Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (ODFL) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Old Dominion Freight Line Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jack Atkins, Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the second quarter 2026 conference call for Old Dominion Freight Line. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning today through August 5, 2026. By dialing +1 (855) 669-9660, access code 852-1190. The replay of the webcast may also be accessed for 30 days on our 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. 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. Finally, before we begin, we welcome your questions today, but ask that you limit yourselves to just one question at a time before returning to the queue. Thank you for your cooperation. At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the conference over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Marty Freeman.

Marty, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter conference call. With me today on the call is Adam N. Satterfield, our CFO. After some brief remarks, we would be glad to take your questions. Old Dominion produced strong results in the second quarter. Which include a 10.4% increase in revenue, and a 450-basis point improvement in our operating ratio. In addition, our second quarter earnings per diluted share increased 32.3% to $1.68 which matched our previous company record that we set in the third quarter of 2022. These results reflect both continued improvement in demand trends as well as our ongoing focus on yield management and operational execution. While the difficult operating environment over the past few years presented us with a number of challenges, including lower network density, and inflationary cost pressures, we continued to diligently execute on the fundamental aspects of our long-term strategic plan and invest for the future. The strength of our second quarter results demonstrates the benefits of this strategy. While I am proud of these results, I am even more proud of our OD family of employees and their unwavering commitment to provide our customers with superior service at a fair price. That was the case again in the second quarter when we provided our customers with 99% on-time service and a claims ratio of 0.1%. In addition, we have made approximately 1,000-lane adjustments this year that improved our service standard transit times. Our team continues to leverage their experience and new technologies to further improve our service standards and overall value proposition for our customers. Our customers rely on us to keep their promises to them by picking up and delivering their freight on-time and without damages so that they can keep their commitments to their own customers. Our proven ability to execute on behalf of our customers at all points of the macroeconomic cycle has created an unmatched value proposition in our industry. That is why it is critical despite a prolonged period of softness in the domestic economy to continue to make the key long-term investments in our network, our technology, and our people so that we can now continue to deliver best-in-class service as the operating environment changes. Consistently providing our customers with superior customer service is the cornerstone of our strategic plan and doing so supports our yield management initiatives. Our disciplined approach to pricing which focuses on individual account-level profitability is designed to offset our cost inflation over the long-term and support reinvestment back into our business. Our ability to take a long-term approach to our investments in our network and our OD family of employees helps ensure that we are always in an unparalleled position to respond to both current market conditions and future growth opportunities. Our strategic plan has worked through many economic cycles But that said, our greatest opportunities to win market share often come when industry capacity is generally limited and the domestic economy is strong. The domestic economic environment remains relatively stable and we are encouraged by the continued improvement in demand that began late last year. In addition, based on feedback we have received from our customers, we believe that our superior service is increasingly differentiating Old Dominion within our industry and providing opportunities for incremental growth. We reported strong second quarter results that demonstrate the power of our disciplined execution and the strength of our long-term strategic plan. We returned to revenue growth in the quarter and produced strong operating leverage on our incremental revenue. In addition, because of our consistent investments in our network and our people, we have all the necessary elements of capacity that we need to support our customers and take on additional volume opportunities as the operating environment changes. As a result, we are confident in our ability to win market share and produce profitable revenue growth which we believe will generate increased value for our shareholders over the long-term. Again, thank you for joining us this morning. And now Adam will discuss our second quarter in greater detail. Adam?

