Saia, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Abby and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the SIA Incorporated third quarter 2024 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 that time, simply press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 a second time. Thank you, and I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Boutte, SIA's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Thank you, Abby. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SIA's third quarter 2024 conference call. With me for today's call is SIA's President and Chief Executive Officer, Fritz Holstreich. Before we begin, you should know that during this call we may make some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that might be made on this call that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. We refer you to our press release and our SEC filings for more information on the exact risk factors that could cause actual results to differ. I will now turn the call over to Fritz for some opening comments.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Tsai's third quarter results. While the underlying macro trends remain tepid in our view, our year-over-year results in the third quarter continue to reflect the growth experience since last summer. In the quarter, we averaged approximately 37,200 shipments per day compared to approximately 34,300 per day last year, or an increase of 8.5%. Our third quarter revenue of $842 million increased from last year's third quarter by 8.6% and is a record for any third quarter in our company's history. Yield or revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 1.7%, reflecting a constructive pricing backdrop and the impact of changes in our mix of business. Revenue per shipment, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 0.9% despite a headwind from weight per shipment, which was down 0.8% in the quarter and length of haul which decreased modestly. Our third quarter operating ratio of 85.1% deteriorated 170 basis points compared to our operating ratio of 83.4% posted in the third quarter last year. While weight per shipment stabilized into the third quarter, we continue to see some mixed headwinds from the softer industrial backdrop and the growth in retail business since last year's industry disruption. We remain intently focused on mix management and pricing initiatives, as seen in our contractual renewals, which remain strong at 7.9%. During the quarter, we opened 11 new terminals and relocated one other, continue to execute our long-term strategy of improving our service and value proposition to the customer. Eleven new terminals in the quarter is a record for any quarter in company history, and I'm proud of the execution from our team. Each new opening represents its own unique challenges, especially those in new geographies. Most of the terminals opened in the quarter were in the Great Plains, a new geography for SIA, and these locations enable us to extend our addressable market and provide direct service to customers in this area of the country. With these recent terminal openings, we're now able to provide direct service to all the contiguous 48 states, which significantly enhances our value proposition to our customers and confirms our position as a leading national LTL carrier. As with every new opening, these new terminals require investments in people, equipment, and technology, while entering a completely new geography requires additional investments in the customer experience. We are encouraged by early customer acceptance, and we're excited to expand our addressable market to better serve both new and existing customers. We are very pleased with the progress of our new terminal openings, especially those that opened in the second quarter. During the third quarter, these terminals continue to grow and become more efficient while still having been open for less than six months. This group of terminals improved their operating ratio by more than 10 points sequentially, further supporting the long-term strategy of increasing our addressable market and investing in the customer experience. While these terminals are not at a company market share or operating margin, they are profitable. Each terminal is a long-term investment that enables us to provide a solution to a customer in each market. The terminals open in the Great Plains in the third quarter allow us to directly service a new geography, and we're proud to bring the SCIA name to new and existing customers in these communities. We remain committed to our training requirements for our team members in both new and existing markets, which is critical to building a SCIA culture and enhancing the customer experience. Our teams are committed to accomplishing our growth strategy with an eye on always putting the customer first. Our customer first initiatives have been the cornerstone of our success over our 100-year journey, and we've seen our customer focus on display throughout each new terminal opening in the quarter. I'll now turn the call over to Matt for more details from our third quarter results.

Thanks, Fritz. As mentioned, third quarter revenue increased by $67 million to $842.1 million. Yield excluding fuel surcharge improved by 1.7% and yield decreased by 0.9% including fuel surcharge. Fuel surcharge revenue per workday decreased by 6.3% and was 14.8% of total revenue compared to 16.9% a year ago. Revenue for shipment excluding fuel surcharge increased 0.9% to 293.39 compared to 290.79 in the third quarter of 2023 and increased 0.9% sequentially from the second quarter of 2024. Tonnage per workday increased 7.7%, attributable to an 8.5% shipment per workday increase, partially offset by a 0.8% decrease in our average weight per shipment. Length of haul decreased modestly. Shifting to the expense side for a few key items to note in the quarter. Salaries, wages, and benefits increased 15.5%, which is primarily driven by a combination of our employee headcount growth of approximately 13% year-over-year and the result of our July 2024 wage increase, which averaged approximately 4.1%. The growth in headcount is related to the increase in volume compared to prior year, as well as the opening of 18 new facilities open in the past 12 months. In addition, other employee-related costs increased, including additional training for onboarded team members and unfavorable development of workers' compensation claims. Purchase transportation expense, including both non-asset truckload volume and LTL purchase transportation miles, decreased by 14.5% compared to the third quarter last year, and with 7.8% of total revenue compared to 9.9% in the third quarter of 2023. Truck and rail PT miles combined were 14.2% of our total line haul miles in the quarter. Fuel expense decreased by 1.3% in the quarter, while company line haul miles increased 12.1%. The decrease in fuel expense was primarily the result of national average diesel prices decreasing by over 13% on a year-over-year basis. Claims and insurance expense increased by 6.9% year-over-year and was up 2%, or $0.4 million, sequentially from the second quarter of 2024. The increase compared to the third quarter of 2023 was primarily due to increased claims activity and development of open cases. Depreciation expense of $54.7 million in the quarter was 19.8% higher year-over-year, primarily due to ongoing investments in revenue equipment, real estate, and technology. Compared to the third quarter of 2023, cost per shipment increased 0.6%, despite the headwinds from the wage increase and the cost associated with new terminal openings. We are pleased with the continued cost management and execution from our team in a challenging environment. Total operating expenses increased by 10.9% in the quarter, and with the year-over-year revenue increase of 8.6%, our operating ratio deteriorated to 85.1% compared to 83.4% a year ago. Our tax rate for the quarter was 24.4% compared to 24.6% in the third quarter last year. And our diluted earnings per share were $3.46 compared to $3.67 in the third quarter a year ago. I will now turn the call back over to Fritz for some closing comments. Thanks, Matt.

