WERN - Werner Enterprises Inc. (WERN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-02-06 23:32:08 ET
Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN)
Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call
February 6, 2024, 5:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Chris Neil - Senior Vice President, Pricing and Strategic Planning
Derek Leathers - Chairman and CEO
Chris Wikoff - Executive Vice President, Treasurer and CFO
Conference Call Participants
Bruce Chan - Stifel
Jon Chappell - Evercore ISI
Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan
Ken Hoexter - Bank of America
Scott Group - Wolfe Research
James Monigan - Wells Fargo
Ravi Shanker - Morgan Stanley
Bascome Majors - Susquehanna
Chris Wetherbee - Citigroup
Tom Wadewitz - UBS
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon. And welcome to the Werner Enterprises Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]
Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Neil, SVP of Pricing and Strategic Planning. Please go ahead.
Chris Neil
Good afternoon, everyone. Earlier today, we issued our earnings release with our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. Release and a supplemental presentation are available in the Investor Section of our website at werner.com. Today’s webcast is being recorded and will be available for replay later today.
Please see the disclosure statement on slide two of the presentation, as well as the disclaimers in our earnings release related to forward-looking statements. Today’s remarks contain forward-looking statements that may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially.
The company reports results using non-GAAP measures, which we believe provides additional information for investors to help facilitate the comparison of past and present performance. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the tables attached to the earnings release and in the appendix of the slide presentation.
On today’s call with me are Derek Leathers, Chairman and CEO; and Chris Wikoff, Executive Vice President, Treasurer and CFO. Derek will provide an update on our 2023 accomplishments relative to our Drive strategy, highlights of our fourth quarter results and a market outlook. Chris will cover our financial results in more detail, including the 2023 achievement of our cost savings program and provide 2024 guidance for key financial and operating metrics.
I’ll now turn the call over to Derek.
Derek Leathers
Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate all of you joining the call today. Clearly, 2023 was a prolonged and challenging operating environment. Our earnings were down and did not meet our expectations. However, we made structural improvements that will set us up for future success as normalization returns. Our Dedicated business proved to be durable and resilient. Our One-Way Trucking business rate per mile decline was more favorable than industry benchmarks, and our Logistics business generated full year volume and revenue growth.
Despite the backdrop, our leadership team and nearly 14,000 talented Werner team members stayed the course, executing on our strategy, upholding the Werner brand and reputation, making safety our top priority and providing superior service to our highly valued customers....
Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript