Q1 2026 Mullen Group Ltd Earnings Call
Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Mullen Group Ltd. 2026 Q1 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After this presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Murray Mullen, Chair and Senior Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Mullen Group Ltd. 2026 Q1 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After this presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Murray Mullen, Chair and Senior Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After this presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Speaker #3: To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero.
Speaker #3: I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Murray Mullen, Chair and Senior Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Speaker #2: Yeah, welcome everyone. To Mullen Group's quarterly conference call this morning, we released our first quarter interim report. That's a nice 53-page document full of details, numbers, and analysis prepared by our team headed up by Carson Urlacher, and Nick Woodworth.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. Welcome, everyone, to Mullen Group's quarterly conference call this morning. We released our Q1 interim report. That's a nice 53-page document full of details, numbers, and analysis prepared by our team, headed up by Carson Urlacher and Nick Rickward. This document contains updated information, is available on SEDAR+ and on our website at www.mullen-group.com. I'll remind everyone that today's presentation and commentary contain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may differ materially. Further information identifying the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions can be found in the disclosure documents. This morning, I'm joined here in Okotoks by the senior team. It's an expanded senior team, and I want to welcome Lee Hellyer, who's now our Senior Commercial Officer and has joined the executive team at Mullen Group.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. Welcome, everyone, to Mullen Group's quarterly conference call this morning. We released our Q1 interim report. That's a nice 53-page document full of details, numbers, and analysis prepared by our team, headed up by Carson Urlacher and Nick Rickward. This document contains updated information, is available on SEDAR+ and on our website at www.mullen-group.com. I'll remind everyone that today's presentation and commentary contain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may differ materially. Further information identifying the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions can be found in the disclosure documents. This morning, I'm joined here in Okotoks by the senior team. It's an expanded senior team, and I want to welcome Lee Hellyer, who's now our Senior Commercial Officer and has joined the executive team at Mullen Group.
Speaker #2: This document contains updated information that is available on Cedar Plus and on our website at www.mullen-group.com. I'll remind everyone that today's presentation and commentary contain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
Speaker #2: As such, actual results may differ materially. Further information identifying the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions can be found in the disclosure documents. So this morning, I'm joined here in Oakland Oaks by the senior team.
Speaker #2: It's an expanded senior team. And I want to welcome Lee Hellyer, who's our now our senior commercial officer and has joined the executive team at Mullen Group.
Speaker #2: In addition, I have Richard Maloney in his expanded role as now President and Senior Operating Officer. So, Richard; Carson Urlacher, Senior Financial Officer; and Joanna Scott, Senior Corporate Officer.
Murray Mullen: In addition, I have Richard Maloney in his expanded role as now President and Senior Operating Officer. Richard. Carson Urlacher, Senior Financial Officer, and Joanna Scott, Senior Corporate Officer. That's the senior executive that we have here at Mullen Group. My name is Murray Mullen, and I am the Chair and the Senior Executive Officer. This morning, we're going to follow the similar format as last conference call we held, and that's all in an effort to make this call as meaningful and productive for everyone as possible. Carson and I do not have prepared remarks for today's call. These can be found in the MD&A, the press release, and the financial statements. Anyone that's on the line today can use any of their AI tools to query anything. We'll head straight to the Q&A session.
Murray Mullen: In addition, I have Richard Maloney in his expanded role as now President and Senior Operating Officer. Richard. Carson Urlacher, Senior Financial Officer, and Joanna Scott, Senior Corporate Officer. That's the senior executive that we have here at Mullen Group. My name is Murray Mullen, and I am the Chair and the Senior Executive Officer. This morning, we're going to follow the similar format as last conference call we held, and that's all in an effort to make this call as meaningful and productive for everyone as possible. Carson and I do not have prepared remarks for today's call. These can be found in the MD&A, the press release, and the financial statements. Anyone that's on the line today can use any of their AI tools to query anything. We'll head straight to the Q&A session.
Speaker #2: So that's the senior executive that we have here at Mullen Group. And my name is Murray Mullen. And I am the chair and the senior executive officer.
Speaker #2: So this morning, we're going to follow the similar format as last conference call we held. And that's all in an effort to make this call as meaningful and productive for everyone as possible.
Speaker #2: So Carson and I do not have prepared remarks for today's call. These can be found in the MD&A, the press release, and the financial statements.
Speaker #2: In any one that's on the line today can use any of their AI tools to query anything. So we'll head straight to the Q&A session.
Murray Mullen: There are probably going to be lots of questions about the quarter, most likely about where we see the economy, the state of the consumer, fuel prices, the freight markets, and of course, those often talked about nation-building projects. I like the fact that we generated record revenues and solid profitability, even during a period of basically no economic growth. I'd suggest to you this bodes well very well when the economic conditions improve. Until then, we will keep a keen eye on costs. We're going to focus on margin over market share, and we're going to look for quality companies to join our network of 44 independently managed business units. Now, I see many of you already joined the queue, so I will now ask the operator to open the lines. Operator?
Murray Mullen: There are probably going to be lots of questions about the quarter, most likely about where we see the economy, the state of the consumer, fuel prices, the freight markets, and of course, those often talked about nation-building projects. I like the fact that we generated record revenues and solid profitability, even during a period of basically no economic growth. I'd suggest to you this bodes well very well when the economic conditions improve. Until then, we will keep a keen eye on costs. We're going to focus on margin over market share, and we're going to look for quality companies to join our network of 44 independently managed business units. Now, I see many of you already joined the queue, so I will now ask the operator to open the lines. Operator?
Speaker #2: There are probably going to be lots of questions about the quarter, most likely about where we see the economy, the state of the consumer, fuel prices, the freight markets, and of course, those often-talked-about nation-building projects.
Speaker #2: So I'd like the fact that we generated record revenues and solid profitability, even during a period of basically no economic growth. I'd suggest you dispose wells very well when the economic conditions improve.
Speaker #2: Until then, we will keep a keen eye on costs. We're going to focus on margin over market share. And we're going to look for quality companies to join our network of 44 independently managed business units.
Speaker #2: Now, I see many of you already joined the queue, so I will now ask the operator to open the lines. Operator?
Speaker #3: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad.
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Kevin Chiang from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Kevin Chiang from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two.
Speaker #3: The first question comes from Kevin Chang from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Speaker #4: Hey, good morning, everybody. And thanks for taking my question and congratulations Richard on the expanded responsibilities here. Maybe just well-deserved. Maybe if I can just focus on the LNW segment.
Kevin Chiang: Hey, good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking my question. Congratulations, Richard, on the expanded responsibilities here.
Kevin Chiang: Hey, good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking my question. Congratulations, Richard, on the expanded responsibilities here.
Murray Mullen: Very much.
Murray Mullen: Very much.
Kevin Chiang: Well deserved. Maybe if I can just focus on the L&W segment. It looks like it put up the best organic growth that we've seen in quite some time, and I know there's some optimism south of the border in terms of what we're seeing in the broader freight economy. Just wondering what you're seeing in the L&W space here, just given the organic growth rate you printed in Q1, and if there's anything you'd point to in terms of driving that tailwind and maybe stuff that could have been transient in the quarter or maybe stuff that might be more structural that you would expect as we get through the remainder of 2026 here?
Kevin Chiang: Well deserved. Maybe if I can just focus on the L&W segment. It looks like it put up the best organic growth that we've seen in quite some time, and I know there's some optimism south of the border in terms of what we're seeing in the broader freight economy. Just wondering what you're seeing in the L&W space here, just given the organic growth rate you printed in Q1, and if there's anything you'd point to in terms of driving that tailwind and maybe stuff that could have been transient in the quarter or maybe stuff that might be more structural that you would expect as we get through the remainder of 2026 here?
Speaker #4: It looks like it put up the best organic growth that we've seen in quite some time. And I know there's some optimism, self of the border in terms of what we're seeing in the broader freight economy.
Speaker #4: Just wondering what you're seeing in the LNW space here, just given the organic growth rate you printed in the first quarter. And if there's anything you'd point to in terms of driving that tailwind and maybe stuff that could have been transient in the quarter or maybe stuff that might be more structural that you would expect as we get through the remainder of 2026 here.
Speaker #2: Yeah, that's a good observation, Kevin, and is that I think the majority of it was probably driven the performance in the month of March.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, that's a good observation, Kevin. I think the majority of it was probably driven by the performance in the month of March. Carson, it was a decently strong March, and I can't tell you, Kev, whether that was because everybody was at quarter end and those kind of things. March was a pretty good month for L&W. Everybody performed reasonably well.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, that's a good observation, Kevin. I think the majority of it was probably driven by the performance in the month of March. Carson, it was a decently strong March, and I can't tell you, Kev, whether that was because everybody was at quarter end and those kind of things. March was a pretty good month for L&W. Everybody performed reasonably well.
Speaker #2: Carson, we had a it was a decently strong March and I can't tell you, Kev, whether that was because of the everybody was a quarter in and those kind of things.
Speaker #2: But March was a pretty good month for LNW. Everybody performed reasonably well. Had a couple of real stars that continued to do well. Gleason Group.
Kevin Chiang: Yeah.
Kevin Chiang: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: Had a couple of real stars that continued to do well. Leasing Group
Murray Mullen: Had a couple of real stars that continued to do well. Kleysen Group
Kevin Chiang: Yep
Kevin Chiang: Yep
Speaker #2: Comes to mind. And some others. But I think what that reiterates, Kev, is that's a general economy is our LNW side. And if the economy gets a little bit of a momentum to it, I think our business and our LNW segment is nicely positioned to capitalize on that.
Murray Mullen: ... comes to mind, and some others. I think what that reiterates, Kev, is that the general economy-
Murray Mullen: ... comes to mind, and some others. I think what that reiterates, Kev, is that the general economy-
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Murray Mullen: ... is our L&W side. If the economy gets a little bit of a momentum to it, I think our business and our L&W segment is nicely positioned to capitalize on that. That's a little bit different than the LTL side. That still seems to be stuck in neutral. We did okay, but as you could see, if you're not doing acquisitions, really, it's still very difficult to grow.
Murray Mullen: ... is our L&W side. If the economy gets a little bit of a momentum to it, I think our business and our L&W segment is nicely positioned to capitalize on that. That's a little bit different than the LTL side. That still seems to be stuck in neutral. We did okay, but as you could see, if you're not doing acquisitions, really, it's still very difficult to grow.
Speaker #2: That's a little bit different than the LTL side. It still seems to be still seems to me stuck in neutral. We did okay, but as you could see, if you're not doing acquisitions, really, it's still very difficult to grow.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Speaker #2: That's what we see.
Murray Mullen: That's what we see.
Murray Mullen: That's what we see.
Speaker #4: And maybe just on the LTL side, maybe if I could follow up on your answer there. Just the momentum you saw in March in LNW, has that carried on through the first few weeks here in April?
Kevin Chiang: Maybe just on the LTL side, maybe if I could follow up on your answer there, just the momentum you saw in March in L&W as that carried on through the first few weeks here in April. Just on LTL, I guess some of that organic growth rate that you saw, or negative organic growth rate you saw, it seems like you were demarketing some businesses. Is there a way to quantify maybe how much that weighed on the Q1 growth rate?
Kevin Chiang: Maybe just on the LTL side, maybe if I could follow up on your answer there, just the momentum you saw in March in L&W as that carried on through the first few weeks here in April. Just on LTL, I guess some of that organic growth rate that you saw, or negative organic growth rate you saw, it seems like you were demarketing some businesses. Is there a way to quantify maybe how much that weighed on the Q1 growth rate?
Speaker #4: And just on LTL, I guess some of that organic growth rate that you saw, our negative organic growth rate you saw, it seems like you were demarketing some businesses.
Speaker #4: Is there a way to quantify maybe how much that weighed on the first quarter growth rate?
Speaker #2: Carson?
Murray Mullen: Kirsten?
Murray Mullen: Carson?
Speaker #5: Yeah. I would say that Kevin, with respect to the same-store sales being down in LTL, a large portion of demarketing some customers. The other issue that we also saw in LTL in the first quarter, and this was really in the month of January, was some very inclement weather, especially down east.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah. I would say that, Kevin, with respect to the same store sales being down in LTL, a large portion of the marketing.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah. I would say that, Kevin, with respect to the same store sales being down in LTL, a large portion of the demarketing.
Carson Urlacher: Mm-hmm
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Carson Urlacher: some customers.
Carson Urlacher: some customers.
Murray Mullen: Okay.
Kevin Chiang: Okay.
Carson Urlacher: The other issue that we also saw in LTL in Q1, and this was really in the month of January, was some very inclement weather, especially down east.