As we continue to celebrate our 100th year in business, I'm pleased with our ability to demonstrate our customer-first approach to both new and existing customers in our recently opened terminals and across our network. Every new terminal opening is an opportunity to better position ourselves to provide additional value to our customers. While opening 11 new terminals in a quarter is a large undertaking, these investments are critical to creating long-term value for both our customers and shareholders. Having a comparable footprint to our peers is critical to our value proposition, and full national coverage allows us to offer solutions in every market. While the macroeconomic backdrop remains uncertain, we believe our operating trends support the continued execution of our long-term growth strategy. Earlier this week, we welcomed our team members in Akron, Ohio, and we plan to open three additional terminals the remainder of the year. These openings will result in 21 new openings for the year, by far a record in our company's history. As we continue to invest in our network and expand our footprint to better serve our customers, We still anticipate capital expenditures for 2024 to be approximately $1 billion. We remain focused on measuring our performance for customers and onboarding team members that will reinforce our 100-year culture as we continue to execute our growth strategy. For the last year, we've been intently focused on building our national platform. With the culmination of 2024, investments and openings, we believe that we'll position the company for long-term growth across all geographies. And we have stressed from the outset of this process, we approach these opportunities with a singular focus on the long-term prospects of this business. These investments were never lost. about the current quarter, the next quarter, or frankly, next year, but an opportunity to transform our footprint and market positioning into the future. In the next year, we'll focus on continuing to develop our new markets by introducing new customers to our service and continue to expand and support the success of current customers. We'll continue to invest in equipment, technology, and facility enhancements or relocations to support this value proposition. Because we've opened these facilities with a focus on the long term, we've only begun to start capturing the value of these investments. As the LTL market develops, there will be opportunities for us to supplement our network with additional facilities. In the near term, we see great value and potential in the footprint that we have developed. We're now ready to open the line for questions, operator.

Thank you. And we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 a second time. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. To be able to take as many questions as possible, we do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Again, it is star 1 if you would like to join the queue. And your first question comes from the line of Ken Hexter with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Hey, great, and great to see the contract renewals over 7%, so great quarter. So, Fritz or Matt, can you talk about the sequential growth in October? It looked like maybe tons and even weight per shipment, revenue punctuate, looked like based on the numbers started to accelerate. at the end of the quarter. Can you talk a little bit about how September, October are shaping up? And then, Matt, did you mention a one-timer in workers' comp? Is that something you can put a scale on?

Hey, Ken. I'll go ahead and give the monthly numbers just so you have them. So in July, shipments per workday up 10.6%, tonnage per day up 5%. August, Shipments up 7%, tonnage up 8.2%. September, shipments up 8.6%, tonnage up 10.1%. And October to date, shipments up about 4%, tonnage up about 6.5%. And keep in mind, in October, I mean, we're comping a period where up here had a cyber issue, you know, plus there was a hurricane. in the in the early part of october as well so problems are a little bit strange month to date just in that number as well but in terms of september i mean it's you know we're starting to lap the yellow period at this point in the industry disruption so you know it moves around a little bit in q3 based on when that really started happening in the back half of july so that plays into it but we're also opening a lot of new facilities and we we are expanding our addressable market and should be seeing that. So, we feel good about our progress there. And then, in terms of work, nothing one-off, just part of the business development of those open claims and things like that. So, nothing to call out there. Grit or head kills. That's right.

And just to wrap that up, the puns, wait for a second, sorry. That also accelerated in September, right?

Yeah, just with those shipments and tonnage numbers, it's a little bit at the back.

But, I mean, it's modest, right? We've talked about it before. Mix can move around a little bit. So any given period, based on what you're handling for customers, it can move around a little bit.

All right. Appreciate that. And I guess my follow-up would just be on the environment. You talked about, Chris, you mentioned the mix. You kind of felt like it was done last quarter. How do you feel, I guess, at this stage, now that you've got all these new facilities ramped up, You mentioned last quarter you thought it was done, but now you're talking about a little industrial overhang. Is the market stabilizing out there in terms of if you look outside of the new facility development?

Ken, the way I would think about it is it's probably somewhat comparable, Q2 to Q3. you know, it's bouncing around a little bit. I don't think it's markedly better or worse. So it's just there's a little bit of noise in there. I think as you open up new facilities, you do have, you know, typically that the new volume typically looks like the rest of the portfolio, if you will. So we haven't really seen an impact one way or another there.

Wonderful. Appreciate the thought. Thanks, guys. Thanks.

And your next question comes from the line of Jordan Alger with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Yeah, hi. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the revenue per 100 weight X fuel. It was up the 1.7%. I know you touched a little bit on mix and price, but maybe talk a little bit more about that and perhaps how that yield trended through the quarter and how we could think about it looking into the next quarter, the fourth quarter. Thank you.

Well, again, I mean, mix impacts that a little bit. So, you know, we typically look more at revenue per bill rather than the yield just because the mix has an impact on that. But we feel good about where we stand. I mean, our contractual renewals number, where it is, continues to remain strong. And freight moves around a little bit when you take a rate increase at times. And with the macro backdrop where it is, there's customers that may go find other options and we're willing to let that walk. We're not going to go chase that. So it's going to come back to us. So we feel when the environment needs it and when the, you know, when the customer needs good quality of service. So we feel good about that. And the other thing is we put a GRI in earlier this week at a rate of 7.9%. So we continue to remain focused on mix management and making sure that we're getting the margins on what we expect from customers. So our focus has not changed on that. It heightened the GRIs earlier this year than it was last year. And we feel really good about our market position and our addressable market that we put that into place a little bit earlier than in the past.

And I guess just sort of is there a way to think about how the yields, however way you look at it, could shape up as we go from the third quarter to the fourth quarter? Thanks.

Well, again, mix is going to impact that a little bit depending on what happens. Our view of the industrial backdrop. We're not seeing anything on our crystal ball that tells us that Q4 is going to all of a sudden turn and get better. If it does, great. But we really remain focused on the same thing. Like I said, we put the GRI in place. Whenever we do that, there's a little bit of shipment shifting in the period that follows. So we'll experience a little bit of that. But we remain focused on making sure that through contractual renewals or discussions with customers, we're focused and committed to driving price.

We know that's our opportunity.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Daniel Imbrow with Stevens. Your line is open.

Yeah, hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. Maybe I'll start.

on a shorter focus one, just following up on the October discussion, can you remind us what maybe normal seasonality is from an OR standpoint from 3Q to 4Q, and then maybe given the improving weight for shipment, just the tonnage growth, how do you see this year shaping up versus that normal range?

