J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Krista and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the J.B. Hunt Transport Services Incorporated third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. Thank you. Brian Delgo, Senior Vice President for J.B. Hunt. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Before I introduce the speakers, I would like to provide some disclosures regarding forward-looking statements. This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates, or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on J.B. Hunt's current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results to be materially different from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. For more information regarding risk factors, please refer to J.B. Hunt's annual report on Form 10-K and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, I'd like to introduce the speakers on today's call. This afternoon, I'm joined by our CEO, John Roberts, our President, Shelley Simpson, our CFO, John Kulo, Nick Hobbs, COO and President of Contract Services, Darren Field, President of Intermodal, and Brad Hicks, EVP of People and President of Highway Services. I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. John Roberts, for some opening comments. John?

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon. I would like to take a minute to highlight and reinforce some of the key tenets around how we manage the company. While the challenges in the freight cycle are well-known and documented, and as a result there is no need to rehash here, I will again remind you about our long-term approach to the business. Our focus is on deploying capital in areas of the transportation industry where we see long-term opportunity to compound returns. We participate in an industry with a large addressable market that is cyclical. Remaining disciplined around our investments with a long-term focus on our people, technology that enables, and capacity to deliver for and on behalf of our customers will support and drive long-term growth for the company and our shareholders. In March of 2022, we announced a joint initiative with BNSF to substantially improve intermodal capacity and service for our customers. We recently announced and closed the acquisition of the brokerage assets of BNSF Logistics. These are key examples of how our companies are working together to best align efficient and value-added solutions for our customers. While the brokerage market is challenged, we see lots of opportunities to drive efficiency in the supply chain with our people, powered and enabled by our technology, our J.B. Hunt 360 platforms. We continue to work closely with BNSF and all of our rail service providers to strengthen and create a more reliable intermodal product, and I am pleased to see the progress in our intermodal segment relative to the market and our results. Dedicated and final mile continue to show resiliency in this environment, proving again that our premium service products can be differentiated from the competition. Our J.B. Hunt 360 box product in our truckload segment continues to experience growth, providing an asset-like solution while also leveraging our investments in technology to efficiently serve customers. In closing, we have a tremendous team here at J.B. Hunt with a lot of experience. We will remain disciplined on cost and investments to best prepare the company to serve the growing needs of our customers. We will remain focused on earning appropriate returns on capital and driving efficiency in the supply chain to drive greater value for our customers. I remain confident in the future growth of the company. Now, I'll turn the call over to our president, Shelly Simpson.