Carson Urlacher: The other issue that we also saw in LTL in Q1, and this was really in the month of January, was some very inclement weather, especially down east.
Murray Mullen: Right. Yeah
Murray Mullen: Right. Yeah
Speaker #5: Which virtually we had a couple of operating days where we had trucks that barely left the yard. So that was kind of a headwind early on in the quarter.
Carson Urlacher: ...which, virtually, we had a couple operating days where we had trucks that barely left the yard. That was kind of a headwind early on in the quarter.
Carson Urlacher: ...which, virtually, we had a couple operating days where we had trucks that barely left the yard. That was kind of a headwind early on in the quarter.
Speaker #5: That kind of righted itself in March.
Carson Urlacher: Mm-hmm
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Carson Urlacher: ... that kind of righted itself in March.
Carson Urlacher: ... that kind of righted itself in March.
Murray Mullen: That impacts two of our larger business units.
Murray Mullen: That impacts two of our larger business units.
Speaker #2: That impacts two of our larger business units. Our guard wine group and apps group, which have pretty significant footprint back in the east. So they got hit in January, February.
Carson Urlacher: Right
Carson Urlacher: Right
Murray Mullen: ... our Gardewine Group and APPS Transport Group, which have a pretty significant footprint back in the east, so they got hit.
Murray Mullen: ... our Gardewine Group and APPS Transport Group, which have a pretty significant footprint back in the east, so they got hit.
Carson Urlacher: Right
Carson Urlacher: Right
Carson Urlacher: in January, February.
Murray Mullen: in January, February.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Speaker #2: Decent marches, but yeah, we got hit with weather. We don't like to make excuses too often, but that's a reality is that we just couldn't have any workdays.
Murray Mullen: Decent margins, but we got hit with weather. We don't like to make excuses too often, but that's a reality, is that we just-
Murray Mullen: Decent margins, but we got hit with weather. We don't like to make excuses too often, but that's a reality, is that we just-
Carson Urlacher: Mm-hmm
Carson Urlacher: Mm-hmm
Carson Urlacher: didn't have any workdays, so you can't move freight if the trucks are stopped and people can't get to work.
Murray Mullen: didn't have any workdays, so you can't move freight if the trucks are stopped and people can't get to work.
Speaker #2: So you can't move freight if the trucks are stopped and people can't get to work.
Speaker #4: No, it seems like it was winter everywhere. By my observation, and just on LNW, just the April trends—has that momentum carried forward from what you saw in March there?
Kevin Chiang: No, it seems like it was winter everywhere, by my observation. Just on L&W, just the April trends, has that momentum carried forward from what you saw in March there?
Kevin Chiang: No, it seems like it was winter everywhere, by my observation. Just on L&W, just the April trends, has that momentum carried forward from what you saw in March there?
Speaker #2: Not to the same degree, Kevin. I think what we're watching very carefully is was March, a strong because of a quarter in and everybody tries to get their inventories moving quarter in.
Murray Mullen: Not to the same degree, Kevin. I think what we're watching very carefully was March strong because of a quarter end and everybody tries to
Murray Mullen: Not to the same degree, Kevin. I think what we're watching very carefully was March strong because of a quarter end and everybody tries to
Kevin Chiang: Right
Kevin Chiang: Right
Murray Mullen: ... get their inventories moving quarter end. What we're unsure of is whether it was that. There's no doubt that the situation in Iran and the spike in fuel prices.
Murray Mullen: ... get their inventories moving quarter end. What we're unsure of is whether it was that. There's no doubt that the situation in Iran and the spike in fuel prices.
Speaker #2: What we're unsure of is whether it was that or whether there's no doubt that this situation in Iran and the spike in fuel prices has just caused people to take a little bit of a pause, I would suggest.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm
Murray Mullen: ... has just caused people to take a little bit of a pause, I would suggest.
Murray Mullen: ... has just caused people to take a little bit of a pause, I would suggest.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Speaker #2: So we have to watch that. And I've commented on that. Let's watch that carefully. I think it's going to take a little bit of time for people to adjust to that.
Murray Mullen: We have to watch that, and I've commented on that. Let's watch that carefully. I think it's going to take a little bit of time for people to adjust to that. We're fortunate in Canada that we have our own energy supplies, so maybe price went up a bit, but we have it. Many parts of the world do not have it.
Murray Mullen: We have to watch that, and I've commented on that. Let's watch that carefully. I think it's going to take a little bit of time for people to adjust to that. We're fortunate in Canada that we have our own energy supplies, so maybe price went up a bit, but we have it. Many parts of the world do not have it.
Speaker #2: We're fortunate in Canada that we have our own energy supplies. So maybe price went up a bit, but we have it. Many parts of the world do not have it.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Speaker #2: So I think let's just see how it plays out. April is not as strong as March. And we didn't expect that because it's the end of the quarter.
Murray Mullen: I think let's just see how it plays out. April is not as strong as March. We didn't expect that, but because it's the end of the quarter. Let's see what happens here is whether that momentum builds up through the quarter. I think it will, but-
Murray Mullen: I think let's just see how it plays out. April is not as strong as March. We didn't expect that, but because it's the end of the quarter. Let's see what happens here is whether that momentum builds up through the quarter. I think it will, but-
Speaker #2: But let's see what happens here is whether that momentum builds up through the quarter. I think it will, but that's a personal observation.
Kevin Chiang: Right
Kevin Chiang: Right
Murray Mullen: That's a personal observation.
Murray Mullen: That's a personal observation.
Speaker #4: That's helpful. And maybe just last one for me, maybe a bigger picture question and I'm sure you've seen all the headlines around AI disruption potentially hitting the brokerage business.
Kevin Chiang: That's helpful. Maybe just last one for me, maybe a bigger picture question. I'm sure you've seen all the headlines around AI disruption potentially hitting the brokerage business. Just wondering, from where you're sitting, what implications you think this might have for your US operations, whether it's Haulistic or the recently acquired Cole Group, opportunity/threat, and maybe what you're seeing on the ground as we see some of the headlines here. Thank you for taking my question.
Kevin Chiang: That's helpful. Maybe just last one for me, maybe a bigger picture question. I'm sure you've seen all the headlines around AI disruption potentially hitting the brokerage business. Just wondering, from where you're sitting, what implications you think this might have for your US operations, whether it's Haulistic or the recently acquired Cole Group, opportunity/threat, and maybe what you're seeing on the ground as we see some of the headlines here. Thank you for taking my question.
Speaker #4: Just wondering from where you're sitting, what implications do you think this might have for your US operations, whether it's holistics or the recently acquired Coal Group opportunity threat?
Speaker #4: Maybe what you're seeing on the ground as we see some of the headlines here. And thank you for taking my question.
Murray Mullen: Richard oversees both Cole and Haulistic. We're building all the AI tools into our SilverExpress platform at Haulistic, which is a bit of a software tech play and a freight forwarding, because we provide the technology to a bunch of agents, right?
Murray Mullen: Richard oversees both Cole and Haulistic. We're building all the AI tools into our SilverExpress platform at Haulistic, which is a bit of a software tech play and a freight forwarding, because we provide the technology to a bunch of agents, right?
Speaker #2: Richard oversees both Coal and holistic, but we're building all the AI tools into our silver express platform at holistic, which is holistic is a bit of a it's a bit of a software tech play and a freight forwarding because we provide the technology to a bunch of agents, right?
Speaker #2: So I haven't seen we haven't seen any disruption. In fact, what we think will be, the AI tools that our team is implementing into this I think is going to help them gain market share, Rich.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Chiang: Mm-hmm.
Murray Mullen: We haven't seen any disruption. In fact, what we think will be the AI tools that our team is implementing into this is, I think, going to help them gain market share. Rich, that's just my-
Murray Mullen: We haven't seen any disruption. In fact, what we think will be the AI tools that our team is implementing into this is, I think, going to help them gain market share. Rich, that's just my-
Speaker #2: That's just my.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Kevin Chiang: Right.
Speaker #5: Yeah, absolutely.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Kev, it's Richard.
Richard Maloney: Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Kev, it's Richard.
Speaker #2: So, hey Kevin, it's Richard. So I'm going to—maybe I'll talk quickly about the US and what we're doing there. Maybe more broadly on AI for Mullen Group.
Kevin Chiang: Hey. How you doing?
Kevin Chiang: Hey. How you doing?
Murray Mullen: I'll talk quickly about the US and what we're doing there, maybe more broadly on AI for Mullen Group. Down in the States, we have two business units. They have their own separate operating systems with teams that are working and supporting that from an IT infrastructure perspective. I can tell you that both of them are working on how AI is going to help and support and build out the technology specifically to Haulistic.
Richard Maloney: I'll talk quickly about the US and what we're doing there, maybe more broadly on AI for Mullen Group. Down in the States, we have two business units. They have their own separate operating systems with teams that are working and supporting that from an IT infrastructure perspective. I can tell you that both of them are working on how AI is going to help and support and build out the technology specifically to Haulistic.
Speaker #2: But down in the States, we have two business units. They have their own separate operating systems, with teams that are working and supporting that from an IT infrastructure perspective.
Speaker #2: But I can tell you that both of them are working at on how AI is going to help and support and build out the technology specifically to holistic be our working diligently on that with our director of IT on that.
Richard Maloney: We are working diligently on that with our director of IT on that. We met with him earlier this week and discussed that with him, and just on the helping of coding and doing things like that. We're not like others who are hyperscalers. Every time we have an idea about AI, we do a press release. I can tell you they're very diligently working on many fronts, both at Haulistic and Cole US. Up here in Canada, we have a very similar initiative underway within our LTL space, looking at how LTL will make us better. It's like everybody else. You have some wins, some losses, but you learn along the way, and you make it better. The real focus is how to enhance load factor. We have a team.
Richard Maloney: We are working diligently on that with our director of IT on that. We met with him earlier this week and discussed that with him, and just on the helping of coding and doing things like that. We're not like others who are hyperscalers. Every time we have an idea about AI, we do a press release. I can tell you they're very diligently working on many fronts, both at Haulistic and Cole US. Up here in Canada, we have a very similar initiative underway within our LTL space, looking at how LTL will make us better. It's like everybody else. You have some wins, some losses, but you learn along the way, and you make it better. The real focus is how to enhance load factor. We have a team.
Speaker #2: We met with him earlier this week and discussed that with him. And just on the helping of coding and doing things like that. And we're not like others.
Speaker #2: Our hyperscaler, every time we have an idea about AI, we do a press release. But I can tell you we are very diligently working on many fronts, both at Holistic and Coal US.
Speaker #2: Up here in Canada, we have a very similar initiative underway within our LTL space looking at how LTL will make us better. And having some and having it's like everybody else.
Speaker #2: You have some wins and some losses, but you learn along the way and you make it better. And the real focus is how to enhance load factor.
Speaker #2: And we have a team we did a presentation to our board yesterday and we are certainly moving in the right direction on that. But it's not an event.
Richard Maloney: We did a presentation to our board yesterday, and we are certainly moving in the right direction on that. It's not an event, it's a journey, and it takes time to do, and you'll have to stay with it. We are working full frontal on that one as well, on AI.
Richard Maloney: We did a presentation to our board yesterday, and we are certainly moving in the right direction on that. It's not an event, it's a journey, and it takes time to do, and you'll have to stay with it. We are working full frontal on that one as well, on AI.
Speaker #2: It's a journey. And it takes time to do. And you'll have to stay with it. So we are working full frontal on that one as well on AI.
Speaker #5: Yeah, I would say this, too, Kevin. I think if you haven't built your the AI tools into your technology platform and your service offerings to your customer, I think you've anybody will be at risk, whether you're a 3PL or a hard an asset-based carrier.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. I would say this, too, Kev. I think if you haven't built the AI tools into your technology platform and your service offerings to your customer, I think anybody will be at risk, whether you're a 3PL or an asset-based carrier.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. I would say this, too, Kev. I think if you haven't built the AI tools into your technology platform and your service offerings to your customer, I think anybody will be at risk, whether you're a 3PL or an asset-based carrier.
Speaker #4: Right.
Richard Maloney: Right.
Richard Maloney: Right.
Speaker #5: So we're just embracing it. And we're building all of that intellectual capital and know-how into our businesses including specifically in the US. I don't think it's going to hurt them.
Murray Mullen: We're just embracing it, and we're building all of that intellectual capital and know-how into our businesses, including specifically in the US. I don't think it's going to hurt them. We hope it's an enabler, but we're going all in. We have to change. We have to adapt. We have to make sure we're ready for the future. That's what we do in our business here, is we make sure our business units are prepared for the next five years, not the last five. The last five are over.