Sure. So, what we try to do with this is look back at recent history and do our best to find some comparable periods. So, if you look at that over the past handful of years, the sequential degradations right around 250 basis points on average. There's obviously some years on either side of that, but that's the average if you look at some of the more recent periods. But with the momentum we have now and what we feel like from a customer acceptance standpoint with our new markets and our expansion, we feel like we should be able to beat that. And that's kind of where we're targeting at this point.

Super helpful. And then maybe for stepping back a little bit, You know, think about 2025. This year has clearly been pressured by startup costs. It sounds like execution is going well there with the new terminals. How should we think about or should we think about expense growth moderating in 2025 as terminal growth moderates? Do these actually become good guys for incremental margins? Or what's the right way to think about incremental margins into 2025 as we start to lapse really a couple years of elevated investments across the network?

Yeah, there are a couple elements to that. So, you know, we're not going to have an opening year of 21 facilities like we are this year. Anytime in my too-distant future. That was a lot for us to take on, but we also looked at it and said, this is a significant opportunity. We've got to take advantage of it, and we have. You know, I think as we look into next year, what you'll see is now we're a much materially bigger company than we were a few years ago. So the level of ongoing sort of maintenance capital and sort of thing is going to – the fleet's bigger, the bigger facility footprint, that sort of thing, to maintain those assets. You won't see the openings next year. I mean, maybe there's a small handful, you know, five, six, something like that, depending on what the environment looks like. You'll see us relocate facilities next year. We view those as sort of negligible costs because generally the ones you have to relocate are ones that maybe you've stretched capacity or filled capacity, so you're moving to something that's got a little bit more operating flexibility. So what we really, really like is we're going to exit this year with 214 well-positioned facilities across the country. that are positioned to really drive value for our customers. And when that happens, that gives us the opportunity to really drive value in our business. And I think that that's, we made the investments this year with an eye to long-term value creation. And I think that that's We kind of spend more of a value-creating mindset. Not that the investments weren't value-creating. They absolutely were. But in the short term, investments require that there's a cost. Those things aren't free. Opening 21 terminals are not free. When you monetize those, you expect to provide great service to a customer. And when you do that, you look to get paid for it. And that's where the return comes. And we're really excited about the facilities we opened just in the second quarter. I mean, they're profitable already. Now they're not at the company average, which says – They've got runway, and those are great assets, and it's great that we opened those. So I think as we look into next year, it becomes more of a, you know, kind of let's capture the value of the facilities. Now, you know, if we get a stronger freight backdrop next year, I think we can really accelerate as well. So I'm excited about the prospects. We did these things, made these investments with a purpose, and now is the time to really capture the value of that.

Thanks so much.

And our next question comes from the line of Tom Wadowitz with UBS. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. I know you offered some maybe high-level, I guess thinking about 25 or kind of with new terminals, what you're going to do, focus on value or maybe focus on margin. That sounds like a little bit. How do you think about, for instance, the potential for margin improvement in 2025 if the macro is stable, right? Like it would be great to have some cycle help, but, you know, it seems like with, you know, your traction with customers, you'll improve utilization of terminals that were open second quarter, third quarter. You know, your contractual renewals sound quite strong. Maybe mix is stable. So just any thoughts about can you get the normal 100 to 150 bps of improvement if you don't get help from macro in 25?

So, yeah, thanks, Tom. Listen, this is an opportunity for us to get back on our sort of normal cadences. I want to be really clear. I think I used the word value. I think a 214 terminal network across the country that's providing a very high level of service shouldn't be a value. There's a pay for There's a – people are paying for service in that case. And I think we're in a position we can do that. And I think in a, you know, kind of an environment that is sort of tepid, neutral, however you want to call it, I think we're in a position we can expand OR in the next year. I think what's really exciting is if you get in a more positive, stronger environment, I think the business scales. I love the idea of scaling some of these facilities that we have just opened. You know, we have never been about – growth for growth's sake. We have been about, let's get the addressable market right because we think we can provide something to customers. And when we do that, we have the opportunity to drive returns in the business. And I think next year is the beginning of that, right? And I don't see an impediment for us in the next year. You know, if we get a reasonable environment, I think we're in a position we can grow the OR. And I think, you know, the range you provided, the 150M, that's in scope for sure. Could it be better than that? We know how – I mean, if you look back in history, when a tighter environment or an environment where there's more macroeconomic growth, you know what's I'll do. And I think that that's – we execute that playbook. That's how we operate.

Okay. And then for the second question, how do we think about the levers on mix? I guess if I go pre your big expansion of You know, the terminals, it seemed like you, you know, pretty consistently focused on improving weight per shipment and mix, and that was part of the margin improvement equation. Is that something you can fairly quickly address and, you know, kind of go back to that in, say, first quarter, second quarter next year, or does that take longer? Just because, you know, recognizing that the mix has changed a lot as you brought on, you know, more retail freight and more, you know, more terminals.

You know, Tom, what I would say is, first and foremost, we've got to really continue to focus on pricing, in which we have been. You look at our contractual renewals. You look at the GRI we had on Monday. We're not giving up on pricing. It all has got to get – if we get the business to where we want it to be, everything, the rates have got to go up across the board in all elements of the business. I think that what we continue to do, though, is that we continue to look for customers' market opportunities where somebody says, hey, we appreciate the value we get from SIA in terms of this high level of service, the reach of this national network now. We can now – you know, ship more of our wallet with SIA because we don't have to worry about them handing off freight in markets. We can look at it and say, SIA can go to all these 214 facilities. So, I think that that's an opportunity for us to continue to reinforce that with customers. And I think that you get into the equation where, you know, we're, you know, we get the appropriate pricing in place. And, you know, that'll find, we'll find customers that find great value or, opportunity and the assets that we have, and that's a way for us to improve mix over time.

How much of the freight were you handing off, just to understand that part of that comment previously?

We haven't given a percent out. I mean, those markets aren't necessarily the largest ones, but it's impactful, right? We think about it as an opportunity to improve that portion of it, certainly. But more importantly, we can offer direct service in those markets. And we know that our customers want us to handle it all the way through. And that's very important to us in making sure that we can address that. And that's big. That's why we push those facilities and open them in the period. And then I think in terms of the mix, too, keep in mind, every new terminal opening is an opportunity to speak with our existing customers about what we do for them. It's an opportunity to talk about business that we may not have had an opportunity to get a shot at in the past because we couldn't handle it direct in and out of those markets. And now we can at full nationwide coverage. So you may not necessarily get that the next day when you open, but when we get the opportunity to share with our customers that we can provide a solution for everything, that's impactful.

