with our activist shareholder, which we, by the way, ended up in a great cooperation agreement with. But still, despite all of that, Q1 was a beat. Then secondly, the observation I shared in February was we actually had good momentum also going from Q4 into Q1. I pointed specifically to the month of January and the double-digit tonnage increase over January previous year. If you look at the momentum in the quarter, January was just the start. March, in our LTL core business, strongest March ever. Record revenue, record operating income. So we clearly continued that momentum. If I look at the first month and we're April 30th, today, the first month of Q2, continued very, very strong tonnage. There were several days in the month of April, tonnage-wise, in our LTL business that we had never seen at those volume levels before. The third observation I shared was about discipline pricing. If you remember, on February 12th, we talked about the rate increase, the annual rate increase we actually activated on February 1st. the capture rate of that rate increase was at record levels. No exceptions, no exemptions. We needed to make very certain we put in place the technology, the drivers, and the teams to make sure we keep our customer commitments. And we needed those rate increases for that, and we got them. That disciplined pricing will be a hallmark of our company, and it continues. In March, we had to adjust for long-haul distances above 2,000 miles, in our core LTL business, again, to make sure we can invest in getting the teams to keep our customer commitments. So, that discipline pricing continues, that momentum is actually accelerating. The fourth observation we made was about continued organic momentum. If you remember last year, we actually added six more access points to our core LTL network. And we have now more than 100 locations in our LTL business. And one of those six access points we added last year, Fontana and the Inland Empire, is already in the top 15 of our volume across our entire LTL footprint. So these are significant additions to our network. Again, far from done. Next week, we're going to add another access point, Wichita, Kansas. Again, out of our final mile location, making sure we actually take advantage of our footprint across our business units. And next month, we're going to add a LTL access point in the Pacific Northwest in Spokane, Washington. The fifth and final observation I shared in February was the continued momentum also on the inorganic side, adding tuck-in acquisitions in our final mile in the moral drainage business. This particular time last time we talked about Proficient, a great addition to our intermodal business. It's already contributing a couple million dollars of revenue in our Q1. This week on Wednesday, we announced actually an acquisition in our core LTL space. We hadn't done this in years. We actually used organic growth primarily and exclusively over the last five years in our core LTL business. Now we're using the same recipe that we used for Final Mile Intermodal, also for LTL. We added a great company, J&P Hall Express, to our family to make sure we get more capacity to serve our customers in the Atlanta area, a very tight market in southern Georgia and in northern Florida markets. One of the analysts actually talked about us acquiring a baby forward air. Let's endearingly look at it that way. So when you look at these five observations together, it is momentum that's actually continuing and accelerating. So the question is, where does this take us going forward? So Q1 was a beat with a run rate march that's easy in double-digit margin territory. We take this momentum into Q2. We're guiding for a record Q2. way ahead of a Q2 that we had in a peak economy year 2018. Right now, we're seeing double-digit growth rates and margins in a few of our months throughout the year, and I expect to see those double-double numbers on a four-year basis fairly soon. Next year is actually a distinct possibility. That momentum gives us confidence We are doing good things faster, and that's, I think, one thing that this Forward Tough team has been just tremendous at. We're doing good things faster. And also, I should never forget that we have an amazing set of drivers. They are our heroes. Every single day is Driver Appreciation Day. If you look back to February, the second half of February, almost across the country, certainly from the Midwest and Texas all the way up to the Northeast, Our drivers, once again, went above and beyond to deliver on our customer commitment. With that, I'm thrilled about the momentum we are having. We're far from done. If you remember, we also, over the next several weeks and months and years, will work with our customers to bring back the business that went temporarily to sleep last year, the events business. That's still coming on top of the momentum that we already are seeing. I feel very good about where we are. We're doing good things faster, and as I said at the top of this call, we are hitting our stride. So with that, back to you, Tani.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions and comments. If you wish to ask a question or make a comment, please press 1, then 0 on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw your question at any time by repeating the 1-0 command And if you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question or comment today, please press 1, then 0 at this time. Our first question comes from the line of Jack Atkins with Stevens. Please go ahead.