Murray Mullen: We're just embracing it, and we're building all of that intellectual capital and know-how into our businesses, including specifically in the US. I don't think it's going to hurt them. We hope it's an enabler, but we're going all in. We have to change. We have to adapt. We have to make sure we're ready for the future. That's what we do in our business here, is we make sure our business units are prepared for the next five years, not the last five. The last five are over.
Speaker #5: We hope it's an enabler, but we're going all in. And we have to change. We have to adapt. We have to make sure we're ready for the future.
Speaker #5: And that's what we do in our business here is we make sure our business units are prepared for the next five years, not the last five.
Speaker #5: The last five are old.
Speaker #4: That's very helpful. Congrats on a solid start to the year here despite all the weather issues. Thank you, guys.
Richard Maloney: That's very helpful. Congrats on a solid start to the year here despite all the weather issues. Thank you, guys.
Kevin Chiang: That's very helpful. Congrats on a solid start to the year here despite all the weather issues. Thank you, guys.
Speaker #2: Thanks, Kevin.
Murray Mullen: Thanks, Kevin.
Murray Mullen: Thanks, Kevin.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Speaker #6: The next question comes from Konark Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Konark Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Konark Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Speaker #7: Morning, everyone. Maybe just first question, in the absence of anything prepared in March. Maria, I think in the press release and the documents that you guys talked about, the capacity is coming out of the system gradually.
Konark Gupta: Morning, everyone. Maybe just first question, in the absence of Prerak and Maj, Murray. I think in the press release and the documents that you guys talked about, the capacity is coming out of the system gradually. I think it's more of a US trend than Canada, it seems. Correct me if I'm wrong, and the demand seems stable, but the rates have yet to move up. I'm just wondering, when you talk about March being strong, and I think everybody's kind of talking about how the spot rates are continuing to move up. I'm just curious, what are you seeing in the pricing environment for you guys? I mean, organically, obviously, your margins were not expanding in Q1 yet. I'm wondering if there's expansion opportunity down the road. Curious your thoughts on pricing and margins.
Konark Gupta: Morning, everyone. Maybe just first question, in the absence of Prerak and Maj, Murray. I think in the press release and the documents that you guys talked about, the capacity is coming out of the system gradually. I think it's more of a US trend than Canada, it seems. Correct me if I'm wrong, and the demand seems stable, but the rates have yet to move up. I'm just wondering, when you talk about March being strong, and I think everybody's kind of talking about how the spot rates are continuing to move up. I'm just curious, what are you seeing in the pricing environment for you guys? I mean, organically, obviously, your margins were not expanding in Q1 yet. I'm wondering if there's expansion opportunity down the road. Curious your thoughts on pricing and margins.
Speaker #7: I think it's more of a US trend than Canada seems to correct me if I'm wrong. And the demand seems stable, but the rates have yet to move up.
Speaker #7: I'm just wondering when you talk about March being strong and I think everybody's kind of talking about how the spot rates are continuing to move up.
Speaker #7: I'm just curious, what are you seeing in the pricing environment for you guys? I mean, organically, obviously, your margins were not expanding in Q1 yet.
Speaker #7: But I'm wondering if there's expansion opportunity down the road. So, curious your thoughts on pricing and margin.
Speaker #2: Yeah, I think once again, that's a pretty good observation is that Connor, the US market, I think everybody needs to differentiate the US market from the Canadian marketplace.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. I think, once again, that's a pretty good observation, is that, Konark, the US market. I think everybody needs to differentiate the US market from the Canadian marketplace, and you're spot on. They're tightening quite rapidly as they implement English proficiency rules and remove certain carriers, drivers off from having a CDL, which takes capacity out of the system because you don't have the drivers. US is tightening. That also translates into the cross-border market tightening. Any freight that's moving cross-border, that's tightening. The Canadian market is, it's not tightening, but the regulations, the safety standards, and the government is really enforcing things a lot more diligently than what they did that they've done for quite some time. That's not getting rid of capacity, but it's forcing some discipline in those that didn't follow the rules quite as much.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. I think, once again, that's a pretty good observation, is that, Konark, the US market. I think everybody needs to differentiate the US market from the Canadian marketplace, and you're spot on. They're tightening quite rapidly as they implement English proficiency rules and remove certain carriers, drivers off from having a CDL, which takes capacity out of the system because you don't have the drivers. US is tightening. That also translates into the cross-border market tightening. Any freight that's moving cross-border, that's tightening. The Canadian market is, it's not tightening, but the regulations, the safety standards, and the government is really enforcing things a lot more diligently than what they did that they've done for quite some time. That's not getting rid of capacity, but it's forcing some discipline in those that didn't follow the rules quite as much.
Speaker #2: And you're spot on. They're tightening quite rapidly as they implement English proficiency rules and remove certain careers drivers off of the from having a CDL, which takes capacity out of the system because you don't have the drivers.
Speaker #2: So US is tightening. That also translates into the cross-border market tightening. So any freight that's moving cross-border, that's tightening. But the Canadian market is it's not tightening but the regulations and the safety standards and the government is really enforcing things a lot more diligently than what they did that they've done for quite some time.
Speaker #2: So that's not getting rid of capacity, but it's forcing some discipline in those that didn't follow the rules quite as much. So that will help pricing and take the pressure off.
Murray Mullen: That will help pricing and take the pressure off, Konark, in the Canadian market. If you get any demand push, like we saw in March, it'll be okay. If you get demand push in the US with a reduction in supply, boy, that could be an outsize in terms of the rates. That's how we see it.
Murray Mullen: That will help pricing and take the pressure off, Konark, in the Canadian market. If you get any demand push, like we saw in March, it'll be okay. If you get demand push in the US with a reduction in supply, boy, that could be an outsize in terms of the rates. That's how we see it.
Speaker #2: Connor and the Canadian market. So if you get any demand push, any, like we saw in March, it'll be okay. If you get demand push in the US, with a reduction in supply, boy, that could be an outsizer in terms of the rates.
Speaker #2: That's how we see it.
Speaker #7: Okay, that makes sense. And the other side of the coin, I guess, is if the US administration keeps pushing out these drivers from the pool, and I think the numbers are quite staggering if you look in some of the studies, what do you expect or what do you see some sort of wage inflation or maybe not so much given your drivers are still sticky?
Konark Gupta: Okay. That makes sense. The other side of the coin, I guess is, if the US administration keeps pushing out these drivers from the pool, and I think the numbers are quite staggering if you look in some of the studies, would you expect or would you see some sort of wage inflation or maybe not so much given your drivers are still sticky? I mean, you don't have any retention issues. What do you think about the wage inflation potential here?
Konark Gupta: Okay. That makes sense. The other side of the coin, I guess is, if the US administration keeps pushing out these drivers from the pool, and I think the numbers are quite staggering if you look in some of the studies, would you expect or would you see some sort of wage inflation or maybe not so much given your drivers are still sticky? I mean, you don't have any retention issues. What do you think about the wage inflation potential here?
Speaker #7: I mean, you don't have any retention issues. What do you think about the wage inflation potential here?
Speaker #2: Well, that will not impact our US operations because we don't have our business really isn't company truck fleet operations. It's all 3PL. And the use of owner-operators on cross-border.
Murray Mullen: Well, that will not impact our US operations because we don't have our business really isn't company truck fleet operations. It's all 3PL and the use of owner-operators on cross-border. They will benefit if the rates go up because generally, they get paid a percentage of the transaction. I don't think it'll impact us from that standpoint. We don't see any wage inflation in Canada right now at all until you see a demand push. If you see a demand push, which, you know, may or may not. I'll let you opine about that. I'm not too worried about the wage thing, to be honest with you. Now, if I'm a US carrier, you're going to see some stress points there. Those costs are going to be passed on into the rates. I think the rates have to go up before anybody moves on wages.
Murray Mullen: Well, that will not impact our US operations because we don't have our business really isn't company truck fleet operations. It's all 3PL and the use of owner-operators on cross-border. They will benefit if the rates go up because generally, they get paid a percentage of the transaction. I don't think it'll impact us from that standpoint. We don't see any wage inflation in Canada right now at all until you see a demand push. If you see a demand push, which, you know, may or may not. I'll let you opine about that. I'm not too worried about the wage thing, to be honest with you. Now, if I'm a US carrier, you're going to see some stress points there. Those costs are going to be passed on into the rates. I think the rates have to go up before anybody moves on wages.
Speaker #2: So the owner-operator that will they will benefit if the rates go up because they're generally they get paid a percentage of the transaction. So I don't think it'll impact us from that standpoint.
Speaker #2: And we don't see any wage inflation in Canada. Right now at all until you see a demand push. If you see a demand push, which may or may not come, that's your I'll let you opine about that.
Speaker #2: But I'm not too worried about the wage about the wage thing, to be honest with you. Now, if I'm a US carrier, that's you're going to see some you're going to see some stress points there.
Speaker #2: But those costs are going to be passed on to the into the rates. But I think the rates have to go up before anybody moves on wages.
Speaker #2: And the spot markets moved, but the contract market has been a bit stubborn. I'd challenge anybody to go ask Amazon or Walmart or Costco for a rate increase.
Murray Mullen: The spot market's moved, but the contract market has been a bit stubborn. I'd challenge anybody to go ask Amazon or Walmart or Costco for a rate increase. Like, they're just not embracing that at the moment.
Murray Mullen: The spot market's moved, but the contract market has been a bit stubborn. I'd challenge anybody to go ask Amazon or Walmart or Costco for a rate increase. Like, they're just not embracing that at the moment.
Speaker #2: They're just not embracing that at the moment.
Speaker #7: Kevin, thanks. And maybe last one for me before I turn over. On M&A, I think you made a note in the M&A talking about your increased reliance, I guess, on M&A until you see a structural organic tailwind.
Konark Gupta: Yeah. Thanks. Maybe last one from me before I turn over. On M&A, I think you made a note in the MD&A talking about your increased reliance, I guess, on M&A, until you see structural organic tailwind. When you're looking into M&A, and I know you guys have done recently some tuck-ins in the S&I segment. Are you pivoting to S&I now, given structurally maybe higher oil price, at least for some time, or the Canada nation-building focus in Western Canada? Any thoughts on where would you like to spend the incremental dollar here with respect to your segments?
Konark Gupta: Yeah. Thanks. Maybe last one from me before I turn over. On M&A, I think you made a note in the MD&A talking about your increased reliance, I guess, on M&A, until you see structural organic tailwind. When you're looking into M&A, and I know you guys have done recently some tuck-ins in the S&I segment. Are you pivoting to S&I now, given structurally maybe higher oil price, at least for some time, or the Canada nation-building focus in Western Canada? Any thoughts on where would you like to spend the incremental dollar here with respect to your segments?
Speaker #7: When you're looking into M&A, and I know you guys have done recently some tuck-ins in the S&I segment. Are you pivoting to S&I now given structurally maybe higher oil price, at least for some time, or the Canada nation building focus in Western Canada?
Speaker #7: Any thoughts on where would you like to spend the incremental dollar here with respect to your segments?
Speaker #2: Well, I think it's evident. We did two acquisitions in the first quarter, and both of them were in the S&I segment, and specifically tied to energy.
Murray Mullen: Well, I think it's evident. We did two acquisitions in Q1, and both of them were in the S&I segment, and specifically tied to energy. I would tell you, our basic thesis here as a senior group is that we doubt that you're going to get much economic stimulus going on in Canada unless we really get on these nation-building projects and start creating great jobs and get capital flowing again. We're buying the thesis that is being messaged by the governments that nation-building projects are going to go ahead. We're positioning as if it's going to. The timing of it is a little less certain to us. Canada needs to get its act together in the world scene and start making our vast resources available to the world that need it.
Murray Mullen: Well, I think it's evident. We did two acquisitions in Q1, and both of them were in the S&I segment, and specifically tied to energy. I would tell you, our basic thesis here as a senior group is that we doubt that you're going to get much economic stimulus going on in Canada unless we really get on these nation-building projects and start creating great jobs and get capital flowing again. We're buying the thesis that is being messaged by the governments that nation-building projects are going to go ahead. We're positioning as if it's going to. The timing of it is a little less certain to us. Canada needs to get its act together in the world scene and start making our vast resources available to the world that need it.
Speaker #2: And I would tell you our basic thesis here as a senior group is that I doubt if you're going to get any we doubt that you're going to get much economic stimulus going on in Canada unless we really get on these nation-building projects and get start creating great jobs and get capital flowing again.