Okay. Makes sense. Thank you.

And your next question comes from Fadi Shamoon with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. So in the last couple of quarters, you've outperformed your kind of thought in your average in terms of shipment per day by maybe 200, 250 beef sets, quarter over quarter, just looking at it. I mean, if we apply the same principle going into Q4 that would put you in the high single-digit kind of shipment per day, just want to kind of test this assumption. How do you feel about it?

Yeah, I think, Fadi, what I would offer is that, you know, we know we get a little bit of shipment disruption that comes with – Anytime we do a GRI, you know, you see a little bit of movement around there. This quarter, you know, we started the quarter, the comp the last year. We mentioned that we saw a bit of, you know, a little bit of a challenging comp because of what we saw happen with the pier a year ago. So that's kind of another sort of factor in there. And then we started the quarter kind of dealing with the remnants of a hurricane and another hurricane. So I think all those things create a fair amount of noise. around sort of shipments into the quarter and not to mention that it's a seasonal quarter, meaning that, you know, holidays come into play. Um, I think what's important though, is that over time, and I think you start to see it with, uh, with our shipment growth, uh, our revenue and bigger part of the pie. And so our history, um, is, uh, it's changing, if you will. So it's, you know, we've got a different sort of baseline. And so I'm excited about it. I think we continue to grow through this.

Okay. Okay. Just going back to the OR seasonality question. So, yeah, you know, you're going to give us perspective on the volume side, but, I mean, you know, I think, it feels like there's no reason for you to continue to kind of build that momentum with the new terminal opening, which could put your shipment kind of quarter over quarter at a pretty solid pace. And with that perspective, I'm just wondering, like, why wouldn't the operating ratio seasonality kind of follow a little bit closer to the shipment seasonality, given that your startup cost is kind of in the rear view mirror at this point. And, you know, we should start to see that up in leverage beginning in Q4. I'm just wanting to see if we can narrow the, you know, the range or just thinking about what OR could look like in the fourth quarter.

Well, hey, Fadi. Sorry for the connectivity issues. I mean, look, you always – it's Q4, right? It's a seasonally slower period. There's always the challenges associated with that. But we're not – we still have openings in this quarter, right? I mean, they're not as – in terms of magnitude, they're not as big as what was, you know, the count that was done in Q3. But we still have openings associated with the fourth quarter. So those aren't zero. Now, like Chris said earlier in his commentary, we've got – as we continue to move past, you know, further from the openings like we did from Q2 to Q3, those get better. So – We still have the fourth quarter challenges and customer closures and things like that that are just normal for the fourth quarter, but we do have openings that are still going to be embedded into the costs in Q4. They're still there.

Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.

And our next question comes from the line of Brian Ostenbeck with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question.

Hey, Brian. I wanted to ask about the MassGeo survey that just came out. Obviously, there's a little bit of a backslide in some of the performance on a relative basis, but I think it was done through June through September timeframe, so clearly a lot of startups that were going on there. So it's just one data point. Obviously, you look at service and everything internally pretty well, but it's one that we can all see from the outside. So I just wanted to get your perspective on what the most recent results mean from your vantage point.

So good question, Brian. So a couple things. I would say that if you look at the Mastio data in total for the industry, so the entire industry got better in terms of kind of performance for the customer, which I think for the customer base, that's a total positive. I think if you look at how – what industry growth looked like – You know, kind of across the board, you look at the public competitors, and we see declining sort of shipments and tonnage across the space, except for SIA. So we've taken on a larger percentage or a larger part of the industry. We have grown in new markets. As we noted, by the end of the year, we'll have 21 openings. So that means new customers, new experiences, new demands, adjustments to customers. And throughout that, we've had to hire, you know, probably, you know, somewhere around 1,500, 2,000 new employees over the last year or so to support all that. So what it says is that, you know, that was a challenging environment in which we operated in. I can tell you across the board internally, when we look at the data, we go through it and we say, all right, we've got some in here that are positive. And as we further analyze the data, we distill that down to our region and our terminal locations, and then we work at it. And we say, listen, we're going to keep getting better. We're going to keep our focus on that and not lose sight of the prize. Our internal metrics have trended favorably. But you know what? Listen, the feedback like that says that we've just got to keep doubling down. I think that as we continue to develop experience with the customer set and new markets, you know, I think we'll be in a position where they come to expect and understand what, you know, the great service they get from SIA.

I appreciate that perspective, Fritz.

Quick follow-up for you, Matt. In terms of, it might be difficult to tell, but obviously the hurricane was pretty disruptive for a lot of transportation networks and some of your customers. So is that part of the noise that you feel like you're seeing in October? Maybe it's a little bit too hard to tell, but do you feel like there's at least maybe a little bit of a catch-up that you might see throughout the rest of this month as some of this, I know, gets behind and recovery efforts start to pick up speed a little bit?

Well, I mean, thankfully we haven't had any impact to our people or terminals or, you know, major issues, but there absolutely is an impact in that month to date, right? I mean, you have a pretty big storm that rolls across the southeast geography. Those are pretty big markets for us and make up a good chunk of our revenue. So there is an impact in there. One of the things that we see is that sometimes that volume doesn't always come back. You're really dependent on order flow at times, and really we may be operational, but some customers may still be closed. So you face that a little bit. So things are coming back online certainly, and we saw that in the week or so after that. So it is in the October month to date. numbers, but, you know, just part of the challenge in the business, but you don't always get all of that back just based on, on patterns and, and different order flow.

Yeah, I think you got to keep in mind that the, the sort of Florida, Georgia, Carolinas, that's becoming a bigger and bigger part of science business, reflecting investments we've made in the last few years. And, you know, having Helene and land right on the end of the quarter, that certainly had an impact on the third quarter result. Then you have that, you know, you start to recover, and then you get another hurricane the following week. So, yeah, that's been part of the noise we deal with, and, you know, it's part of the business that we're in. And, you know, we have to be able to flex and adjust to it, but it certainly, you know, it did have an impact on the third and, you know, early parts of this quarter.

Okay. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it.

And your next question comes from the line of Eric Morgan with Barclays. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to follow up on pricing. You know, you've had at least a few quarters now with those high single-digit contract renewals, obviously the 7.5% GRI last year, I think almost 8% this year or so. If MIX doesn't move around too much substantially from here, should we start to be seeing some of these types of increases in your realized yields as we get into 2025 at some point? Or what are some of the other variables we should be considering as we think about modeling that?