Thank you, Marty, and good morning. Old Dominion's revenue increased 10.4% to $1.55 billion for the second quarter of 2026 while our operating ratio improved 450 basis points to 70.1%. The combination of these factors resulted in a 32.3% increase in our earnings per diluted share to $1.68. We were pleased to return to revenue growth in the second quarter which included an increase in our yield and an improving trend with our volumes. Our revenue results include a 15.2% increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight which was partially offset by a 4.1% decrease in our tons per day. Excluding fuel surcharges, our LTL revenue per hundredweight increased 5.5% due to our continued focus on revenue quality during the quarter. On a sequential basis, our revenue per day for the second quarter increased 14.6% when compared to the first quarter 2026, with LTL tons per day increasing 4.0% and LTL shipments per day increasing 3.2%. For comparison, the 10-year average sequential change for these metrics includes an increase of 7.1% in revenue per day, an increase of 4.4% in LTL tons per day, and an increase of 5.2% in LTL shipments per day. The monthly sequential change in LTL tons per day during the second quarter were as follows: April decreased 2.8% as compared to March May increased 3.0% as compared with April, And June increased 0.9% as compared with May. The comparative 10-year average change for these respective months is a decrease of 0.9% in April an increase of 2.2% in May and an increase of 1.7% in June. While there are still a few workdays remaining in July, our month-to-date revenue per day has increased by approximately 7.5% to 8.0% when compared to July 2025. This includes an increase in our LTL revenue per hundredweight that is partially offset by a decrease in our LTL tons per day of approximately 1.0%. Although our tons per day are slightly lower than July of 2025, the sequential change from June of 2026 is significantly better than our normal seasonality. The increase in July's LTL revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharges is currently tracking below the second quarter growth rate of 5.5% due primarily to changes in the mix of our freight. As a result, I am currently anticipating an improvement in this metric for the third quarter of 4.0% to 4.5%. To be clear, this is a positive trend for our company. As it reflects the continued increase in our weight per shipment. We continue to be as focused as ever on our long-term yield management initiatives which have helped us become the most profitable carrier in our industry. As usual, we will provide the actual revenue-related details for July in our second quarter Form 10-Q. Our operating ratio improved 450 basis points to 70.1% for the second quarter of 2026 with improvements in both our direct operating cost and our overhead expenses as a percentage of revenue. Within our direct operating cost, improvements in our salaries, wages and benefits as a percentage of revenue more than offset an increase in our operating supplies and expenses. This increase in operating supplies and expenses was primarily due to the increase in the cost of diesel fuel and other petroleum-based products. The improvement in our overhead cost as a percentage of revenue was partially due to the change in our net miscellaneous income and expense. This line item included $17.2 million of net gains on the disposal of property and equipment during the current quarter. In addition, we also saw improvements in a number of other overhead expenses due to the leverage gain from the increase in revenue as well as a continued focus on controlling our discretionary spending. Old Dominion's cash flow from operations totaled $272.7 million for the second quarter and $646.3 million for the first 6 months of 2026 respectively, while capital expenditures were $77.0 million and $140 million for those same periods. As announced in our release this morning, we increased our 2026 capital expenditure plan and now expect aggregate capital expenditures to total approximately $380 million this year. The $115 million increase from our original plan includes an additional $60 million for tractors and trailers and an additional $55 million for real estate and service center expansion projects. While we continue to have plenty of service center and equipment capacity to accommodate anticipated growth opportunities, These increases reflect strategic purchase opportunities that fit into our long-term capital expenditure plan. We utilized $151.6 million and $240 million of cash for our share repurchase program during the second quarter and first 6 months of 2026 respectively while our cash dividends totaled $60.2 million and $121 million for those same periods. Our effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2026 was 25.0% as compared to 24.8% in the second quarter of 2025. We currently expect our effective tax rate to be 25.0% for the third quarter of 2026. This concludes our prepared remarks this morning. Operator, we will be happy to open the floor for any questions at this time.

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question today is from Jonathan Chappell with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Adam, a lot of volatility from month to month as we look at seasonality and your 10-year averages obviously a lot better in May, maybe a little slower in June. You just speak to the overall demand environment as we think about July trending from here? And also to the extent that you can kind of put a pin on it, we have been hearing a lot about freight shifting from a tight TL market to LTL? Are you seeing that? And kind of where do you think you stand as far as like the innings of that transition?

Yeah. I think to start with that first, I still think we are in the early innings. We are hearing some of that from customers, but I have not really seen the big weight per shipment change within certain categories. Particularly with 3PL managed business that you would see when there is a major inflection going on with the truckload spillover one way or the other. So I still think that there is probably a lot left to go with that renormalization there, if you will. But I expect that will continue as the truckload rate environment continues to be really strong. Overall for us, demand continues to improve. I am happy with a lot of the trends that we are seeing. And you are right, I think that it is choppy month to month when you look at our sequential growth versus our 10-year average trends, but that is not uncommon. When you get in periods like this, there have been certain months where we have just significantly outperformed the 10-year average, and then the next month might be a little bit softer and so forth. And that is kind of the way the second quarter shaped up We had a really strong February and March and then the April was softer than the 10-year average. Then we kind of climbed out of that essentially brought the full quarter sequential trend back to right there at with the normal quarter would be. But I have looked at if you went back to the beginning of this year and normal seasonality, if you just played it out month by month, in July, we are handling probably about 3 million pounds more per day than we would if normal seasonality had played out. So to me, I think we are obviously outperforming at this rate for full seasonality. And think we are just in the early stages of the economy getting going again. With where ISM has just been in the low 50s. has not really had a big breakout yet. And I still think there is a lot of room to run when you look at things like some of the inventory to sales ratios as low as that is, and that somewhat reconciles with feedback we have heard from customers about the need for restocking and so forth. So really excited about where we are, but you know, more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead carry some momentum through the balance of this year. Into 2027 as well. Thanks, Adam.

The next question is from Christian Wetherbee with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Yes, hey, thanks. Good morning. Adam, you have given us sort of revenue ranges. given us OR sort of dynamics for the forward quarter in the past. Wondering if you could help us a little bit with that. Obviously, the second quarter from an OR perspective does have the gain in it. So maybe just some thoughts on how you think about revenue opportunity in the third quarter and also the operating ratio?

Yes. I will just maybe answer one of those and leave the other for someone else's follow-up. Maybe just to start with the top line, because we have not always given revenue guidance, but I think it is probably appropriate, especially with some of the volatility that we have had with fuel and I guess to start, the July revenue growth rate of 7.5% to 8%, that includes sequential change in tonnage that is significantly better than the 10-year average, as I mentioned. And to just put some context around that, the tons per day, right now is sequentially down about 0.5%, the 10-year average is down 3%. So, seeing really strong performance there. I think that if we can carry momentum through the rest of the quarter, may see some of this choppiness that I just spoke about, in either August or September. I think if we can just carry some of this momentum forward, maybe we think that we can get a 10% increase in revenue. For the full quarter, so bring that growth rate up. And that would put the absolute number at about $1.54 billion, $1.55 billion for the full quarter. And obviously, give our mid-quarter update, so we will be track be track along with that. The entire time. But conservatively, if we carry that same 7.5 to 8% growth rate, that would be about $1.52 billion for the full quarter. But and kind of as a baseline, what I am anticipating for fuel is assuming that we are going to see stability. It had stabilized for a bit during the second quarter. Reinflected back positive. But I would like to think that we see some resolution there and have fuel that maybe trends back down and we will see that more in the--or my baseline is $4.95 as an average per gallon for the full quarter. But we would like to see that come under control, which I think will be a net positive for the overall economy. Okay.

that is helpful. Appreciate it.

The next question is from Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi, good morning. I guess I will follow-up on the going from revenue to the sequential OR thoughts and I guess if you could just let us know if that would be off of the reported OR, or any adjustments related to that net property gain? Thank you.

Yeah, I figured that would be close on the heels, Jordan, but no, obviously, the 10-year average change, for us at least is for the third quarter operating ratio to be flat or up 50 basis points from the second quarter. And I think we can essentially hit our normal seasonality, but you do have to sort of add back some of the items to normalize what that third quarter operating ratio would be and the biggest of which is obviously the big gain that we had on property sales during the quarter. So kind of with some of those things in mind, would say normalized overall increase off the 70.1% would be an increase of about 150 to 200 basis points from the second to the third quarter. Thank you.

The next question is from Thomas Wadewitz with UBS. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. So Adam or Marty, wanted to get your thoughts on maybe what is happening with service and capacity in the market. I think there have been some data points or feedback that there are maybe a couple pretty good-sized carriers that have hit some embargoes in the Midwest and capacity constraints. I have also heard feedback about LTL driver market getting a bit tighter or a little harder to hire drivers. So maybe more of a connection with truckload than I would have expected. But what are you seeing in terms of is are you also observing that And is that starting to have an effect on your business in terms of maybe some shipments coming over to you? That might even affect July, but just kind of like if you think that is happening and then how quickly that or how much that might affect you and what you see in your shipments and your pricing? Thank you.

Good question. First of all, we are not having any capacity issues, whether it be with equipment or drivers or real estate. But you are correct. We are hearing some talk about some of our competitors having problems picking up at the end of the month. And we have seen some of that freight move over. Temporarily. And if we get a major inflection in the economy, I think we will see it daily. But yes, we are hearing that. So I think some of that as Adam alluded to earlier could be coming from the full truckload industry, some of that freight starting to spill back over in a small way to the LTL environment. So I think that is a that is a double whammy for us.

So you think that is maybe boosting July Or was that happening earlier in the quarter?

Yes. I mean, think it is been happening. We have heard it earlier in the year. And look, this is a big part of our value proposition is always having capacity and it is not just the service center capacity, it is having trailing equipment where you can spot trailers at our customers' doors, particularly in the month, in the quarter. But having driver capacity as well. And as Marty said, we have got plenty of capacity across all of those 3 major elements. And I think when other carriers are operating in the first quarter, the public company average excluding us was a 94%, you got to start managing cost in different ways and maybe are not able to keep the amount of excess capacity. To respond to growth opportunities as they are coming on a sequential basis. So I definitely think that is been a little part of the story, but again, like I said earlier, I think we are just kind of in the early stages of recovering. it is been nice to see us be tracking at seasonality really going back to November of last year. But it just feels like we are in the early stages of this and we have a big runway of growth ahead for us and we are eager to get back to it. We have built up a tremendous amount of capacity over the last few years with the continued investments that we have made. And so we are eager to get freight back into the system and you look at what we can produce in the second quarter, the control that we have shown over cost and improvement that we have had in our direct cost in particular we are still down a long ways where we were back in 2022. So, if we can continue to see that inflection, like we just saw from the second to third quarter, just a 4% sequential increase in our tonnage. But doing that with the same headcount, look at all the leverage that exist in our business. So, a lot of opportunity to grow the top line, but more importantly, to keep improving our operating ratio and produce strong profitable growth. Great. Thank you.