Speaker #2: So we're buying the thesis. That is being messaged by the governments, that nation-building projects are going to go ahead. So we're positioning as if it's going to—the timing of it is a little less certain to us.
Speaker #2: But Canada needs to get its act together in the world scene and start making our vast resources available to the world that need it.
Speaker #2: We can't just hog the puck and say, 'No, you can't have access to it.' They need it. So we're buying that thesis. The timing—it's Canada.
Murray Mullen: We can't just hog the puck and say, "No, you can't have access to it." They need it, so we're buying that thesis. The timing, it's Canada. You got a lot of issues you got to work through. I think longer term, that's a real growth potential. We want to make sure we're well positioned. We haven't invested in the energy sector for-
Murray Mullen: We can't just hog the puck and say, "No, you can't have access to it." They need it, so we're buying that thesis. The timing, it's Canada. You got a lot of issues you got to work through. I think longer term, that's a real growth potential. We want to make sure we're well positioned. We haven't invested in the energy sector for-
Speaker #2: You got a lot of issues. You got to work through. But I think the longer term, that's a real growth potential. So we want to make sure we're well positioned.
Speaker #2: We have an investment in the energy sector for.
Speaker #7: Over 10 years.
Richard Maloney: Over 10 years.
Richard Maloney: Over 10 years.
Speaker #2: Basically, we really deinvested for 10 years. But over the last bit, we've just been adding really good flat companies into our network that do okay in this market.
Murray Mullen: Basically we
Murray Mullen: Basically we
Richard Maloney: Acquisitions
Richard Maloney: Acquisitions
Murray Mullen: We really de-invested for 10 years.
Murray Mullen: We really de-invested for 10 years.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: Over the last bit, we've just been adding really good companies into our network that do okay in this market. If the capital flows back into that sector, they will do outstanding.
Murray Mullen: Over the last bit, we've just been adding really good companies into our network that do okay in this market. If the capital flows back into that sector, they will do outstanding.
Speaker #2: But if the capital flows back into that sector, they will do outstanding.
Speaker #7: Connor, I think it's important to point out those acquisitions we did. One was Black Labis Transport right in the Clearwater Play. The other one is Water Management tied to Upstream Fracking and so on.
Richard Maloney: Konark, I think it's important to point out those acquisitions we did. One was Lac La Biche Transport right in the Clearwater play. The other one is water management tied to upstream fracking and so on. Now, those were all done and closed prior to the war starting and the spike in commodity prices. That would suggest or should suggest to everybody that, again, we're looking at where the puck will be going. These were done prior to all these elevation in commodity prices. Whether they stick or not, who knows? I'm not smart enough to figure that out. Murray just said it. At some point, Canada's going to have to say, "We got to do something here." I think this solidifies ourselves in some key plays.
Richard Maloney: Konark, I think it's important to point out those acquisitions we did. One was Lac La Biche Transport right in the Clearwater play. The other one is water management tied to upstream fracking and so on. Now, those were all done and closed prior to the war starting and the spike in commodity prices. That would suggest or should suggest to everybody that, again, we're looking at where the puck will be going. These were done prior to all these elevation in commodity prices. Whether they stick or not, who knows? I'm not smart enough to figure that out. Murray just said it. At some point, Canada's going to have to say, "We got to do something here." I think this solidifies ourselves in some key plays.
Speaker #7: Now, those were all done and closed prior to the war starting. And the spike in commodity prices—that would suggest, or should suggest to everybody, that again, we're looking at where the puck will be going.
Speaker #7: So these were done prior to all these elevations in commodity prices. Whether they stick or not, who knows? I'm not smart enough to figure that out.
Speaker #7: But Murray just said it. At some point, Canada is going to have to say, "We got to do something here." And I think these puts us in a little solidifies ourselves in some key plays.
Speaker #2: Yeah. So these are really good acquisitions that are doing well in this current market. And if there's any growth in the capital that goes into the energy space, they'll do better than just good.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. These were really good acquisitions that are doing well in this current market. If there's any growth in the capital that goes into the energy space, they'll do better than just good. They'll do very good. That's our thesis. We've de-risked it because they're great companies. We'll continue to look at those kind of opportunities, Konark, when we see them come up. That's what we do. There's acquisitions available everywhere. Like, we're one of the few companies that can do them. As I say, we got to look through the rock pile and look to find these gems. We don't need to just grow to grow. We need to grow by adding value, whether that's a consolidation play and market so we can reduce costs or just get great quality companies. That really hasn't changed in our acquisition strategy.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. These were really good acquisitions that are doing well in this current market. If there's any growth in the capital that goes into the energy space, they'll do better than just good. They'll do very good. That's our thesis. We've de-risked it because they're great companies. We'll continue to look at those kind of opportunities, Konark, when we see them come up. That's what we do. There's acquisitions available everywhere. Like, we're one of the few companies that can do them. As I say, we got to look through the rock pile and look to find these gems. We don't need to just grow to grow. We need to grow by adding value, whether that's a consolidation play and market so we can reduce costs or just get great quality companies. That really hasn't changed in our acquisition strategy.
Speaker #2: They'll do very well. So that's our thesis. We've de-risked it because they're great companies, and so we'll continue to look at those kinds of opportunities, Connor, when we see them come up.
Speaker #2: I think that's what we do. There are acquisitions available everywhere. We're one of the few companies that can do them. But, as I say, we have to look through the rock pile and find these gems.
Speaker #2: We don't need to just grow to grow. We need to grow by adding value whether that's a consolidation play and market and so we can reduce costs or just get great quality companies.
Speaker #2: And that really hasn't changed in our acquisition strategy in our it's in our DNA. In this organization.
Murray Mullen: It's in our DNA in this organization.
Murray Mullen: It's in our DNA in this organization.
Speaker #7: Kevin, I appreciate the time. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Konark Gupta: Okay. No, I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Konark Gupta: Okay. No, I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Murray Mullen: Thank you.
Murray Mullen: Thank you.
Richard Maloney: Thanks a lot.
Richard Maloney: Thanks a lot.
Speaker #1: The next question comes from Cameron Dorson from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Cameron Doerksen from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Cameron Doerksen from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Speaker #8: Yeah, thanks, good morning. Just kind of following up on, I guess, sort of the commentary around the nation-building opportunities that might be out there.
Cameron Doerksen: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Just kind of following up on, I guess, sort of the commentary around the nation-building opportunities that might be out there. I'm just wondering if you were actually having any specific discussions with some customers on potential opportunities, or is it all still sort of more theoretical at this point? Just trying to gauge, I guess maybe the timing of when some of these things might move forward, and are we at that stage yet where some of your customers might be actually doing some planning?
Cameron Doerksen: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Just kind of following up on, I guess, sort of the commentary around the nation-building opportunities that might be out there. I'm just wondering if you were actually having any specific discussions with some customers on potential opportunities, or is it all still sort of more theoretical at this point? Just trying to gauge, I guess maybe the timing of when some of these things might move forward, and are we at that stage yet where some of your customers might be actually doing some planning?
Speaker #8: I'm just wondering if you were actually having any specific discussions with some customers on potential opportunities, or is it all still sort of more theoretical at this point?
Speaker #8: Just trying to gauge I guess maybe the timing of when some of these things might move forward. And are we at that stage yet where some of your customers might be actually doing some planning?
Speaker #2: Cameron, I would love to be able to say that in Canada, we're having constructive discussions, and everybody's excited. But everybody's still sitting on their hands and waiting for, I guess, the government to say, 'Let's go,' rather than, 'Let's talk.' In fact, I was going to open this call with a song about what we need—is a little more, a lot more—a lot less talk and a lot more action.
Murray Mullen: Cameron, I would love to be able to say that in Canada, we're having constructive discussions and everybody's excited. Everybody's still sitting on their hand and waiting for, I guess, the governments to say, "Let's go," rather than, "Let's talk." In fact, I was going to open this call with a song about what we need is a lot more. A lot less talk and a lot more action. I think Canadians are begging for it, but it still seems to be in the consultation phase. I don't know how much longer we have to consult, but that's outside of our pay zone, and we're not in charge of that file. I can tell you that we're having active discussions on a major energy project in Alaska. Alaska LNG, Richard, his project and the team.
Murray Mullen: Cameron, I would love to be able to say that in Canada, we're having constructive discussions and everybody's excited. Everybody's still sitting on their hand and waiting for, I guess, the governments to say, "Let's go," rather than, "Let's talk." In fact, I was going to open this call with a song about what we need is a lot more. A lot less talk and a lot more action. I think Canadians are begging for it, but it still seems to be in the consultation phase. I don't know how much longer we have to consult, but that's outside of our pay zone, and we're not in charge of that file. I can tell you that we're having active discussions on a major energy project in Alaska. Alaska LNG, Richard, his project and the team.
Speaker #2: And I think Canadians are begging for it, but it still seems to be in the consultation phase. I don't know how much longer we have to consult, but that's outside of our pay zone.
Speaker #2: And we're not in charge of that file. I can tell you that we're having active discussions on a major energy project in Alaska. Alaska LNG, Richard is the project and the team.
Speaker #2: So we're that there's we're actively engaged with the customers on that. And we're at the bidding table. And it appears that that project may go before the projects in Canada.
Murray Mullen: We're actively engaged with the customers on that, and we're at the bidding table, and it appears that that project may go before the projects in Canada. We will participate if we're fortunate to get the bid. Right. Still it's in a competitive process. We're having active discussions with the customer out there on that. Not in Canada. We all sit around and we say, "When are we going to go? When's it going to happen? How much talk are we going to have?" That's the frustrating part for Canadians and for good jobs in Canada. What can I tell you? We're waiting. We're waiting for the capital.
Murray Mullen: We're actively engaged with the customers on that, and we're at the bidding table, and it appears that that project may go before the projects in Canada. We will participate if we're fortunate to get the bid. Right. Still it's in a competitive process. We're having active discussions with the customer out there on that. Not in Canada. We all sit around and we say, "When are we going to go? When's it going to happen? How much talk are we going to have?" That's the frustrating part for Canadians and for good jobs in Canada. What can I tell you? We're waiting. We're waiting for the capital.
Speaker #2: And we will participate if we're fortunate to get the bid folks in a better process. But we're having active discussions with the customer out there on that.
Speaker #2: But not in Canada. We all sit around and we say, "When are we going to go? When's it going to happen? How much talk are we going to have?" That's frustrating part for Canadians.
Speaker #2: And for good jobs in Canada. And what can I tell you? We're waiting.
Speaker #7: And we're waiting for the capital, and you've heard of the meeting that's being convened four or five months from now in Toronto. And I'm not sure what they're intending to do there, but a lot of these projects that are kind of in play have been approved at some point or other.
Murray Mullen: You've heard of the meeting that's being convened four or five months from now in Toronto, and not sure what they're intending to do there, but a lot of these projects that are in play have been approved at some point or other. I know, Joanna, at one point, you worked for the law firm that actually went through a pipeline that was going to get approved to the West Coast. It's been done. When that money starts coming back, private capital, which we have not heard, and we're waiting to see what happens on that. As it stands today, it's kind of a hurry up and wait. We've been accused of being pessimistic, and we're not optimistic. I think we're realistic. We'll go to where the nations are building for now, and that's the commentary on the Alaska LNG. We're looking hard at that.
Murray Mullen: You've heard of the meeting that's being convened four or five months from now in Toronto, and not sure what they're intending to do there, but a lot of these projects that are in play have been approved at some point or other. I know, Joanna, at one point, you worked for the law firm that actually went through a pipeline that was going to get approved to the West Coast. It's been done. When that money starts coming back, private capital, which we have not heard, and we're waiting to see what happens on that. As it stands today, it's kind of a hurry up and wait. We've been accused of being pessimistic, and we're not optimistic. I think we're realistic. We'll go to where the nations are building for now, and that's the commentary on the Alaska LNG. We're looking hard at that.
Speaker #7: I know Joanna at one point, you worked for the law firm that actually went through an oil pipeline that was going to get approved to the West Coast.
Speaker #7: It's been done. So, when that money starts coming back—private capital—which we have not heard, and we're waiting to see what happens on that.
Speaker #7: And as it stands today, it's kind of a hurry up and wait. We're not we've been accused of being pessimistic. We're not optimistic. I think we're realistic.
Speaker #7: And we'll go to where the nations are building for now. And that's the commentary on the LNG Alaska we're looking hard at that.