Well, I appreciate the question, Erica. As you know, one of the biggest challenges in our industry is that contracts, there's really no volume commitment. we have to always make sure that we're getting what we expect from customers. And in the environment where we are now, you know, shippers have options, and they may move things around or try someone different in a period like this, and we're not going to chase that. But all else equal, we're putting rates in at the level that we expect. And when the macro gets a little bit better, that should certainly help, and we expect to push that forward. It's not always linear, but it's an opportunity for us to put the rates that we need in front of our customer and our Our sales team is doing a great job negotiating those and speaking to the customers about the value we provide. The other thing that should continue to help us support that is at a national footprint. We can do more and more for customers than we have ever been able to do. And with a larger addressable market, it should allow us to gain a larger share of wallet and mix up with customers where that's the opportunity around that. So we feel good about what we've been putting in. And in a soft backdrop, we're confident that we'll realize some of those gains.

Appreciate that. And maybe just a quick follow-up on the CapEx discussion. I think you've mentioned some normalization next year after, you know, the bigger year this year. Any early thoughts on where that could land in 2025 and kind of what the big buckets would be? Appreciate it.

Yeah, I mean, we're still working to finalize what that number looks like. But if you think about the number this year less the one-time transaction at the beginning of the year, I think that's probably a fair range to start with it. The business is bigger now, so that CapEx number is going to stay elevated. We've got to support the teams with equipment, and there continues to be real estate investments. But I think if you normalize for that big transaction at the beginning of the year, that's a fair range to start with.

Great. Thanks a lot.

And your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Chappelle with Evercore ISI. Your line is open. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. Chris, you called out specifically you were pleased with the terminals you opened in second quarter. So as we think about the seasoning of these terminals and you have a full quarter of implementation, is there any way to kind of frame out what the utilization of the terminals that you opened up in the first half of the year look like relative to these 11 that you opened in the third quarter to help us kind of frame out when those can get to a level where you feel is closer to full utilization?

Yeah, it's probably going to be a few years before we're full utilization because, as we've described before, is that we don't make an investment with the idea that we've got to fill it up on Monday. So we make an investment with the idea that we have a few-year runway to support the market. The facilities we opened up in the second quarter were of much larger scale than the facilities that we opened up in the third quarter. So to try to compare what a fantastic facility in Butte, Montana looks like to a facility in Laredo, Texas, or Garland, Texas, or Trenton is really not. It's sort of apples and oranges. They have different roles in the network. So I think what we would point to is that as we continue to focus on, you know, further finding the customers that match our interest in what we have to offer, and we continue to grow in those ways, I think that the big facilities that we open, where I'm really pleased about, and that shouldn't be overlooked, is the fact that, you know, within a quarter, we have them all contributing from an operating income perspective. That's a big deal. That's why you make investments in a challenging environment. So we put those in place. I think they'll continue to improve from here. Now, you're in the seasonally lower times, so you probably aren't going to see the same level of improvements for those facilities into the fourth quarter. The facilities that we opened in the Great Plains, We're really excited about those because I think that really enhances the value proposition for our customers when they know that when Si picks up freight, it's going all the way to the destination. So those over time will have an important complementary role to the overall network business, and it will be certainly a big part of creating a lot of value for our customers.

Keep in mind, too, John, that's a brand-new geography for us, right? Entering a new geography is very different than putting a second facility in a in a Garland, Texas area where we've been. So like Fritz said, it's not overnight, and we don't design them to be overnight, but that's a different animal in terms of brand recognition and sharing with customers that we're in a completely new geography. So they're all a little bit different.

Right. Yeah, that makes complete sense. Matt, just a quick one for you. I know it's minutiae. and I know the fuel is a pass-through, but your fuel surcharge revenue was almost flat quarter over quarter despite fuel dropping. You mentioned that diesel prices are down 13% year-over-year. Fuel surcharge revenue is down less than 5% year-over-year. Some of your peers have already reported that much bigger step-downs both sequentially and year-over-year. Do you just have, like, a better surcharge mechanism, or is there some lag where this decline in fuel prices that we've seen, you know, basically over the last couple months kind of catches up in 4K? Well...

fuel is not a passive. I mean, we invest, every part of this business is inflationary, and we expect to make a return on every part of it. So, I mean, the fuel surcharge mechanism is similar to what's out there for other LTLs, but the mix of business has had an impact. And keep in mind, it's a percentage of revenue. So, when we're raising rates on customers, we have an opportunity to get more from a fuel surcharge standpoint. So, I mean, I think one thing to think about in terms of us, our volumes are up, right, compared to some others. So that plays into it as well, but nothing to comment on there. We haven't put anything in different on the fuel side.

Okay. I got it. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Rich.

And our next question comes from the line of Chris Weatherby with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks so much, guys. Fritz, I think on the last call you mentioned that facilities over the last three years kind of were operating at about a 95 OR rate. openings turning positive in the third quarter. I guess I'm just curious, as you think about that metric that you gave last quarter, does it change at all? I know it's only a quarter, but I'm kind of curious if you feel like you're making more or less progress relative to, you know, what you have seen in the past, just given the sort of densities that you're adding to the network, these new regions and creating this sort of 48-state continuous network.

Yeah, you know, we're real pleased with what we're seeing. I think the key thing in this and why it can vary a little bit, I mentioned it in the last question, is that terminal openings can have different sort of roles, right? Some facility might provide a really high-level solution for a customer at the end of the line, right? So those facilities – are going to take a much longer time to kind of get to company average OR or be a big contributor. So some of those that we've opened historically have been in that sort of met that definition, and certainly the ones we opened in the third quarter kind of met that definition. What's really exciting about the second quarter facilities, and frankly all of them as they're making progress, the second quarter ones, are big ones. And those were some of the bigger investments we made around purchasing assets. And it's real nice to see those progress, to see them scale in big freight markets, and then see them being part of making those end of the line facilities continue to be a value creator as well. I mean, if I, You know, the great thing is that those great plains states, there's a customer that's bringing freight in from Mexico into Laredo, and we've got a shot now to go direct from Laredo to all the cover Montana and Dakotas. And those are really nice value-enhancing opportunities for the customer. And as you cobble together a network – you know, Laredo is going to scale faster because it's a big facility, but then you're going to get the value out of those smaller facilities because you're in a position, you can do a great job for the customer in those markets. We couldn't do that before. I mean, we had customers before that said, hey, Cy, you're fantastic, but we understand you hand off freight into those markets. And once you get that solved, we're with you. Well, they're with us now, right? And so I think that that's – because of that sort of dynamic – When you look at the trend over time, the ones in the second quarter have a bigger impact now because they're larger. But the great thing is the progress of all of them over time over the last couple years. It's really exciting to see. And that will play itself out over the next years as we continue to develop the network.