The next question is from Eric Morgan with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Wanted to ask on pricing. Just curious if you could discuss what drove your yield ahead of your initial guidance in the quarter? Especially with weight per shipment improving through the quarter? And relatedly, just wondering if you could elaborate a bit on what those mix effects were you referenced that is driving 3Q yield growth a little bit below the second quarter? Thanks.

Yes. The second quarter, I think, has benefited some there is always mix that is going on. It could be a balance of national account versus your small mom and pop. Some of our higher priority services and so forth. And we were pleased to see the overall revenue per hundredweight in the second quarter. Tracking. Our guidance going into the second quarter was thinking that it would be at about 4% to 4.5% And so obviously, we were well ahead of that. But sometimes just looking month to month and so forth, the revenue per hundredweight can move up or down. And I do not think there is anything to call out. But to me, what we are seeing with it coming back down, the rate of growth, that is. it is still sequentially increasing the revenue per hundredweight, that is. it is very similar to what we saw sequentially back in 2017. Where we had weight per shipment that was outperforming normal seasonality through that year and that was in the early stage. If you recall, that is when the real inflection was beginning. So I would like to think that some of the similarities that I am seeing in our numbers, particularly with yield particularly with tonnage and weight per shipment. Maybe this is the start of the real inflection like what we saw back then. So, you know, that is why we are I wanted to make clear that this is a positive when you see the revenue growth and it coming in the form of tons and weight per shipment. And our yields continuing to improve. that is what puts profits to the bottom line. And that is a key driver of what allowed us to operate at a 70.1%. And I realized we had the real estate gain in there, but even if you back that out, that is one of the strongest operating quarters that we have ever had. And I go back and compare it to the second quarter of 2022, and I often talk about that breakdown of cost. Direct operating cost and overhead Our direct operating cost in the second quarter of this year were about 200- to 250-basis-points better than where we were in the second quarter of 2022 when we reduced to 69.5% operating ratio. When you think about that increase in our overhead cost there, there is the tremendous amount of leverage that cannot only take us down into the 60s or just hitting right there at getting to a 69 operating ratio, but it is going to be able to allow us to drive it even much lower. Thank you.

The next question is from Ravi Shanker with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Adam and Marty, there has been a lot of focus on TL LTL conversion on this call. But I think in the down cycle, we have also seen brokers take a bunch of share from asset based LTLs in the marketplace. And obviously, the broker relationship right now is under scrutiny post Montgomery. I am wondering if you are seeing any shift away from brokers back to asset heavy as well as we go deeper into the cycle. Thank you.

Probably a little bit early for that. We saw revenue growth with our 3PL related customers in the most recent quarter that was similar to the overall growth rate for the company. So that is kinda hanging in there. But, you know, that is something that we obviously, like to have customers direct with us, and, you know, if that is a change that develops. You know, we will work with them. But if customers using the 3PL, you know, we treat them the same. We look at the cost. The important thing with business and about a third of our revenue right now is with 3PLs. Is to understand the cost on any customer account, whether it is direct or with a 3PL, and to price it appropriately so that we have got similar account-level profitability. Across our book of business. And that is the way we look at it. We look at customer specific costs and then we provide customer specific pricing to those 3PLs. But we will take it if it comes at a and, be happy to do so. Sounds good. Thank you.

The next question is from Ken Hoexter with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, great. Good morning. Thanks for the insight before on some of the struggles at the carriers popping up that is definitely an issue we have been hearing about also. But if I could just take David's question in maybe a different way, another upheaval or start is in the brokerage side, just given the heavy use of brokers that you have. We are seeing a lot of lawsuits go on now that are maybe whether it was from Montgomery and risk that moves up the food chain or last week just the exposure. Is that impacting discussions with the brokers? Is it are you seeing any flows that might be changing? Maybe just talk about what you are seeing from that brokerage follow through.

Yes. Nothing at this point, Ken, that I have heard And we obviously, especially with some of our largest ones, several of our top-10 customers are 3PLs. And have not really seen any type of material change there. And obviously, with the revenue growth being pretty consistent with the company average at this point, But have not really heard a lot of feedback there is been a lot of discussion. But obviously, as many of you have written about it is a potential big change that is coming for the industry. And, you know, I am reading you all report about the increase in insurance cost and that is that we have talked about in recent years. To be a large sophisticated LTL well capitalized carrier we have dealt with double digit premium inflation for many years now. And that is something that goes into our cost model that we have got to continue to account for with our pricing. So, it sounds like that is something that they will have further account for. And if a customer is using a 3PL, there is obviously got to be margin for the 3PL to manage. And if we give the same price, then that is a cost. And I think that will be something to where they have to prove their value proposition, the 3PL that is to the shipper. If more and more shippers choose to use Old Dominion direct, then we will be there for them-- be here for them, I should say and be happy to handle it. But yes, definitely cost inflation that is coming that may drive some of that cost through 3PL business versus non. And maybe reverse some of the shift that we have seen increased use of 3PLs over the past say 10, 15 years.