Operator 3: Okay. No, that's great. At least there's some projects moving forward, whether they're in Canada or not. That's good to hear. Maybe just a second question just on, I guess, sort of the financial targets that you put out earlier this year, the CAD 2.3 to 2.4 billion in revenue and CAD 365 million in EBITDA. Are you still, I guess, comfortable with that? And is there, I guess, any changes on how you're going to get there if you are still comfortable, at least by segment from what you originally expected?
Cameron Doerksen: Okay. No, that's great. At least there's some projects moving forward, whether they're in Canada or not. That's good to hear. Maybe just a second question just on, I guess, sort of the financial targets that you put out earlier this year, the CAD 2.3 to 2.4 billion in revenue and CAD 365 million in EBITDA. Are you still, I guess, comfortable with that? And is there, I guess, any changes on how you're going to get there if you are still comfortable, at least by segment from what you originally expected?
Speaker #8: Okay. No, that's great. At least there's some projects moving forward, whether they're in Canada or not. So that's good to hear. Maybe just a second question just on, I guess, sort of the financial targets that you put out earlier this year, the 2.3 to 2.4 billion in revenue and 365 million in EBITDA.
Speaker #8: Are you still, I guess, comfortable with that? And is there I guess any changes on how you're going to get there if you are still comfortable at least by segment from what you originally expected?
Murray Mullen: Carson, I'll defer that to you. Okay. I'll make a final comment on that. Sure. No change to the guide right now, Cameron. As we're coming out of Q1, I would say, by segment, everything is largely in line with what we articulated back at the beginning of the year. I would say no material changes to the guide that we kicked out in January. If March holds, and we continue on that trend, Yeah. I mean, if the March trend was sustained, Right, we'd be above. We would. I think the other thing is, Cam, is that we didn't plan any nation-building projects in our plan, in our budget for this year. If those start to go, that's on top of what we said we would do. That doesn't include any acquisition. No additional acquisition.
Murray Mullen: Carson, I'll defer that to you. Okay. I'll make a final comment on that.
Speaker #2: Carson, I'll good for that to you. And I'll pump and I'll make a final comment on that.
Carson Urlacher: Sure. No change to the guide right now, Cameron. As we're coming out of Q1, I would say, by segment, everything is largely in line with what we articulated back at the beginning of the year. I would say no material changes to the guide that we kicked out in January. If March holds, and we continue on that trend,
Speaker #8: Sure. No change to the guide right now. Cameron, as we're coming out of the first quarter, I would say by segment, everything is largely in line with what we articulated back at the beginning of the year.
Speaker #8: So I would say no material changes to the guide that we kicked out in January. If March holds, and we continue on that trend, I don't see any yeah.
Murray Mullen: Yeah. I mean, if the March trend was sustained, Right, we'd be above. We would. I think the other thing is, Cam, is that we didn't plan any nation-building projects in our plan, in our budget for this year. If those start to go, that's on top of what we said we would do. That doesn't include any acquisition. No additional acquisition.
Speaker #2: I mean, if the March trend was sustained, we'd be above.
Speaker #8: We would.
Speaker #2: But I think the other thing is, Cam, is that we didn't plan any nation-building projects in our plan, in our budget for this year.
Speaker #2: So if those start to go, that's on top of what we said we would do.
Speaker #7: And that doesn't include any acquisition.
Murray Mullen: We've got a couple things that we're going to maybe go ahead and beat that, but that's not built into the plan that we put forward. Yeah. We just said this is what we think our existing business will do, and so far, we're on track for it.
Speaker #2: And no additional acquisition. So we've got a couple things that we're going to maybe go ahead and beat that. But that's not built into the plan that we put forward.
Murray Mullen: We've got a couple things that we're going to maybe go ahead and beat that, but that's not built into the plan that we put forward. Yeah. We just said this is what we think our existing business will do, and so far, we're on track for it.
Speaker #2: We said, "Look, this is what we think our existing business will do, and so far we're on track for it."
Cameron Doerksen: Okay. No, that's great to hear. I'll pass the line. Thanks very much.
Cameron Doerksen: Okay. No, that's great to hear. I'll pass the line. Thanks very much.
Speaker #8: Okay. No, that's great to hear. I'll pass the line. Thanks very much.
Murray Mullen: Thank you, Cam. Thank you.
Murray Mullen: Thank you, Cam. Thank you.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Ken.
Speaker #7: Thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from Benoit Poirier from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Benoit Poirier from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: The next question comes from Benoit Poirier from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Benoit Poirier: Hey, good morning, everyone, and congrats, Richard, for your new role.
Benoit Poirier: Hey, good morning, everyone, and congrats, Richard, for your new role.
Speaker #9: Hey, good morning, everyone. And congrats, Richard, on your new role.
Murray Mullen: Thank you.
Richard Maloney: Thank you.
Benoit Poirier: Yeah. Talking about the opportunity in Alaska, the LNG project, could you maybe provide more color about the potential size of this opportunity? Is it your understanding that there's a limited number of companies that could handle such a project?
Benoit Poirier: Yeah. Talking about the opportunity in Alaska, the LNG project, could you maybe provide more color about the potential size of this opportunity? Is it your understanding that there's a limited number of companies that could handle such a project?
Speaker #2: Thank you.
Speaker #9: Yeah. Talking about the opportunity in Alaska, the LNG project, could you maybe provide more color about the potential size of this opportunity? And is it your understanding that there's a limited number of companies that could handle such a project?
Murray Mullen: The project itself, Benoit, is that project in Alaska, probably bigger than all the nation-building projects that have been announced in Canada. It's upwards of $40 billion. How much are we going to carve out of that? We will be specifically, right now, we're at the table on the hauling of pipe for the 800 miles from Cook Inlet down to Anchorage. That will be a big LNG project. It's pretty sizable. We're gonna be in the final bidding phase here in the next couple of days. It appears that it's got all of the presidential support, and I think they're waiting for the governor of Alaska, and a couple of other things. That one's probably got the best chance of going in the short term.
Murray Mullen: The project itself, Benoit, is that project in Alaska, probably bigger than all the nation-building projects that have been announced in Canada. It's upwards of $40 billion. How much are we going to carve out of that? We will be specifically, right now, we're at the table on the hauling of pipe for the 800 miles from Cook Inlet down to Anchorage. That will be a big LNG project. It's pretty sizable. We're gonna be in the final bidding phase here in the next couple of days. It appears that it's got all of the presidential support, and I think they're waiting for the governor of Alaska, and a couple of other things. That one's probably got the best chance of going in the short term.
Speaker #2: The project itself, Benoit, is that project in Alaska is probably bigger than all the nation-building projects that have been announced in Canada. It's upwards of 40 billion US dollars.
Speaker #2: So how much are we going to carve out of that? We will be specifically—right now, we're at the table on the hauling of pipe for the 800—I think it's 800.
Speaker #7: 800 miles.
Speaker #2: 800 miles from Gobe down to Anchorage. And that will be a big LNG project. So it's pretty sizable. I can't we're going to be into final bidding phase.
Speaker #2: Here in the next couple of days, it appears that it's got all of the presidential support. And I think they're waiting for the governor of Alaska and a couple of other things.
Speaker #2: But that one's probably got the best chance of going in the short term. And if we get past and we get chosen as the bidder with our partner, then we'll come out with more firm numbers.
Murray Mullen: If we get past and we get chosen as the bidder with our partner, then we'll come out with more firm numbers. Suffice to say, this is not just a couple million CAD. This is pretty big.
Murray Mullen: If we get past and we get chosen as the bidder with our partner, then we'll come out with more firm numbers. Suffice to say, this is not just a couple million CAD. This is pretty big.
Speaker #2: But just suffice to say, this is not just a couple million dollars. This is pretty big.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Speaker #9: Okay. Okay.
Murray Mullen: It's kind of sensitive right now, so we'll just. I don't know. I can tell you, we've got a great partner up in Alaska. We've done business with them for 20 years, and there's a short deck of how many suppliers can do this project, and we're one of them.
Speaker #2: Just I think we just need to it's kind of sensitive right now. So we'll just I don't know. But I can tell you we've got a great partner up in Alaska.
Murray Mullen: It's kind of sensitive right now, so we'll just. I don't know. I can tell you, we've got a great partner up in Alaska. We've done business with them for 20 years, and there's a short deck of how many suppliers can do this project, and we're one of them.
Speaker #2: We've done business with them for 20 years. And there's a short deck of how many suppliers can do this project, and we're one of them.
Benoit Poirier: That's really great color, Murray. Regarding the S&I segment, with the increase in oil prices, have you already started to see a pickup in drilling and other activity from customers? Are customers beginning to try and lock up capacity for the months ahead?
Benoit Poirier: That's really great color, Murray. Regarding the S&I segment, with the increase in oil prices, have you already started to see a pickup in drilling and other activity from customers? Are customers beginning to try and lock up capacity for the months ahead?
Speaker #9: That's really great color, Maria. And regarding the SNI segment with the increase in oil prices, have you already started to see a pickup in drilling and other activity from customers?
Speaker #9: And are customers beginning to try and lock up capacity for the months ahead?
Murray Mullen: No. I think what everybody's saying. It's so new, right? Everybody sees the price increase, but most of our customers, the oil and gas companies, are just saying, Look, we don't know if it's going to be for how long. They haven't made capital commitments yet, Benoit. I haven't seen it yet. We channel check. We talk, but we haven't seen that translate into any increased demand for drilling or for other services. By the way, you still need to have the pipelines built, whether it's for LNG or if it's crude oil. Otherwise, there's no sense adding capacity. We don't need any more natural gas unless we get an export customer. We just got to be. It hasn't changed yet.
Murray Mullen: No. I think what everybody's saying. It's so new, right? Everybody sees the price increase, but most of our customers, the oil and gas companies, are just saying, Look, we don't know if it's going to be for how long. They haven't made capital commitments yet, Benoit. I haven't seen it yet. We channel check. We talk, but we haven't seen that translate into any increased demand for drilling or for other services. By the way, you still need to have the pipelines built, whether it's for LNG or if it's crude oil. Otherwise, there's no sense adding capacity. We don't need any more natural gas unless we get an export customer. We just got to be. It hasn't changed yet.
Speaker #2: No, I think what everybody's saying is it's so new, right? And everybody sees the price increase, but most of our customers, the oil and gas companies, are just saying, 'Look, we don't know if it's going to be for how long.' So they haven't made capital commitments yet.
Speaker #2: Benoit. I haven't seen it yet. We channel check. We talk, but we haven't seen that translate into any increase demand for drilling or for other services.
Speaker #2: And by the way, you still need to have the pipelines built. Whether it's for LNG or if it's crude oil, otherwise, there's no sense adding capacity.
Speaker #2: We don't need any more natural gas unless we get it exported, customer. So I'd be—we just got to be—it hasn't changed yet.
Carson Urlacher: One data point, Benoit, is that the active rig count is still below what it was last year.
Carson Urlacher: One data point, Benoit, is that the active rig count is still below what it was last year.
Speaker #7: One data point, Benoit, is that the act of rig count is still below what it was last year.
Benoit Poirier: Yeah. Okay. Great color. On the M&A, you made some comments before, but any thoughts on the current landscape and what about the deals that are crossing your desk these days? What segments are seeing the most seller activity? Have you seen any change in seller expectation given the encouraging signs we see across the industry?
Benoit Poirier: Yeah. Okay. Great color. On the M&A, you made some comments before, but any thoughts on the current landscape and what about the deals that are crossing your desk these days? What segments are seeing the most seller activity? Have you seen any change in seller expectation given the encouraging signs we see across the industry?
Speaker #9: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Great caller. And on the M&A, you made some comments before, but any thoughts on the current landscape and what about the deals that are crossing your desk these days?
Speaker #9: What segments are seeing the most seller activity? And have you seen any change in seller expectations, given the encouraging signs we see across the industry?
Murray Mullen: Oh, yeah, that one's all over the map. I can tell you that the industry is, and our peers are. Everybody's waiting for that inflection point, and we talked about whether March is going to be sustained or not. If it is, then I think that would be really supportive for the whole industry. There's no doubt about it. On the M&A front, once again, we're just being very selective as to which ones fit into our. You've got to be a self-managed business unit. You've got to be profitable. You've got to be well run to be added into our group. We're being very selective. That hasn't changed, Benoit. We've never changed that.
Murray Mullen: Oh, yeah, that one's all over the map. I can tell you that the industry is, and our peers are. Everybody's waiting for that inflection point, and we talked about whether March is going to be sustained or not. If it is, then I think that would be really supportive for the whole industry. There's no doubt about it. On the M&A front, once again, we're just being very selective as to which ones fit into our. You've got to be a self-managed business unit. You've got to be profitable. You've got to be well run to be added into our group. We're being very selective. That hasn't changed, Benoit. We've never changed that.
