Schneider National, Inc.

on mute to prevent any background noise after the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session if you'd like to ask a question during this time simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad if you'd like to withdraw your question again press star one thank you i'd now like to turn the call over to steve bendis director of investor relations you may begin thank you operator and good morning everyone joining me on the call today are mark work president and chief executive officer

Darrell Campbell, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Jim Filter, Executive Vice President and Group President of Transportation and Logistics. Earlier today, the company issued an earnings press release. This release and an investor presentation are available on the investor relations section of our website at schneider.com. Our call will include remarks about future expectations, forecasts, plans, and prospects for Schneider. These constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under applicable federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. The company urges investors to review the risks and uncertainties discussed in our SEC filings, including but not limited to our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and those risks identified in today's earnings release. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this call, and Schneider disclaims any duty to update such statements except as required by law. In addition, pursuant to Regulation G, a reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures referenced during today's call can be found in our earnings release and investor presentation, which includes reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Now I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mark Rourke.

Thank you, Steve, and hello everyone. Thank you for joining the Schneider call today. For our prepared remarks, I will start by providing an update on our commitment to drive ongoing structural changes in our business to restore margins, improve freight cycle resiliency, enable growth, and enhance financial returns for our shareholders. Within that context, I will share my perspective on the freight market and positioning and performance across our multimodal platform of truckload, intermodal, and logistics. Daryl will then provide a financial overview of the first quarter results and share our updated 2025 earnings per share and net capital expenditures guidance. Then we'll take your questions. Let me start by outlining our actions to structurally improve the business. We are following a framework based on four equally important tenets. The first tenet is to optimize capital allocation across our strategic growth drivers of dedicated truck, intermodal, and brokerage and logistics. In December last year, we acquired Cowan Systems, a dedicated services carrier. The first quarter of 2025 was our first full quarter with Cowan included in our results. Their contributions were immediately accretive, and we expect to achieve between 20 million and 30 million of synergies at maturity. Dedicated averaged over 8,500 trucks in service in the quarter, up 27% from over a year ago. Dedicated represents 70% of truckload segment trucks and 71% of revenue. Truckload earnings improved nearly 70% year over year and 27% sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2024. Looking forward, we have line of sight in the second and third quarters to elevated churn because of select dedicated operations moving to network-based solutions in the current environment and a more competitive landscape. Overall, our dedicated retention rate remains in the low 90s. We will also be taking out trucks as a result of our asset efficiency actions to lower our truck to driver ratio even further. Our dedicated new business pipeline is trending to more than replace the churn, but net truck growth is projected to be lower than originally expected. The second tenet is to manage the customer freight allocation process with purpose and discipline. By carefully selecting and managing our freight pool, we can ensure we are serving our customers effectively and profitably. As the quarter concluded, we are about one-third through the contractual renewal period in both truck network and intermodal. The market remains highly competitive, with truck network achieving low to mid-single-digit percentage increases. And to maintain price discipline, we are foregoing volume with some shippers. We are seeing an increase in the number of shipper mini-allocation events to address carrier turnbacks or performance issues arising from the initial event outcomes, which gives us confidence in our strategy. The improvement in revenue per truck per week in both truck network and dedicated was 2%, which is more than 100% price driven as asset productivity was impacted by first quarter weather events. Turning to intermodal contract renewals, we are pleased with the current trend of increased volume allocations primarily in geographies where we have positive differentiation that fits well within our network. Overall intermodal rates remain largely flat year over year. The third tenant is delivering an effortless experience by making it easy for customers to work with us by providing optionality and value across our multimodal platform. We have gained market share with new customer rewards by combining elements of our portfolio to sole source facilities and or geographies. This is particularly effective for industry-leading value retail customers, as well as those in the food and beverage industry. These sole source awards dramatically lower operational complexity for shippers, while bolstering our network operations through increased freight density. Looking forward, there is a bull case based upon generally resilient macroeconomic numbers to date, with stable demand and capacity continuing to exit the market. We do note that forward sentiment for customer freight demand and consumer health is less clear, particularly as tariff-driven uncertainty builds. As a result, the continued rising momentum on price recovery is also less certain. The last tenet is containing costs across all expense categories. Cost containment is critical to our overall business strategy as it enables us to reinvest in growth initiatives and enhance our competitive position and margins. We have established targets of more than 40 million of additional cost reductions across the enterprise. The cost savings mandate encompasses ongoing investments in AI-based digital assistant technologies and the more transformative digital employee models. These advancements enables us to automate routine tasks, freeing up associates to focus on more meaningful work higher in the value chain. Beyond identified cost savings opportunities, we are evaluating the potentially meaningful impacts of tariffs on the original equipment costing, repair parts availability and cost, as well as overall equipment maintenance expense. Switching now to perspectives on the freight market and on positioning and performance of our multimodal platform. Our first quarter results were in line with our expectation, despite weather impacts and growing economic uncertainty. Each of our primary segments grew revenue, earnings, and margins year over year. In truckload, both network and dedicated delivered improved earnings year over year and sequentially, driven by cost containment actions and improved freight pricing from second half of 2024 through first quarter of 2025 contractual renewals. We aim to transition to a more variable cost model and network by expanding owner-operator relationships to supplement our company driver fleet. This shift is taking longer than expected as operating and financial conditions are prompting more owner-operators to exit the industry. Turning to intermodal, we nearly doubled earnings compared to a year ago on 4% order growth, driven by increasing shipping activity in the west of Mexico. We have visibility to a portion of our customers taking freight pull-ahead actions in the face of tariff uncertainty. Our year-to-date success in new business awards is expected to reduce the overall future volume variability due to trade policy. Logistics improved earnings 50% year-over-year as our freight power for shipper and carrier digital technology allows us to remain nimble to changing market dynamics across both less than truckload and truckload modes. Overall, brokerage freight volumes are challenged as shippers continue to favor asset-based solutions. Power only grew volumes mid single digits compared to a year ago as shippers and carriers value the simplicity and access of matching qualified small carriers to large trailer pull shippers. In summary, we are focused on the areas we control while maximizing our strategic differentiators. Within our locus of control is containing costs, maintaining price discipline, and outperforming our competition commercially. Our strategic differentiators are unique across our four dedicated brands of Schneider, Midwest Logistics Systems, M&M Transport, and now the lightweight equipment solution powerhouse Cowen Systems. Our asset-based company Dre chassis and container intermodal offering combined with our strong rail relationships with the CSX, Union Pacific, and CPKC creates reliable and valued solutions for intermodal shippers. Plus, our consistently profitable logistics offering enabled by our freight power platform and market-leading power-only capability remains a meaningful asset-light strategic contributor to the enterprise. So let me now turn it over to Daryl for his insights on the first quarter and our 2025 guidance. Daryl?