Thanks, John.

The next question is from Jason Seidl with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Gentlemen, good morning. A lot's been covered and I appreciate it. Wanted to go a little bit of a different direction. one of your competitors in their call talked about looking at the use of autonomous trucks for some of the linehaul operations and that they might have gotten to the point where it is it is a viable option for an LTL carrier. Just wondering what your thoughts on that were and if you looked into it?

Yeah. Yeah. Jason, I think that is something that any type of technology you have got to continue to look at and stay on top of. But I think that one of the things that people have got to consider as well as what is the cost of the technology on a per mile basis. Some of the things that I have seen and read, you know, do not know that you have got the value add. You know, you think about our fleet of equipment, we, dual use a lot of our tractors. So they are running P&D during the day. Line haul at night. If you have got to pay the technology provider, I do not think that autonomous vehicle would be more for linehaul application You either are buying specific P&D units that is going to drive your unit cost up or you are paying for a mileage where you are not really using and leveraging the technology. So I think like many things that are like that, you got to stay on top of. We do not want to be on the bleeding edge of that technology and development and so forth. But it is just like any other investment, when it comes to technology. There are a lot of opportunities that we take a look at where the cost of the technology does not really provide an appropriate return. And investment in autonomous would be a similar type of analysis that we would go through. But to me, it is something, too, that, you know, I do not know. it is, it is hard to imagine a world where you have got 80 thousand-pound trucks driving up and down the highways without someone sitting in the cab to deal with those one off scenarios, to deal with cargo theft that is already a problem when you have got a driver sitting in the cab. So, you know, there is a lot of other incremental challenges that would present and would have to be dealt with from a regulatory standpoint before this goes worldwide. And obviously, it is been dealt with and utilized in certain lanes and so forth. But to scale and be nationwide, I still had some reservations about.

So it sounds like it is more than just the total cost of it all. there is there is other factors in terms of you guys taking advantage of something like this as it comes available?

I think so. Yeah. But look, our business is pretty simple. At the end of the day, it is how do we manage the revenue per shipment and the cost per shipment. And give the very best service in our industry to be able to support the value in our yields. And so like I said, it is no different. Everything we look at is how can we minimize the inflation in our cost per shipment. Continue to get yields to support the value proposition. So we will continue to look at it. Like I said, I do not think we will be on the bleeding edge with adoption there. Appreciate the time and color as always.

The next question is from Bascome Majors with Susquehanna. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my questions. If we look back, I think this is the first time the capital envelope has gone up since the beginning of 24 and I would just be curious both big picture thinking on where this is going. Is it the tightness at capacity at some of your peers that bringing freight your way? Or is it you are hearing from customers on sort of macro economic expectations that is driving you back into a period of growth investment, albeit gradually? And could just give us a quick update, mean you talked about having a lot of capacity now. Any sort of sense of where you stand on equipment in the network today? Thank you.

Yeah. The increase that we had, keep in mind, the total $380 million is still well below our normal range is 10% to 15%. Of revenue. But like we said, both the increase in the real estate side and the equipment really are strategic purchase opportunities. From a real estate standpoint, you have also got some timing of projects that we have continued to spend on our network because of the confidence we have in our long-term market share opportunities. But we have got a couple of unique opportunities, or it could be something that fit in the long-term plan in the in a market that is hard to find real estate, to not get into too many specifics. But then you have also got some lease-to-own conversions timing of projects that we may get started in the balance of this year. That may have been in 2027 initially. So we are always fine tuning that model and that drove some of that increase there. But there is 1 or 2 kind of strategic purchase opportunities that are in there that just sort of fit when we think about our 5- and 10-year plan. Then on the equipment side, you know, that is a little different. Some of that spend, would have been allocated to 2027. So we are kind of pulling some of those purchases into the fourth quarter of this year. And again, just through conversation discussions, our operations teams felt like it would be better to go ahead and pull some of that equipment into this year. But overall, kind of to answer your question, it is not necessarily a need to increase the capacity of our service center network. We have still got north of 35% excess capacity there. We have got plenty of power and trailing equipment capacity at this point. Really, when we get into the fall of this year is when we will be forecasting for next year's volumes to think about what our replacement needs would be and then any growth needs. But I think given kind of where our fleet is versus some prior years when we have had similar growth numbers, it still will probably lean more towards replacement just to kind of grow into the fleet that we have. But probably add some trailing equipment to make sure we have got plenty of capacity there. And on the people side, like we talked about on the last call, we were able to accommodate this 4% sequential increase in tonnage that we just had with essentially the same workforce. So, through the balance of the third and fourth quarter, probably not a lot of material change in our headcount overall there. So if we can take another sequential increase through the third quarter, I think that presents some good opportunities there from a cost and margin standpoint. But then we have really again kind of getting into forecasting for next year, we have got to think about when's the right time to start some of our truck driving schools again and start getting more drivers in. To accommodate what we think our growth expectations for 2027 might be. Thank you for all the detail.