Speaker #2: Oh, yeah. That one's all over the map. There's I can tell you that the industry is and our peers are everybody's waiting for that inflection point.
Speaker #2: And we talked about whether March is going to be sustained or not. And if it is, then I think that would be really supportive for the whole industry.
Speaker #2: There's no doubt about it. But on the M&A front, once again, we're just being very, very selective as to which ones fit into our selfie.
Speaker #2: Got to be a self-managed business unit. You got to be profitable. You've got to be well-run. To be added into our group. And so we're being very selective.
Speaker #2: But that hasn't changed, Benoit. We've never changed that.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Murray Mullen: We'll continue to do M&A. Which ones will we do it in? It depends on what segment. We're happy to do it in any one of the segments, but it has to be the right opportunity.
Murray Mullen: We'll continue to do M&A. Which ones will we do it in? It depends on what segment. We're happy to do it in any one of the segments, but it has to be the right opportunity.
Speaker #9: Okay.
Speaker #2: But there will continue to do M&A. Which ones will we do it in? It depends on what segment. We're happy to do it in any one of the segments.
Speaker #2: But it has to be the right opportunity. And we love all four segments the same. If we can find a great LTL company, we're going to put it in.
Benoit Poirier: I see.
Benoit Poirier: I see.
Murray Mullen: We love all four segments the same. If we can find a great LTL company, we're going to put it in. S&I, our door is open, and we talk to a lot of people all the time.
Murray Mullen: We love all four segments the same. If we can find a great LTL company, we're going to put it in. S&I, our door is open, and we talk to a lot of people all the time.
Speaker #2: And SNI, our door's open. And we talk to a lot of people all the time.
Benoit Poirier: Okay. Just on the CapEx side, it seems to come a little bit lighter in Q1 at CAD 12 million, but Class 8 orders in the US are starting to inflect. Any thoughts on the need or timing to replenish your fleet?
Benoit Poirier: Okay. Just on the CapEx side, it seems to come a little bit lighter in Q1 at CAD 12 million, but Class 8 orders in the US are starting to inflect. Any thoughts on the need or timing to replenish your fleet?
Speaker #9: Okay. And just on the CapEx side, it seems to come in pretty a little bit lighter in Q1 at $12 million, but Class 8 orders in the US are starting to inflect.
Speaker #9: So any thoughts on the need or timing to replenish your fleet?
Murray Mullen: We don't think so. We think we're on target for that. That was a steady as she goes kind of a capital CapEx budget.
Murray Mullen: We don't think so. We think we're on target for that. That was a steady as she goes kind of a capital CapEx budget.
Speaker #2: We don't think so. I think we're on target for that. That was a steady-as-you-go kind of a capital CapEx budget. I think what we're all what the senior team is talking about here is that I think we're going to know this next quarter we'll see how whether the Canadian economy continues to build momentum.
Benoit Poirier: Yeah.
Benoit Poirier: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: I think what the senior team is talking about here is that I think we're going to know this next quarter. We'll see whether the Canadian economy continues to build momentum. Benoit, if it does, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't up our CapEx for H2. I need to see the Canadian economy being sustainable. We're just on standby. So far, that was a little bit of timing as to when we order and those kind of things. We're still on target for our CapEx for this year. No reason.
Murray Mullen: I think what the senior team is talking about here is that I think we're going to know this next quarter. We'll see whether the Canadian economy continues to build momentum. Benoit, if it does, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't up our CapEx for H2. I need to see the Canadian economy being sustainable. We're just on standby. So far, that was a little bit of timing as to when we order and those kind of things. We're still on target for our CapEx for this year. No reason.
Speaker #2: Benoit, if it does, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't up our CapEx for the last half of the year. But for that, I need to see the Canadian economy being sustainable.
Speaker #2: And so we're just on standby. But so far, that was a little bit of timing. As to when we order and those kind of things.
Speaker #2: But we're still on target for our CapEx for this year. No reason to.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Benoit Poirier: Okay.
Murray Mullen: We'll have more to say on that in our next quarterly call because we will know whether the Canadian economy is catching a little bit of a bid here in Q2.
Speaker #9: Okay.
Murray Mullen: We'll have more to say on that in our next quarterly call because we will know whether the Canadian economy is catching a little bit of a bid here in Q2.
Speaker #2: We will have more to say on that in our next quarterly call because we will know whether the Canadian economy is really caught is catching a little bit of a bid here.
Benoit Poirier: Okay. Maybe last one for me, very quickly. You mentioned, Murray, that the LTL is still stuck in neutral. What are the key indicators that you're looking at? We've seen capacity tightening in the TL, so is it the signs that you're looking at expecting that the natural LTL volume will flow back to the LTL market that could provide some help?
Benoit Poirier: Okay. Maybe last one for me, very quickly. You mentioned, Murray, that the LTL is still stuck in neutral. What are the key indicators that you're looking at? We've seen capacity tightening in the TL, so is it the signs that you're looking at expecting that the natural LTL volume will flow back to the LTL market that could provide some help?
Speaker #2: In the second quarter.
Speaker #9: Okay. And maybe last one for me, very quickly. You mentioned Marie that the LTL still stuck in neutral. What are kind of the key indicators that you're looking at?
Speaker #9: We've seen capacity tightening in the TL. So is it kind of the signs that you're looking at, expecting that the natural LTL volume will flow back to the LTL market that could provide some help?
Murray Mullen: Look, I think we tell all our business units is that, look, you can't wait. We'd love to see a nice demand push come, but realistically there, Benoit, we're really working hard on operational efficiency being the best in the markets that our business units are at, and trying to gain market share through efficiency and, as we say, new AI tools.
Murray Mullen: Look, I think we tell all our business units is that, look, you can't wait. We'd love to see a nice demand push come, but realistically there, Benoit, we're really working hard on operational efficiency being the best in the markets that our business units are at, and trying to gain market share through efficiency and, as we say, new AI tools.
Speaker #2: Look, I think the LTL is we tell all our business units is that, "Look, you can't wait we'd love to see a nice demand push come, but realistically, there Benoit, we're really working hard on operational efficiency being the best in the markets that our business units are at.
Speaker #2: And trying to gain market share through efficiency and as we say, new A to I tools. That's one.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Richard Maloney: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: That's one.
Murray Mullen: That's one.
Richard Maloney: Technology.
Richard Maloney: Technology.
Murray Mullen: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: Yeah.
Richard Maloney: Patient. Yeah.
Richard Maloney: Patient. Yeah.
Speaker #7: Technology, yeah.
Murray Mullen: We're working really hard with our business units to make sure that they're gaining market share. If they gain market shares because they're the best in the market, we can't rely that the marketplace is going to get significantly better in the short term, in our view. It's still a good business, Benoit. LTL is one of our core businesses. I don't see huge growth, but there's huge opportunity to run more efficient businesses, and that's what we're focused on.
Murray Mullen: We're working really hard with our business units to make sure that they're gaining market share. If they gain market shares because they're the best in the market, we can't rely that the marketplace is going to get significantly better in the short term, in our view. It's still a good business, Benoit. LTL is one of our core businesses. I don't see huge growth, but there's huge opportunity to run more efficient businesses, and that's what we're focused on.
Speaker #2: Yeah. We're working really hard with our business units to make sure that they're gaining market share. If they gain market share it's because of the best in the market.
Speaker #2: We can't rely on the marketplace getting significantly better in the short term, in our view. So it's still a good business, Benoit.
Speaker #2: LTL is one of our core businesses. But I don't see huge growth. But there's huge opportunity to run more efficient businesses. And that's what we're focused on.
Benoit Poirier: That's great. Thank you very much. Great call.
Benoit Poirier: That's great. Thank you very much. Great call.
Speaker #9: That's great. Thank you very much. Great call.
Murray Mullen: Thank you very much.
Murray Mullen: Thank you very much.
Richard Maloney: Thank you.
Richard Maloney: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Thank you very much.
Speaker #7: Thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from Tim James from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question comes from Tim James from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: The next question comes from Tim James from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Murray Mullen: Morning, Tim.
Murray Mullen: Morning, Tim.
Speaker #2: Good morning, Tim.
Tim James: Good morning. Thank you very much for your time today. My first question, we touched earlier on the demarketing of customers noted in a couple of segments. I'm just wondering if it's unusually significant, the demarketing that's sort of been going on since the start of the new year, or is this kind of normal conditions that we would have seen last year or would see on a normal run rate basis?
Tim James: Good morning. Thank you very much for your time today. My first question, we touched earlier on the demarketing of customers noted in a couple of segments. I'm just wondering if it's unusually significant, the demarketing that's sort of been going on since the start of the new year, or is this kind of normal conditions that we would have seen last year or would see on a normal run rate basis?
Speaker #10: Good morning. Thank you very much for your time. Today, my first question we touched earlier on the demarketing of customers noted in a couple of segments.
Speaker #10: I'm just wondering if it's unusually significant, the demarketing that's sort of been going on since the start of the new year. Or is this kind of normal conditions that we would have seen last year or would see on a normal run-rate basis?
Murray Mullen: I think most of the demarketing really happened last year, Tim, and it just showed up in the quarter.
Murray Mullen: I think most of the demarketing really happened last year, Tim, and it just showed up in the quarter.
Speaker #2: I think most of the demarketing really happened last year, Tim. And it just showed up in the quarter. Last year, in the energy space, in the production services, we had some big oil companies that wanted us to do it for free.
Tim James: Yeah.
Tim James: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: Like last year in the energy space, in the production services, we had some big oil companies that wanted us to do it for free. We said, "The capital.
Murray Mullen: Like last year in the energy space, in the production services, we had some big oil companies that wanted us to do it for free. We said, "The capital.
Speaker #2: And we said, "But the capital market."
Richard Maloney: Demarket in Q4 of last year, so they don't show up now.
Richard Maloney: Demarket in Q4 of last year, so they don't show up now.
Speaker #7: Market in the quarter four of last year said they don't show up now.
Murray Mullen: That capital is too expensive to replace. You're asking us to do it for nothing. Give it to somebody else. Really, it just showed up on a year-over-year comparison basis. I don't think we really demarketed too much in the quarter, per se.
Murray Mullen: That capital is too expensive to replace. You're asking us to do it for nothing. Give it to somebody else. Really, it just showed up on a year-over-year comparison basis. I don't think we really demarketed too much in the quarter, per se.
Speaker #2: But the capital's too expensive to replace. You're asking us to do it for nothing. Give it to somebody else. So really, it just showed up on a year-over-year comparison basis.
Speaker #2: I don't think we really demarketed too much in the quarter, per se.
Carson Urlacher: Correct.
Richard Maloney: Correct.
Carson Urlacher: But we-
Murray Mullen: But we-
Carson Urlacher: We had done prior year then.
Richard Maloney: We had done prior year then.
Speaker #7: Correct. Has done prior years.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, prior year demarketing.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, prior year demarketing.
Speaker #2: Yeah. Prior year demarketing.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah. The numbers are favorable.
Richard Maloney: Yeah. The numbers are favorable.
Murray Mullen: There was maybe one, I think, our Hi-Way 9, we demarketed some truckload.
Murray Mullen: There was maybe one, I think, our Hi-Way 9, we demarketed some truckload.
Speaker #7: It was favorable.
Speaker #2: There was maybe one, I think, our Highway 9. We demarketed some truckload.
Richard Maloney: A little bit. A couple in the LTL space we did. Again, just unrealistic.
Richard Maloney: A little bit. A couple in the LTL space we did. Again, just unrealistic.
Speaker #7: A little bit. A couple in the LTL space, we did. Again, just unrealistic expectations. And then a couple in the oil patch. But you backfilled it.
Murray Mullen: Pricing.
Murray Mullen: Pricing.
Richard Maloney: expectations, and then a couple in the oil patch. You backfilled it, and isn't it interesting along the way, maybe your margins improve a little bit, too. Yeah. It wasn't significant, but-
Richard Maloney: expectations, and then a couple in the oil patch. You backfilled it, and isn't it interesting along the way, maybe your margins improve a little bit, too. Yeah. It wasn't significant, but-
Speaker #7: And isn't it interesting along the way? Maybe your margins improved a little bit too. And yeah. So it wasn't significant.
Murray Mullen: We did do a little bit in ContainerWorld, where anything to do with freight forwarding coming across the ocean. The beverage business has got very competitive, and some of the product that's coming in from overseas, they wanted you to do it for nothing. Well, we're not doing it for nothing. We demarketed a little bit there.
