USA Truck, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the USA Truck First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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 one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Stevens, Senior Vice President of Finance, Strategy, and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, and welcome to USAT Capacity Solutions' first quarter earnings conference call. Joining us this morning from the company are James Reed, President and CEO, and Zach Gein, Executive Vice President and CFO. Thank you for joining us today. In order to help you To better understand USAT Capacity Solutions and its results, some forward-looking statements could be made during the call. As we all know, forward-looking statements by their very nature are subject to uncertainties and risk. For a more complete discussion of factors that could affect the company's future results, please refer to the forward-looking statement section of the company's earnings press release and the company's most recent SEC public filings. In order to provide you more meaningful comparisons, certain information discussed on the conference call could include non-GAAP financial measures, as outlined and described in the tables in our earnings press release. I'll now turn the time over to James.

Great. Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Mike. The first quarter performance at USA Truck represents the seventh consecutive quarter record-setting results. Our team delivered the best Q1 adjusted operating income and adjusted earnings per share in our company history and the highest revenue quarter in the history of USA Truck. The first quarter was also our fourth consecutive record-setting revenue quarter. We have been consistent in our messaging and approach. This was a business in need of an operational and financial overhaul, and we have delivered that. Our task was to bring consistent industry-level results with more consistency and predictability over time. USA Truck now has among the highest performing businesses in the sector, with a trailing 12-month return on invested capital of 14.1% and a trailing 12-month adjusted earnings per share of $3.93. The approach has never changed as we took specific measures to de-risk and bring resilience to the business that we feel will endure through all cycles. We re-engineered the network to optimize for profitability. We grew our dedicated and quasi-dedicated portfolio to just under 40% for the trucking segment, as this is a less volatile, more cycle-resistant, and predictably profitable business. We have always stayed focused on contract rate. We use the spot market very sparingly. In fact, over the last eight quarters, our average percent of spot market freight is less than 6%, and in the first quarter, it was approximately 7%. And significantly, we have shifted our revenue in asset light and non-asset businesses to approximately 65% of the business, or nearly two-thirds of our revenue. This creates higher returns on capital and a more consistent margin construct, especially in our owner-operator business, which makes up 27% of the trucking segment. Each of these constructs reduce the inherent risk of downward pressure on financial results. No doubt, we've had a great run of results over the last several years. And yet, despite a slightly cooling market, we still expect 2022 to be our best year ever for results. Our internal models and current view of the market have us putting up a 2022 result that both raises our latest trailing 12-month results and obviously results in the best year ever for USA Trucks. USA Truck continues to post record profits. We now have $3.93 in trailing 12 months adjusted earnings per share and see upside to that this year with current market conditions. We understand the sensitivities of our model to potential downside pricing pressure, and even if we assume rate reductions, barring any other unforeseen catastrophe that may beset the company or industry, we still see trough earnings above $2.50 a share. We believe in the market's over the long term as arbiters of value and expect proper consideration of trough earnings and actual results will soon be recognized. We intend to just keep improving earnings and controlling what we can in the meantime. Our balance sheet is strong and improving, and our liquidity and leverage metrics position us well for future growth. Today, we will offer updates on the market dynamics, segment performance of the quarter, and finally, on the outlook. I'll now turn the time over to Zach to discuss the financial results.