The next question is from Rishi Harnane with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks for the time also. Yes, I guess first a quick housekeeping 1. Adam, that OR sequential change you cited for the third quarter, flat to up 50 bps, I would suspect that is on GAAP. But wanted to make sure. And then I guess, just bigger picture, you know, tonnage came in line with normal seasonality this past quarter and you meaningfully beat your OR outlook for the quarter even ex that real estate gain. And looking into the third quarter, you are calling for you know, pretty optimistic scenario both around maybe macro demand picking up and OD-specific demand as your peers face some challenges. I guess what is driving that tempered enthusiasm considering that you are thinking you could just be in line with historical trends in OR? And then, you know, back to complementing you on the strong performance in the second quarter, the incremental margin we calculated in the quarter was really good, around 60%. So curious if that influences your outlook for OR longer-term or if you would caution us from using that optimistic of an outlook given fuel likely created some of that positive operating leverage. So a lot in there, but I will I will let you take it how you want it. Thanks.

Yeah. I do not know if I can, track everything that was in there, but, you know, I would say, you know, a lot of the second quarter outperformance, if you will, you know, the volumes just came in stronger. Than, you know, where we were 3 months ago talking about the call and where April was. We just came back a lot stronger with volumes and obviously, we were able to put a lot of that incremental revenue growth to the bottom line. And a lot of that flowed through with the sequential change in salaries, wages and benefits. I think I would pointed everyone to second quarter 2022 as sort of a reference point. When you had a similar type of change with fuel prices and so forth. But we probably did a little bit better with our salaries, wages and benefits change. But, also, you know, there were some benefit in some of our other op supplies and expenses and G&A-type cost. And some of those are partly what I mentioned would be in that normalization. Of trending into the third quarter. I tell you, if we did not have the fringe headwind, we would be talking about the summer of 69 here. We did have a big headwind from the first and second quarter with our fringe benefits, which we talked about at the end of the call, but boy, sure would have been nice, to have had a 69 operating ratio. But we have been there before and we will get back there again. But looking into the third quarter, got some of that. The guidelines that I gave is still 45% to 50% incremental margins. On that type of revenue growth. And that is stronger than a longer-term trend. And a lot of that will be based on what I mentioned earlier about our direct versus overhead cost. With our direct cost now is 50% to 51% in the second quarter. that is something that, obviously, you keep leveraging tonnage growth at the right price and you can put a lot of that to the bottom line. But there is a lot of opportunity there When you think from a bigger picture and longer-term standpoint, to further improve that direct operating cost percentage threshold. And then we have got to keep getting leverage on the overhead cost and controlling that discretionary spending We are not seeing the same type of increase in depreciation this year because the CapEx program is lower. Than it is been in recent years. that is helped with some of our cost inflation So a lot of those different variables that when you think kind of over a multiyear through the cycle type of operating ratio change Our goal is obviously to get we have stated multiple times to get to a sub 70. But when you think about growth within those expense thresholds that I just laid out, do not want to say that 45% to 50% is the new way to think about it. But when you think about it in that context, you know, getting to the sub 70 annual operating ratio is pretty easy to map out. And we are going to achieve our goal that is you know, immediate goal before we set a new one. But I think it is clear to see why we have changed our operating ratio goal by 500 basis points at a time. And you can kind of map out you know, and prove pretty easily a pathway that would get us to our next 500 basis point goal.

And then just if you could quickly clarify the OR sequential change for the third quarter from the second quarter, that is based off GAAP OR, right?

It is. Yes. We are We like to operate on GAAP and talk about GAAP type numbers and we will give you adjustments like the real estate gain, but I do not know that you will ever hear me talk about non-GAAP numbers and adjusted EBITDA. I think GAAP makes more sense for an easier comparison.

Yep. Alright. Thank you so much.

The next question is from Brian Ossenbeck with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe, Adam, if you can just give a little bit more context on the headcount and the labor side. Obviously, the fringe benefit was a pretty big increase. I would assume, in the comp per employee. Does that continue to increase a little bit with the annual wage increase? And you said you are gonna keep the labor, essentially flat, but want to hear a little bit more about the cadence that you can have visibility to And then some commentary on the truck driver schools and bringing those back and sort of review on capacity towards the end of this year and into next as you start to think through that and what the next cycle could bring or acquire from a labor perspective. Thanks.