Okay, that's helpful. And then towards the end of your prepared remarks, you know, you're talking about the network and what you have now and maybe how that looks over the course of the next, you know, year or two as you let that kind of grow and build out. I guess I'm curious, you know, there's still going to be more assets available. Presumably most of these, if not all of these, were sort of reviewed during the first process through the yellow auction. I'm just kind of curious how you think about that. Is that something that has interest to you or what you have right now for the next, you know, 12, 18 months is kind of what you need?

So I think as I look at the 214 that we have in place right now, or by the end of the year we'll have in place, particularly the 21 we opened this year, there was a really compelling business case around all of those. And so we're excited about that. The ones that we'll relocate into next year have similar sort of compelling things. But one of the things that we have to be very mindful of in this business is that over time there will be places that we have the opportunity to enhance the network that we're in. And as these assets trade in the market, you know, we'll be a participant in that. We won't be a participant in it at the level that we just were. But, you know, sort of the onesie-twosies and two or three here and there or, you know, down a couple years from now, maybe there's a year that's five or six or something like that, I think we're positioned to be able to do that. There are markets that even today we're thrilled with the map we have, but we also see opportunities. But as we think about it as a business today, there's a lot of value to create out of the facilities we're going to exit this year with. And then there'll be some that we can add on. We like the idea of, you know, participating in a secondary market around these facilities as they may or may not become available. And, you know, I think that that's a long-term opportunity. We've proven, if you go back to 2017, we've proven we know how to organically grow. So, you know, and we're opportunistic around the real estate. I mean, even look at the ones that we've opened up this year. There are ones that we opened up that didn't come through the yellow auction process. They were in our pipeline. And there'll be others like that down the road. Okay.

That's helpful. Appreciate the time this morning. Thanks, guys.

And your next question comes from Jason Seidel with TD Cowan. Your line is open.

Thanks, operator. Morning, gentlemen. I want to go back a little bit to October to sort of better understand how we should look at 4Q tonnage. You know, if we push the hurricane impacts aside early on in October and we take away the impact of the cyber attack on one of your competitors last year, is this 6.5 look closer to double digits?

I don't know that I would go there. You know, I think, Jason, what I would focus on is kind of our commitment and focus on driving results out of this business. So we're not in it to try to lead the league in growth. We're here to – we've got a footprint that we're trying to expand. The volume will come. We're not chasing volume. So, yeah, there's disruption that's in there that is – you know, had an impact on results. Sometimes it's interesting when you have weather events, sometimes you just don't see the volume again. So it, you know, it's kind of how it goes. We're focused on, you know, continuing to deliver for the customer. And we're going to get our share out of that. And the openings that we've got, they're organically going to contribute. I mean, if you look at sort of the growth that we've had, this year, more and more of it is coming from facilities we've just opened in the last three years. I mean, it's becoming a material part of the business, and we're not in it to chase volume, right? It's just, hey, SIA's here. We know what we get from SIA, so we're going to do business with SIA. That's where the growth's coming from. So we're not, I'm not in a position to really comment on what it could have been. I just know what it was.

Fair enough. Also, you guys made comments about potentially expanding some of the terminals that you've opened up over the past 12 months, maybe next year. What type of a market would we have to see to make you want to expand one of your recent additions?

Yeah, sometimes what you do is you, like, we've got one facility that we've purchased and opened this year. And you know what? We see near-end runway around that facility. that terminal that we just need to expand it, create an efficiency, make sure that we've got the appropriate amount of flexibility in the facility. When we expand a facility, we're not thinking about next week's volume. We're thinking about, all right, how do we make sure we provide a very high level of service and that over the next number of years, we've got ample capacity to maintain a very consistent level of service for the customer. So, You know, as we get, you know, choke points in the network, we absolutely will add, expand capacity or maybe even relocate a facility. But that's kind of how we think about it.

Appreciate the color, gentlemen.

And your next question comes from the line of Ari Rosa with Citigroup. Your line is open.

Hi, great. This is Ben Moore for RE at Citi. Fritz and Matt, thanks for taking the question. Your yield growth, maybe going back to pricing discussion, has been on a fantastic trend the last several years, and then the Maskeo study confirms you're successfully taking pricing increases, especially this year versus last year, how much would that be a function, would you say, of your pricing gains catching up to your service that's improved over the last 10 years? That's been something part of your narrative the last couple of years. And then conversely, how much of that is a function of being able to provide a bigger reach of your network that you mentioned from your new terminal openings over the last few quarters?

But I think it's – frankly, it's all of the above, to be honest with you. I wish I could break it out, but what I would tell you is part of the compelling part of why you open 21 facilities is you're focused on the long term, number one, and you're focused on the idea that if you can repeat that level of service for customers that are satisfied with it, you've got a shot to – organically grow into that network and continue to repeat service for customers. We've proven we know how to do that. And when that happens, we're in a better position to be able to say, Listen, in order for us to continue to make the level of investments in this business, we approach the customers and they understand that, hey, they're getting a lot of value from SIA, and we're in a position where we continue to focus on making sure that we're appropriately compensated for the level of investments. I mean, this year we're going to spend a billion dollars on the company, right? And that deserves a return. Customers get a return. We're going to focus on getting a return. So that becomes part of our pricing thesis. That only works if we've got the appropriate reach. in the markets for customers, and we continue to replicate that service.

Great. Thanks for the color there. And maybe as a follow-up, sticking with the study, going the other direction on your service, you know, you've seen it decline a bit. How much would you say the year of your decline in service, which, you know, it seems to be from your new terminal openings, how much of that is from not yet building up a large enough customer base? And then how much of that do you think is from just a temporary decline in, you know, say, damage, on-time pickups, deliveries, just as normal growing pains, and it's temporary and will be out of that phase in the next few quarters?

