Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Old Dominion Freight Line first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Jack Atkins, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Andrea, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the first quarter 2024 conference call for Old Dominion Freight Line. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning today and through May 1st, 2024 by dialing 1-877-344-7529. access code 5260631. The replay of the webcast may also be accessed for 30 days at the company's website. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements, among others, regarding Old Dominion's expected financial and operating performance. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words believes, anticipates, plans, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. You are hereby cautioned that these statements may be affected by the important factors, among others, set forth in Old Dominion's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in this morning's news release, and consequently, actual operations and results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. As a final note before we begin, we welcome your questions today, but ask that you limit yourselves to one question at a time before returning to the queue. Thank you for your cooperation. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Marty Freeman, the company's president and chief executive officer, for opening remarks. Marty, please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter conference call this morning. With me on the call today is Adam Satterfield, our CFO. And after some brief remarks, we will be glad to take your questions. Old Dominion's financial results improved during the first quarter of 2024, despite the continued softness in the domestic economy. While the improvement in our results was modest, we produced year over year increases in both revenue and earnings per diluted share for the second straight quarter. Our earnings per diluted share of $1.34 also represents a new company record for the first quarter. To produce these results, our OD family of employees continue to execute on long-term strategic plan that helped create one of the strongest records of growth and profitability in the LTL industry. This was evidenced by our team's ability to once again deliver 99% on-time service and a 0.1 cargo claims ratio for the first quarter. Consistently delivering superior service at a fair price is the central element of our strategic plan, and we have created a best-in-class value proposition as a result. This value proposition continues to create opportunities for us to win market share over the long term and has also helped strengthen our customer relationships. Our customer retention trends have remained steady over the past two years despite a domestic economy. that has been sluggish for longer than we originally anticipated. Our customers have had fewer shipments to give us as a result of the slower economic environment, but we are strongly positioned to respond to their needs when demand eventually improves. Demand can very quickly change in the LTL industry, and the OD team has experience in dealing with these challenges that rapid growth can present. This is why we focus so intently on our long-term market share initiatives and make decisions to help us achieve these goals, despite the cost implications that may impact us in the short term. Our capital expenditure program is a prime example of this, as we have invested $757.3 million in total capital expenditures in 2023 and expect to spend approximately $750 million this year to stay ahead of our growth curve. The resulting depreciation has created some short-term cost headwinds that slightly impacted our first quarter operating ratio, but we have improved our fleet and also have approximately 30% excess capacity in our service center network to support future growth. The LTL industry has seen significant disruption over the past nine months, but we believe the strategic advantages that we have allowed us to outgrow our industry for decades and will continue. Other carriers may be able to add service centers or purchase more equipment, but what has differentiated us from other carriers is not so easy to duplicate, which is our culture and our OD family spirit. Our people are the most important element of our strategic plan, and our entire OD family of employees is committed to a culture of excellence. We invest significantly in our employees to help ensure that we are regularly educating and training our team. We have trained one-third of our current drivers through our internal OD truck driving training program, and we intend to keep using this program to produce safe and qualified drivers. We also continue to invest in our management and sales training programs, which we believe will help produce the next generation of OD leaders. These are additional examples of decisions that create short-term costs but are more willing to incur these costs to be prepared for our future. Our consistent investments in our people, our service, and our network are the key reasons why we have one more market share than any other carrier over the past 10 years. Having each of these elements in place is also why we continue to believe that we are the best positioned company in the LTL industry to benefit from an improving economy. Delivering superior services is ultimately what wins market share in our industry. And I can assure you that everyone on OD's team is more committed than ever to deliver superior service to our customers and ultimately add value to our supply chains. We also have the financial strength and consistent returns to support investments needed to help achieve our long-term vision for profitable growth. As we continue to execute on a proven plan to achieve this vision, we believe we can drive further improvement in shareholder value. Thank you for joining us this morning, and now Adam will discuss our first quarter financial results in greater detail.