Sure. Yeah. that is good perspective. Brian. We will give a wage increase the September 1, and, we have not announced that to our employees yet. But, so I do not wanna announce it here. But obviously, you know, we continue to do well as an organization and we believe in sharing that benefit with our employees. So that is something that we will be working through and announcing here pretty soon. But I think that, like I had said, we have got the people capacity People are able to start working more hours on average than they were before. And, and our drivers and platform employees have been eager to do that and see their take-home pay. Increasing as a result. So we can continue to step up and meet the needs of our customers through the third and fourth quarters of this year. The thought in terms of starting our truck driving schools and so forth we have had our truck driving schools going and, you know, part of what we do in our strategy is to take our employees that are interested in being a driver and train them to get their CDL. So when demand and volumes are there, able to put them into a truck pretty quickly. And we have got someone that is been with us that believes in the OD family spirit and our culture. And we know, they are going to do right things right for our customers. And continue to deliver service that no one else is even close to in our industry. So, I think it is all about making sure we have got people that are prepared that if we start seeing the sequential increase typically happens in kind of March, of next year. And who knows what volumes will be like through the balance of the third fourth quarter, but just generally thinking about seasonality. You want to make sure that you got people that are ready to step in. The worst thing you can do is have volume opportunities coming at you. And, to not be able to take advantage of those. And I think when you look at our history, we have proven out time and time again that we are able to rise that challenge. And that is what gives me the confidence to talk about some of these numbers that we have had. Or have today When I look back, it is these high-growth years where we really separate ourselves from our competition. And you think about the 2014, 2015 and 2017 and 2018, 2021, 2022, those high-growth years where demand is incredibly strong. We have had tonnage the change in our tons per day that is outperformed our competition. 800 to 1,000 basis points. And so, I think that is what we are looking forward to. I think that there continue to be capacity challenges in our industry. To where when the industry really starts growing again, we are going to see the majority of that market share growth coming our way. So, we just want to make sure that we are prepared and we know that we are. But you got to stay ahead of the growth curve in this industry and I think we have proven time and time again that we can do so. Great. Thanks very much for that, Adam.

The next question is from Bruce Chan with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Hey team, good morning. This is Matthew on for Bruce. A couple of quick ones here. With respect to the stronger volume that highlighted and the super seasonal trends, Curious if you are seeing this uptick sort of broad-based across the book or is it still concentrated in a handful of end markets?

No. it is pretty consistent across our regions, which is nice. That keeps the network in balance. For us. And as you know, we are pretty much 100% insourced from a linehaul standpoint. So, you know, we are we are not facing any purchase transportation challenges that maybe some of our competitors are and certainly not dealing with the cost inflation that go along with that dynamic with the truckload price increases. That we are seeing right now. So that is a benefit to us as well. And so, everything's staying in balance and pretty consistent You have got a little bit of change and like I mentioned earlier, we were talking about yields, know, with growth, with national accounts, larger national accounts, growth of small and pop, but seeing pretty consistent performance, I would say, across those 2 major components of our revenue and the same thing with the 3PL managed business as well.

Great. Super helpful. And lastly, I know you mentioned hearing that some peers are having some trouble making pickups due to the tighter labor market conditions, I guess. How would you characterize the financial health of smaller regional providers at this point? And maybe, you know, whether you are seeing any you know, changes there in their, you know, pricing or competitive behaviors, the market sort of improves or you know, maybe what is likely to be increasingly higher inflationary cost environment with issues like insurance? Thanks.

Yeah. We have got a lot of, our industry has got a lot of very high quality small regional carriers that they are private mainly. So we do not know their operating ratios More of the feedback that we hear in bids and so forth, as you can imagine, the larger accounts with widespread operations and some of the larger national nonunion carriers that we compete more with on a national basis just because they are larger accounts and those are the ones that are you hear more feedback on. So do not have anything to offer on what some of the smaller carriers are doing right now and what their financials look like.

Fair enough. Thanks.

The next question is from Ariel Rosa with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. So I wanted to stay on the volume piece of things and just kind of the macro environment. Maybe a little bit more color there on of the optimism or what is underlying some of the optimism? Because if we look back historically, as you had mentioned, right, it is not uncommon for OD to grow tonnage at that rate of mid-single digits, maybe even high-single on a year-over-year basis. Is this macro environment or some of the things you are seeing in the macro could it support that over the next couple of quarters? Or would we need to see an acceleration in the macro to get there? And then just a point of clarification, if I could. The gain on sale, could you just give us a little bit of color on what that was from and if there is anything more expect or more to come there? Thanks.