Listen, at the SCIA internally, typically what we do with that MASSEO data or the survey data is we disaggregate that. And we spend a lot of time figuring out how we get that on the trend, which we want to be. We want to be best in the business, right? And that's our focus. That's our commitment. You know, in the last year, we've grown this footprint substantially. We know that in a situation where your business is contracting or you're dealing with less volume with a customer, it's an opportunity to really enhance your service. You can certainly deliver high-level remarks when your network is not stressed. We've grown faster than anybody else in the business. We've taken on more customers than anyone else in the business, I would guess. Certainly, we're represented in that survey more than we've ever been, and that's a reflection of a growing footprint. More customers, more touches. We've got 1,500 to 2,000 new employees that we've added over the last – net add over the last – year and a half to support that. We got to make sure those folks are all understand that at SIA, this is how we do it. And for the folks that have been here for a longer period of time, it's a recommitment to saying, hey, listen, this is what makes us different. This is why we're outgrowing the industry. And We'll disaggregate that data. Our teams across the network will be very, very focused on how do we get that back on a positive track. I'd point out that the industry in total got better. And, yeah, our marks in some cases relatively got, you know, fell a bit. But I also think that I look at this is really a long game. This isn't about what's happened here in the last few months or even, you know, last year. This is all about the long game.

Great, appreciate the time and insights as always.

And your next question comes from the line of Robbie Shanker with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Thanks, Morgan, everyone. Just to follow up on the math here, it seems like you have more details than we do on the data here. Do you have numbers on same-store customers ranking versus new customers? And that will make it very clear that it's the new terminals that are the issue here, and that will take time to ramp up. And also, how much does something like this influence the pricing discussion of the customer? Like, is this something that, you know, just Wall Street's focused on, or kind of how much of a commercial impact does this have?

Yeah, sorry, I don't have the level of detail you're looking for. We certainly disaggregate the data and spend a lot of time looking at it. I don't know that we have that specific card up. Listen, the customer cares about the customer's experience, right? So we have to be intently focused on that because I think it's, for us, it is about supporting the long-term customer success. Customer has to have an LTL partner that supports that and has the reach and footprint to do that. Now, I think that the, as I mentioned earlier, the industry in total has gotten gutter. So I have relative to last year has got stepped back modestly. But I think on a key – a lot of the key differentiators that are included in the 30-some that are part of this survey, you know, we actually improved year over year, and a couple of them we fell back. Some of them we fell back on are areas that are around pricing. So sometimes customers don't like the feedback that size is coming in and raising rates consistently or charging for accessorials consistently. Those are things that you sometimes – that customers don't, you know, don't like that, and you get negative feedback with that. So in some ways, that's actually a good thing for us. But that's not to say what we have to be able to do is be consistently better for the customer, and that's our focus. When you're in a growth mode like we are and growing versus the rest of the industry, you know, you're taking on more customers that have new experience and haven't been with SIA before, and, you know, they have an experience, and we've got to make sure that we're, you know, delivering to meet their expectations, and that's where we'll long-term be successful. We like the direction. We like the company's commitment to it. We're doubling down on it, that's for sure.

Andrew, so that's really helpful. Maybe as a follow-up, just to go back to 4QOR, I think you said normal seasonality that you have is 250 generation. Our model has something closer to 150. So I think the comparison is a little bit different. So just to level set, do you also have your normal seasonality benchmark for 1Q and 2Q?

Thanks. I mean, Robbie, maybe yours is going a little bit further back. I mean, one of the pieces for us that we try to do for this is 10 years back is just not that valuable for us anymore. The company's changed so much over time. We've opened so many facilities. So some of those sequential trends just aren't really as valuable. So we try to look at something more applicable for the recent period, and we – We haven't given anything out into next year, Q1 and Q2 yet, but we'll do that as we get closer to it.

Yeah, we took the COVID year out of the horizon, but we just look back at recent years. Understood. Thank you.

And your next question comes from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Hi. Hi, good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Quick one for me here. As a follow-up to, I think it was Tom's question earlier, we talked a little bit about 2025, and I think clearly gave your view on scenarios in a neutral macro. But in that stronger environment scenario, how are you positioned to kind of take advantage of that inflection? Would we need to see incremental hiring equipment or anything else to position you to handle that inflection? Thanks.

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, listen, if you scale the business from here, right, we would certainly, our variable labor costs would certainly change as well. They likely would go up because, and we would, you know, have to match driver counts of growth were higher than what we had expected. We feel like we're staffed well right now for, you know, kind of the environment that we're in. I think it's a pretty good match. But as you get out end of the year, you can imagine a scenario in which, you know, volume's up, maybe it's up materially, just throwing out as an illustration. You'd expect us to, you know, we'll scale the business, but we'll still have to add some labor costs, and the volume wouldn't be free. So I think it, but I think what's really exciting, the big list, the 21 facilities that are open this year are going to be in position, and they will scale. That's why we did this. So You know, in a stronger background, I'd much rather be in a position, you start the year with 214 facilities, well-positioned, ready to go. And we know that we know how to operate, and we know how to scale up if we have to. And we also know how to match down as we need to. If you got into an environment where maybe the volumes worked out, we would make adjustments on that basis. But So the opportunity is certainly there in front of us, and that's why we made the investments that we've made.

Great. Appreciate it.

And your next question comes from Bascom Majors with Susquehanna. Your line is open.

As you think into the next year and talking about that, you know, CapEx preliminary spend of, call it, you know, this year's billion or so minus the $250 million or so you spent on the unique transaction. I mean, it looks like that would put you a little above your sort of long-term high end of 15% of revenue. Are we tapering back into that range longer term? Just any thoughts on that? you know, the investment in the business organically and when we might get to the point where, you know, you're inflecting on cash flow to the point where you might want to return some of that to investors in dividends or buybacks. Thank you.

Hey, Beth. Yeah. So, I mean, certainly if you look at a percent of revenue, it's elevated. A couple of things to note in that the company is bigger now. The equipment needed to – service and make sure we have capacity to flex with customers' needs, all of that's a bigger number than what it used to be. So that's in that as well. And, you know, for us, when you look at that denominator, pricing is a big player in that. If our pricing gets to market, naturally everything else as a percent of revenue comes back down. So it's, you know, we look at that and focus on that as well. Now, in the long term, it should trend back down as we continue to grow as a business and close the pricing gap and look at it from a percent of revenue. standpoint. But it remains elevated into next year, just as probably a little bit more heavy on the tractor side versus trailers this year. But longer term, that should continue to come down. And then to the second part of that question, we're probably not too far out from having that discussion. The big transaction at the beginning of the year, first of all, was the right move for us as a business, but that impacts that timing a little bit. But we're not too far out from that. We've we've proved that the return on capital for our approach has been very valuable so far. And it was important to continue to get the network built out, but we remain focused on making sure that the returns are there.