Murray Mullen: We did do a little bit in ContainerWorld, where anything to do with freight forwarding coming across the ocean. The beverage business has got very competitive, and some of the product that's coming in from overseas, they wanted you to do it for nothing. Well, we're not doing it for nothing. We demarketed a little bit there.
Speaker #2: But we did do a little bit in container world, where anything to do with freight forwarding and coming across the ocean, some of the beverage businesses got very competitive.
Speaker #2: And some of the product that's coming in from overseas, they wanted you to do it for nothing. Well, we're not doing it for nothing.
Speaker #2: I mean, so we demarketed a little bit there. With we're happy to give all of the underperforming customers and low nobody pays to our competitor, go for it.
Richard Maloney: Right.
Richard Maloney: Right.
Murray Mullen: We're happy to give all of the underperforming customers and load nobody pays to our competitor. Go for it. We don't care.
Murray Mullen: We're happy to give all of the underperforming customers and load nobody pays to our competitor. Go for it. We don't care.
Tim James: Okay. The pace of demarketing then really is slowed down this year.
Tim James: Okay. The pace of demarketing then really is slowed down this year.
Speaker #2: We don't care.
Speaker #9: Okay. Okay. So the pace of demarketing then really is slowed down this year primarily at 25 issue. Okay. Okay. That's helpful.
Tim James: Yes
Richard Maloney: Yes
Tim James: This one will primarily be a 25 issue. Okay. That's helpful.
Tim James: This one will primarily be a 25 issue. Okay. That's helpful.
Richard Maloney: Yeah. For sure.
Richard Maloney: Yeah. For sure.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Correct. For sure.
Tim James: I was actually going to ask you touched on it, the ContainerWorld, there was some weakness called out in the quarter. Is that primarily what we're talking about is some of the ocean freight? I'm just wondering what-
Tim James: I was actually going to ask you touched on it, the ContainerWorld, there was some weakness called out in the quarter. Is that primarily what we're talking about is some of the ocean freight? I'm just wondering what-
Speaker #9: And then I was actually going to ask you. You touched on it. The container world. There were some weakness called out in the quarter.
Speaker #9: Is that primarily what we're talking about? Is some of the ocean freight I'm just wondering what?
Murray Mullen: Yeah.
Murray Mullen: Yeah.
Tim James: ContainerWorld will be coming in.
Tim James: ContainerWorld will be coming in.
Murray Mullen: It's about imports coming in.
Murray Mullen: It's about imports coming in.
Speaker #2: Yeah, yeah. It's about the imports coming in. And there's been a buy—I think it's a combination of, really, there's been this 'Buy Canadian' push, which has been really helpful for Canadian producers of wines, of spirits, of beer.
Tim James: Okay
Tim James: Okay
Murray Mullen: I think it's a combination of really there's been this buy Canadian push, which has been really helpful for Canadian producers of wines, of spirits, of beer at the expense of foreign buyers, whether it's US or international buyers. We're busier with some of our local customers, but not so much with the foreign customers. Just as consumers have really gone to buy Canadian and they're very price sensitive today.
Murray Mullen: I think it's a combination of really there's been this buy Canadian push, which has been really helpful for Canadian producers of wines, of spirits, of beer at the expense of foreign buyers, whether it's US or international buyers. We're busier with some of our local customers, but not so much with the foreign customers. Just as consumers have really gone to buy Canadian and they're very price sensitive today.
Speaker #2: At the expense of foreign buyers, whether it's US or international buyers. So we're busier with some of our local customers. But not so much with the foreign customers.
Speaker #2: Just as consumers of have really gone to buy Canadian. And they're very price sensitive today. So and it's expensive to bring stuff in from across the ocean.
Tim James: Okay.
Tim James: Okay.
Murray Mullen: It's expensive to bring stuff in from across the ocean. I think the foreign, it's working overall not bad, but it changes your supply chain, and we have to adapt to that.
Murray Mullen: It's expensive to bring stuff in from across the ocean. I think the foreign, it's working overall not bad, but it changes your supply chain, and we have to adapt to that.
Speaker #2: So I think the foreign it's working overall, not bad. But it changes your supply chain. And we have to adapt to that.
Tim James: Okay. That's helpful. Just returning to the strength that you saw in March, and I don't want to beat this one up too much, and I know it's difficult for you to have a lot of confidence in sort of what the implications are from the March strength, but is one possibility that it was kind of catch up from earlier in the quarter, and so by the time we get to Q2, we might think of Q1 overall as a bit of a better indicator, or do you feel fairly confident that March strength was more of an indicator of an actual step up in business conditions overall?
Tim James: Okay. That's helpful. Just returning to the strength that you saw in March, and I don't want to beat this one up too much, and I know it's difficult for you to have a lot of confidence in sort of what the implications are from the March strength, but is one possibility that it was kind of catch up from earlier in the quarter, and so by the time we get to Q2, we might think of Q1 overall as a bit of a better indicator, or do you feel fairly confident that March strength was more of an indicator of an actual step up in business conditions overall?
Speaker #9: Okay. Okay. That's helpful. Just returning to the strength that you saw in March. And I don't want to beat this one up too much.
Speaker #9: And I know it's difficult for you to have a lot of confidence in, sort of, what the implications are from the March strength. But is one possibility that it was kind of catch-up from earlier in the quarter?
Speaker #9: And so by the time we get to Q2, we might think of Q1 overall as a bit of a better indicator? Or do you feel fairly confident that March strength was more of an indicator of an actual step up in business conditions overall?
Murray Mullen: I would have said it probably would have been a better indicator, but once the things happened over in the Middle East and kind of the disruption in the energy markets that could have an impact around on economic activity, I think people are sitting on their hands a little bit. The people just don't know how it's going to play out, and uncertainty is not good for capital allocation and for people getting aggressive. We're just going to wait and see to see how that plays itself out. It might push off that economic growth a little bit as people just take a pause here to see what's going on. That's what we sense. We were very optimistic going in, but this fuel thing scares people. I don't know if it's headlines or if it's whatever, but people are quite concerned about it.
Murray Mullen: I would have said it probably would have been a better indicator, but once the things happened over in the Middle East and kind of the disruption in the energy markets that could have an impact around on economic activity, I think people are sitting on their hands a little bit. The people just don't know how it's going to play out, and uncertainty is not good for capital allocation and for people getting aggressive. We're just going to wait and see to see how that plays itself out. It might push off that economic growth a little bit as people just take a pause here to see what's going on. That's what we sense. We were very optimistic going in, but this fuel thing scares people. I don't know if it's headlines or if it's whatever, but people are quite concerned about it.
Speaker #2: I would have said it probably would have been a better indicator. But once the things happened over in the Middle East, and kind of the disruption in the energy markets, that could have an impact on economic activity. I think people are sitting on their hands a little bit.
Speaker #2: People just don't know how it's going to play out. And uncertainty is not good for capital allocation and for people getting aggressive. So we're just in a wait-and-see to see how that plays itself out.
Speaker #2: It might push off that economic growth a little bit, as people just take a pause here to see what's going on. So that's what we sense.
Speaker #2: But we were very optimistic going in. But this fuel thing scares people. And I don't know if it's headlines or if it's whatever. But people are quite concerned.
Murray Mullen: That's what we are hearing.
Murray Mullen: That's what we are hearing.
Tim James: Okay. My last question is-
Tim James: Okay. My last question is-
Speaker #2: That's what we're hearing.
Murray Mullen: Now, I can't tell you. I'll be honest with you, Tim. I cannot tell you whether what we're hearing is the excuse or the reason. I think there's two different
Murray Mullen: Now, I can't tell you. I'll be honest with you, Tim. I cannot tell you whether what we're hearing is the excuse or the reason. I think there's two different
Speaker #9: Okay. My last question.
Speaker #2: I know. I can't tell you. I'll be honest with you, Tim. I cannot tell you whether what we're hearing is the excuse or the reason.
Tim James: Mm-hmm
Tim James: Mm-hmm
Murray Mullen: outcomes here, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If they cut back, either as a consumption or in being aggressive on bringing in inventories or in capital deployment, you're going to have the same result. It slows down a little bit. I see a little bit of a pause, but I think the long-term trend is going to be more March-like. Boy, I'll tell you, if we get a bunch of Marchs for the rest of this year, we're going to do very well.
Speaker #2: I think there are two different outcomes here. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If they cut back—either in consumption, in being aggressive on bringing in inventories, or in capital deployment—you're going to have the same result.
Murray Mullen: outcomes here, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If they cut back, either as a consumption or in being aggressive on bringing in inventories or in capital deployment, you're going to have the same result. It slows down a little bit. I see a little bit of a pause, but I think the long-term trend is going to be more March-like. Boy, I'll tell you, if we get a bunch of Marchs for the rest of this year, we're going to do very well.
Speaker #2: It slows down a little bit, so I see a little bit of a pause. But I don't—I think the long-term trend is going to be more March-like.
Speaker #2: And boy, I'll tell you, if we get a bunch of Marches for the rest of this year, we're going to do very well.
Tim James: Okay. That's helpful. My last question, just around fuel and fuel surcharge revenue, is it reasonable to assume that when we get into Q2, just because of the timing of the increase in fuel prices, that there's a bit more weight there on earnings or drag because of the time lag between fuel surcharge revenue and the expenses? Would it be a bit more of a headwind in Q2, even relative to Q1?
Tim James: Okay. That's helpful. My last question, just around fuel and fuel surcharge revenue, is it reasonable to assume that when we get into Q2, just because of the timing of the increase in fuel prices, that there's a bit more weight there on earnings or drag because of the time lag between fuel surcharge revenue and the expenses? Would it be a bit more of a headwind in Q2, even relative to Q1?
Speaker #9: Okay. That's helpful. My last question. Just around fuel and fuel surcharge revenue. Is it reasonable to assume that when we get into Q2, just because of the timing of the increase in fuel prices, that there's a bit more weight there on earnings or drag because of the time lag between fuel surcharge revenue and the expenses?
Speaker #9: Would it be a bit more of a headwind in Q2 even relative to Q1?
Murray Mullen: We talk about that here all the time, because fuel is our second biggest expense after labor. We're on top of it. I think our business units did a pretty good job of mitigating that rapid rise. It wasn't that fuel went up, it's that it spiked up, and then you're behind the curve on that. Carson, you did some really deep analysis on this. What did we find?
Murray Mullen: We talk about that here all the time, because fuel is our second biggest expense after labor. We're on top of it. I think our business units did a pretty good job of mitigating that rapid rise. It wasn't that fuel went up, it's that it spiked up, and then you're behind the curve on that. Carson, you did some really deep analysis on this. What did we find?
Speaker #2: We talk about that here all the time, because fuel is our second biggest expense after labor. And so we're on top of it. I think our business units did a pretty good job of mitigating that rapid rise.
Speaker #2: It wasn't that fuel went up. It's that it spiked up. And then you're behind the curve on that. But Carson did some really deep analysis on this.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah. You have to take a look at what the fuel surcharge program is, and it's been going on for, obviously, decades. Really, the program is set up to reimburse transport companies for the excess cost. Really, it's a cost recovery program. The most recent guide that I can give to you is to look back at our 2022 results. In 2022, obviously, we knew that fuel prices spiked due to the conflict in Ukraine with Russia. Normally, our fuel surcharge revenue hovers around CAD 50 million a quarter. Well, back in 2022, that jumped. That spiked up to about CAD 70 million in fuel surcharge revenue per quarter. Up quite significantly. If you look at the timing, it was almost identical. Both conflicts happened in the month of February. We saw this little bit of a lag because of fuel surcharge lagging.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah. You have to take a look at what the fuel surcharge program is, and it's been going on for, obviously, decades. Really, the program is set up to reimburse transport companies for the excess cost. Really, it's a cost recovery program. The most recent guide that I can give to you is to look back at our 2022 results. In 2022, obviously, we knew that fuel prices spiked due to the conflict in Ukraine with Russia. Normally, our fuel surcharge revenue hovers around CAD 50 million a quarter. Well, back in 2022, that jumped. That spiked up to about CAD 70 million in fuel surcharge revenue per quarter. Up quite significantly. If you look at the timing, it was almost identical. Both conflicts happened in the month of February. We saw this little bit of a lag because of fuel surcharge lagging.
Speaker #2: What are we finding?
Speaker #7: Yeah, so you kind of have to take a look at what the fuel surcharge program is. And it's been going on for, obviously, decades.
Speaker #7: And really, the program is set up to reimburse transport companies for the excess cost. So, really, it's a cost recovery program. The most recent guide that I can give to you is to kind of look back at our 2022 results.