Yeah. The gain on the sales, we have mentioned over the last few years that we have finished construction on some projects and have just kind of kept them in ready reserve. We have been depreciating those projects as we finished them and they were available for operations, but we just turn those points on in the network and a few of those were service center moves. So our service center count in total stayed the same. And basically, we moved into different facilities, sold the old ones and I think there were 3 of those in the quarter. That resulted in that $17 million net gain. But know, there is I would not expect any more this year. there is still a few more out there. Meaning service centers that are in ready reserve steel and we may have a few more dispositions this year. But that is something that as it happens, it is material, we will talk about it. We do not have anything I do not think with the same type of material gain. That would be there if it does happen this year. that is just something that our ops team is constantly looking at the network balance and where it makes most sense from a call standpoint turn points on. And hopefully, we will be turning some of those on because of the volume. So kind of bridging in your next question, as the volumes come in, similar to what we did through 2019, 2020 and through that 2022 period. We will be turning on some of these new service centers finishing construction of some others. To continue to improve our network overall. And again, that is part of the value proposition. But hey, look, we are winning market share right now. And as I mentioned, we are already you just sort of go month by month where tons per day is above what normal seasonality would have suggested. From the beginning of this year. I would say that the challenges to the economy the economy is in a good spot. it is obviously ISM has been positive, but it is not like we have had ISM you know, knocking on the door of 60 or being above, you know, 55. And I still think there is opportunity out there on the retail side, but and I believe looking at inventory to sales ratio that is a precursor when you look back in history, it is as low as it is been maybe going back to 2021. So that should kick off some volume and market share opportunities. But I think the domestic economy as a whole has just got the inflation concerns and world events, that, you know, have probably been keeping a little bit of a lid on things. it is positive, but it is not red hot. So to speak. We are not in the type of environment yet that is say, a 2018 or 2021. But know, I feel like some of the metrics makes it seem like that inflection point is coming. And that is partly why we want to be ready for it. We are not going to get out over our skis, if you will, in terms of getting too far ahead of the growth curve. But we are far enough ahead to keep going through the balance of this year. We definitely got plenty of service center and equipment capacity and continuing to look at the headcount is just something that we will manage more closely.

that is great. Thanks for the time.

The next question is from Scott Group with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Adam, just want to clarify one thing on the 10% revenue growth for the third quarter. Does that assume sort of normal tonnage seasonality in August and September or anything better, worse? And then just sort of maybe longer-term, like you tend to be very sort of measured in your comments and, you know, you talked about pretty easy to map out a sub 70. I think you said at one point, like, you can get a good amount better than a sub-69 or something like that. So that is, I mean, obviously, optimistic around the margin front. what is, like, the time line or line of sight to how quickly you can get to these sorts of numbers?

You know, Scott, we have never put a timeline on any of our goals, just for the sake that you do not want to make decisions that are trying to achieve an arbitrary goal. And I think that, you know, if we did that, you know, like right now, we have got the sub 70 operating ratio goal and that is been hanging out there. We probably would not have invested $2 billion over the last 3 years in capital expenditures because of all the cost that created. But I can tell you we are better positioned than any other carrier because of those investments. And all the things that we have done But when I look at our cost structure now, like I mentioned, for the second quarter of this year, for our direct operating cost, to be at 50% versus the 52% and some change in both periods going back to that second quarter of 2022. A lot of that with a significant decrease in volumes between those 2 periods compared I think it shows the strength of our team It shows the commitment that we have had to getting good yield increases throughout this whole freight recession But to be 200 basis points, 52 basis points better now than we were then with maybe 10,000 less shipments per day, just speaks to the strength of our team. It also speaks to investments that we made in technologies to help our team be more efficient. So, I think that now that we are on the precipice of tonnage turning back positive and if we keep having this positive tonnage in shipment, growth sequentially coming into our system, there is a tremendous amount of leverage there for further improvement in direct operating cost. And then, it is mapping out just taking the revenue up, some of our overhead costs are variable in nature. So the overhead cost dollars will likely continue to grow as well. But that is when you can start swinging that pendulum back the other way. If we were at 16% to 17% overhead cost as a percentage of revenue in the second quarter of 2022, and kind of where we have been trending in the just say in recent periods and kind of the 22% to 23%, we were right at 20% in the second quarter. So we already made a little headway but there is 300 to 400 basis points of incremental opportunity there. So I think we continue to do the right thing in managing our cost. Controlling our discretionary spending. But first and foremost is making sure that service is first and foremost in the minds of our people. We have made all those cost changes, while we have improved our service. And that is why it was important what Marty said in his prepared remarks, we are continuing to improve transit times. Anything our customers are asking us for, we are delivering. And so we have done all that in a low volume environment. it is pretty easy to kind of pencil out where things can get to. And you know, yeah, we do not want people to expect that it is coming next quarter or even the beginning of next year. it is going to be a consistent methodical approach, which is what we have always done. But you look back over history and it tends to rhyme in our industry and when you get into that first big year of revenue growth, those are the types of years where we have been able to produce 300 to 400 basis points a year-over-year improvement. In our operating ratio. And if we can get a big year, there is no reason why we cannot produce some similar type of numbers like we have done in the past. Very helpful. Thank you, Adam.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Marty Freeman for any closing remarks.

Thank you all today for your participation. We appreciate all your questions. And please feel free to give us a call if you have anything further. Thanks and I hope you have a great day.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.