As a brief follow-up to your point about getting your pricing to market. I mean, we can compare, you know, reported yields for you guys and peers, but there's obviously a huge mixed component there. Um, What's your assessment of how far you might be below market as we think about closing that gap over a multi-year period? Thank you.

Yeah, good question. I think what I would – this is kind of how we focus on it. We look at public data and what revenue per shipment is and compare our revenue per shipment to others. And certainly we know there's some that have a mix of business that may or may not be the same as ours. But fundamentally, we look at those and say, well, maybe we ought to adjust our mix of business or can pursue a more optimal mix of business that, you know, allows us to get the pricing that, you know, we see others getting. That is fundamentally the opportunity, right? And part of this network expansion is about making sure that we have the addressable market to be able to do that and the opportunity to get the at-bats right. with customers, get their freight, do a great job for them and get us to market more. You know, the network is more and more comparable. Now it's a national network comparable to any of those. So now it's just, we got to keep focused and that's, that's a big opportunity.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from Chris Kuhn with the benchmark company. Your line is open.

Yeah. Hi, Matt. Thanks for the question. Just, I know in the second quarter, the terminals were larger and some of the costs you called out on the call. And as we think about the terminals for next year, anything to think about in terms of the size or the cost of the relocations, or are they going to be kind of like the third quarter, a little bit smaller, a little bit more manageable?

Yeah, the relocations are candidly pretty straightforward. I know some would say they're incredibly complicated. They're really not. Basically, what you do is you get the new facility set up and ready to go. You know, I have the driver's report, team report to a different location Monday morning, and that kind of gets you started. So, that the typically you don't see much in a way overlap costs, those sorts of things, you're it's kind of game on, in many cases, you have immediate efficiency. So relocations really don't have a meaningful impact on the cost structure. Typically, they offer some efficiencies or, you know, sort of those kinds of enhanced enhancements, to the extent that we see opportunistic openings next year, there is, they're going to be the scale of them, they may be Yeah, it could be a range of sizes, but the impact on a business that is, you know, if you add a handful, four or five, to a footprint of 214 with the run rate of revenue that we have, those are sort of more de minimis impacts. When you add 11 in a quarter like we just did or six big ones like we did in the second quarter, they have a meaningful impact. So I think as we go from here, you know, I think it will have a smaller and smaller impact.

Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. No problem.

And your final question comes from Tyler Brown with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hey, morning. Can you all hear me? Absolutely. Can you hear us? We can hear you.

Hey, Chris, I want to come back to the new employee ad comment that you made earlier. I'm assuming that the vast majority of those are frontline. So how do you feel about frontline productivity? I mean, could productivity be a really big positive story in 25, maybe even in 26, as basically all these guys mature? I would assume your productivity metrics are probably considerably off your peak.

Yeah, listen, there's an opportunity to improve that as our team matures. New folks on the team, really kind of, we feel like we've done a great job of onboarding people, but for that to really have that SIA sort of feel, you got to continue getting that experience and understand through thick and thin, this is what we do for the customer. And I think as that grows, I think you also get efficiencies with that, productivity out of that. And then frankly, in a, you know, in a new markets, as you build density around those city pickup operations, that's naturally going to come just because you've got an interest. You don't start out fully utilized. So there's a leverage point there as well. So I think that going forward, I think there's a lot of upside out of that sort of maturity.

Yeah. Okay. And this is maybe a good fitting into the call. It's a big picture question. But culture is obviously huge in LPL. You know this. I mean, I know this. I've seen it up close and personal. But How do you hold on to culture? I mean, you've got so many new people coming in. How do your internal employee surveys look, and are they kind of where you want them to be? Thanks, guys.

So our employee engagements, we measure that every year, and we have, through the changes, we've maintained our employee engagement scores, which have been pretty high for the last three years, and we've kept that up. So we're thrilled with that, but you can always get better. And so what we do is we break down the employee engagement scores down to all the managers in the company. And our thoughts are is that, listen, you've performed well on your employee engagement this year. What are you going to do next year to get even better? And if you've got somebody that's got, you know, an engagement opportunity, what are we going to do to train and support that person to be successful? So, yeah, we're intensely focused on that because, as you rightly point out, Tyler, this is a business that is – we can talk about capital, we can talk about all those things, but fundamentally it's the people that make this happen. We have an awesome team. We'll continue to invest in our team, and we'll continue to drive engagement across this team. So that's an important part of the success. That's why we feel pretty good about, you know, listen, this Matthew – you know, sort of change this year, this will be an opportunity. We've got the team that's going to engage on that because they think it's important. And, you know, the customer's first thing is an important company making that happen. That's part of our culture. So we're well positioned for that. We've just got to keep it focused. Perfect. Thanks, guys.

And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to Mr. Fritz Holtgrave for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. First, I want to thank everyone on the call for their patience. I know that we had a little bit of technical issue here, at least for part of this, and we apologize for that. We know there's been a couple of quarters of that, but trust us when we say that that is something that we'll continue to figure out a way to get that right. I know for the first 10 years that I was with the company, we didn't have any challenges, but it's just more of a recent thing. But we're on it. But if there are folks that maybe didn't get all the detail that they were looking for, feel free to reach out, and Matt and I will certainly field any questions that may have fallen through the cracks there. But if you did, came in and out, or The important thing is that we're really excited about kind of where the company is. We just opened 11 facilities in the third quarter. Significantly, we're already starting to see a lot of value generated out of the six that we opened in the second quarter. And this supports the long-term value proposition of the company. We're excited about the prospects going forward. Certainly, we've made significant investments in the business this year. Those investments have an eye to the long-term success of the business. we're doubling down on focusing on taking care of the customer. That's our intense focus because we see a lot of value that we'll provide to customers from this network, this now national network, into the years to come. So we're excited about the position, and we appreciate your time and interest in SIA. Thank you.

And, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.