Speaker #7: So, in 2022, obviously, we knew that fuel prices spiked due to the conflict in Ukraine with Russia. Normally, our fuel surcharge revenue hovers around $50 million a quarter.
Speaker #7: Well, back in 2022, that jump—that spiked up to about $70 million in fuel surcharge revenue per quarter. So up quite significantly. And if you look at the timing, it was almost identical.
Speaker #7: Both conflicts happened in the month of February, so we saw this little bit of a lag because of fuel surcharge lagging. And it didn't really impact our first quarter results significantly.
Carson Urlacher: It didn't really impact our Q1 results significantly. As you look towards the remainder of the year, our fuel as a percentage of revenue went from about 7% at the beginning of the year, which is where it is right now, 7% as a percentage of revenue is what I'm referring to. By the end of the year, it was up at about 10%. It would not surprise us if that trend holds, because in a cost recovery mode, if you're increasing the numerator, which is fuel expense, at the same time you're increasing the denominator, which is fuel surcharge revenue, you're recovering the absolute dollar. As a percentage of revenue, it goes up. That's the trend that we're seeing.
Carson Urlacher: It didn't really impact our Q1 results significantly. As you look towards the remainder of the year, our fuel as a percentage of revenue went from about 7% at the beginning of the year, which is where it is right now, 7% as a percentage of revenue is what I'm referring to. By the end of the year, it was up at about 10%. It would not surprise us if that trend holds, because in a cost recovery mode, if you're increasing the numerator, which is fuel expense, at the same time you're increasing the denominator, which is fuel surcharge revenue, you're recovering the absolute dollar. As a percentage of revenue, it goes up. That's the trend that we're seeing.
Speaker #7: But then as you look towards the remainder of the year, our fuel as a percentage of revenue went from about 7% at the beginning of the year, which is where it is right now.
Speaker #7: 7% as a percentage of revenue is what I'm referring to. And by the end of the year, it was up at about 10%. So it would not surprise us if that trend holds.
Speaker #7: Because in a cost recovery mode, if you're increasing the numerator, which is fuel expense at the same time you're increasing the denominator, which is fuel surcharge revenue, those you're recovering the absolute dollar.
Speaker #7: But as a percentage of revenue, it goes up. So that's kind of the trend that we're seeing. And just to kind of put some numbers here, in March of 2022, we did about $19 million of fuel surcharge revenue in that month.
Carson Urlacher: Just to put some numbers in CAD, in March 2022, we did about CAD 19 million of fuel surcharge revenue in that month. In March of this year, we did about CAD 22 million. We're a bigger company now than we were four years ago. I would suspect that our new trend is not CAD 50 million a quarter in fuel surcharge revenue. It's going to be north of that all things considered, if the conflict continues in the Middle East.
Carson Urlacher: Just to put some numbers in CAD, in March 2022, we did about CAD 19 million of fuel surcharge revenue in that month. In March of this year, we did about CAD 22 million. We're a bigger company now than we were four years ago. I would suspect that our new trend is not CAD 50 million a quarter in fuel surcharge revenue. It's going to be north of that all things considered, if the conflict continues in the Middle East.
Speaker #7: And in March of this year, we did about 22. So we're a bigger company now than we were four years ago. So I would suspect that our new trend is not 50 million a quarter in fuel surcharge revenue.
Speaker #7: It's going to be north of that, all things considered, if the conflict continues in the Middle East.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, I think the other thing that I'll comment about fuel surcharge, Tim, is that fuel surcharge is in response to a fuel price increase. It's not in anticipation of a fuel price increase. We're always behind the curve on that. Unless the fuel price continues to go up in March, it should be neutral.
Murray Mullen: Yeah, I think the other thing that I'll comment about fuel surcharge, Tim, is that fuel surcharge is in response to a fuel price increase. It's not in anticipation of a fuel price increase. We're always behind the curve on that. Unless the fuel price continues to go up in March, it should be neutral.
Speaker #2: Yeah. I think the other thing about that I'll comment about fuel surcharge, Tim, is that fuel surcharge is in response to a fuel price increase.
Speaker #2: It's not an anticipation of a fuel price increase. So we're always behind the curve on that. And but we'll unless the fuel price continues to go up in March, it should be neutral.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah
Carson Urlacher: Yeah
Murray Mullen: ... in the second quarter.
Murray Mullen: ... in the second quarter.
Carson Urlacher: Correct. Yeah.
Carson Urlacher: Correct. Yeah.
Speaker #2: In the second quarter.
Tim James: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much.
Tim James: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much.
Speaker #7: Correct. Yeah.
Speaker #9: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much.
Murray Mullen: Thank you.
Murray Mullen: Thank you.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah.
Carson Urlacher: Yeah.
Speaker #2: Thank you.
Operator: Once again, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Walter Spracklin from RBC. Please go ahead.
Operator: Once again, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Walter Spracklin from RBC. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: Once again, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Walter Sprecklin from RBC. Please go ahead.
Walter Spracklin: Yeah. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Or good morning. Afternoon, everyone. Just focusing on your outlook for this year and coming back to that question you got there and just comparing it to where we were three months ago when you set your outlook. I guess I can understand you don't put in the nation building, you don't put in the acquisitions, you don't put in Alaska. Just looking at your commentary, I think clearly you're saying that the outlook is better now than it was then. In your press release, you pointed to market conditions showing signs of improvement, demand holding steady, and supply tightening. It seems that, and we're hearing all of the same things from your counterparts north and south of the border.
Walter Spracklin: Yeah. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Or good morning. Afternoon, everyone. Just focusing on your outlook for this year and coming back to that question you got there and just comparing it to where we were three months ago when you set your outlook. I guess I can understand you don't put in the nation building, you don't put in the acquisitions, you don't put in Alaska. Just looking at your commentary, I think clearly you're saying that the outlook is better now than it was then. In your press release, you pointed to market conditions showing signs of improvement, demand holding steady, and supply tightening. It seems that, and we're hearing all of the same things from your counterparts north and south of the border.
Speaker #10: Yeah. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Or good morning, afternoon, everyone. Just focusing on your outlook for this year and coming back to that question you got there and just comparing it to where we were three months ago when you set your outlook.
Speaker #10: I guess I can understand you don't put in the nation building. You don't put in the acquisitions. You don't put in Alaska. But just looking at your commentary, I think clearly you're saying that the outlook is better now than it was then.
Speaker #10: You're in your press release, you pointed to market conditions showing signs of improvement. Demand holding steady. Supply tightening. So it seems that and we're hearing all of the same things from your counterparts North and South of the border.
Walter Spracklin: If there is a better top line emerging here, I'm just curious why you wouldn't see that coming through in the bottom line. I don't know if you're suggesting it might be a structural or capacity issue, or is it just caution right now at this point? Again, looking back three months ago, I think things seem a lot better now than they were then, and just pressing you a little bit on why you wouldn't change your guidance here for the full year.
Walter Spracklin: If there is a better top line emerging here, I'm just curious why you wouldn't see that coming through in the bottom line. I don't know if you're suggesting it might be a structural or capacity issue, or is it just caution right now at this point? Again, looking back three months ago, I think things seem a lot better now than they were then, and just pressing you a little bit on why you wouldn't change your guidance here for the full year.
Speaker #10: So if there is a better top-line emerging here, I'm just curious why you wouldn't see that coming through in the bottom line. I don't know if you're suggesting it might be a structural or capacity issue or is it just caution right now at this point?
Speaker #10: But again, looking back three months ago, I think things seem a lot better now than they were then. And just pressing you a little bit on why you wouldn't change your guidance here for the full year.
Murray Mullen: Probably because of the spike in fuel and the impact that it might have on the economy, business, and consumer psyche. That's probably the number one reason, Walter, that we're just, so let's just wait and see. We don't want to get ahead of our skis on that.
Murray Mullen: Probably because of the spike in fuel and the impact that it might have on the economy, business, and consumer psyche. That's probably the number one reason, Walter, that we're just, so let's just wait and see. We don't want to get ahead of our skis on that.
Speaker #2: I'll probably because of the spike in fuel and the impact that it might have on the economy. And business and consumer psyche that's probably the number one reason Walter that we're just delicious wait and see.
Walter Spracklin: Sure.
Walter Spracklin: Sure.
Speaker #2: We don't want to get ahead of our skis on that. And that's something that we hadn't anticipated three months ago. I don't think anybody did.
Murray Mullen: That's something that we hadn't anticipated three months ago. I don't think anybody did. Nobody knows what that ultimate outcome will end up being in terms of their. I think structurally, it was getting a little bit better. Now I think people are taking a bit of a pause. Let's see what happens in Q2, then we can talk about H2. So far, we came out of Q1 spot on with what we anticipated. March was very nice. Let's see if March continues on. I hope it does, but I have to hedge it by being upfront on how the spike in fuel could impact consumer psyche.
Murray Mullen: That's something that we hadn't anticipated three months ago. I don't think anybody did. Nobody knows what that ultimate outcome will end up being in terms of their. I think structurally, it was getting a little bit better. Now I think people are taking a bit of a pause. Let's see what happens in Q2, then we can talk about H2. So far, we came out of Q1 spot on with what we anticipated. March was very nice. Let's see if March continues on. I hope it does, but I have to hedge it by being upfront on how the spike in fuel could impact consumer psyche.
Speaker #2: So nobody knows what that ultimate outcome will end up being. In terms of their—I think structurally, it was getting a little bit better.
Speaker #2: But now, I think people are taking a bit of a pause. Let's see what happens in the second quarter. Then we can talk about the last half of the year.
Speaker #2: But so far, we came out of the first quarter spot on with what we anticipated. And March was very nice. And let's see if March continues on.
Speaker #2: I hope it does. But I have to hedge that by being upfront—the spike in fuel could impact consumer psyche.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. When you look at your M&A strategy and you kind of peek over to the truckload sector, you see a lot more, certainly a bigger rebound going on there. Some of the demand characteristics look a bit better as well. I know when you focus and zero in on Canada only, there's certainly not as many opportunities specifically in LTL out there. Are there? Are there enough that you don't need to go to truckload? When you peek over there and you see what you're seeing in truckload, does that entice you at all, Murray, to go into that segment at all in Canada? Just curious on how you're looking at that.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. When you look at your M&A strategy and you kind of peek over to the truckload sector, you see a lot more, certainly a bigger rebound going on there. Some of the demand characteristics look a bit better as well. I know when you focus and zero in on Canada only, there's certainly not as many opportunities specifically in LTL out there. Are there? Are there enough that you don't need to go to truckload? When you peek over there and you see what you're seeing in truckload, does that entice you at all, Murray, to go into that segment at all in Canada? Just curious on how you're looking at that.
Speaker #10: Okay. And then when you look at your M&A strategy and you kind of peek over to the truckload sector, you see a lot more certainly a bigger rebound going on there.
Speaker #10: Some of the demand characteristics look a bit better as well. And I know when you focus and zero in on Canada only, there's not as many—certainly not as many—opportunities specifically in LTL out there.
Speaker #10: Or are there? Are there enough that you don't need to go to truckload? Or, when you peek over there and you see what you're seeing in truckload, does that entice you at all, Murray, to go into that segment at all in Canada?
Speaker #10: Just curious on how you're looking at that.
Murray Mullen: Zero chance that we'll go into truckload in Canada. It's not an investable business. It's a job, Walter, but it's not an investable business from a return on capital basis.
Murray Mullen: Zero chance that we'll go into truckload in Canada. It's not an investable business. It's a job, Walter, but it's not an investable business from a return on capital basis.
Speaker #7: Zero chance. I think that will go into truckload in Canada. It's not an investable business. It's a job, Walter, but it's not an investable business from a capital from a return on capital basis.
Walter Spracklin: Okay.
Walter Spracklin: Okay.
Murray Mullen: We'll focus on where it's a little more difficult, where it's these gems that we talk about. We don't go after the rock pile. We go after the gems. We look at where there's opportunity to generate free cash. You've got to be very thoughtful, and I can just tell you, truckload's not where it's at. Now, you might consider the cross-border as a little different animal now, and we've got to think that one through, because that market's going to tighten significantly. Any demand push when the US drivers are not going to be readily available to come to Canada, that one could be interesting. We'll watch that one carefully, the cross-border movement.
Murray Mullen: We'll focus on where it's a little more difficult, where it's these gems that we talk about. We don't go after the rock pile. We go after the gems. We look at where there's opportunity to generate free cash. You've got to be very thoughtful, and I can just tell you, truckload's not where it's at. Now, you might consider the cross-border as a little different animal now, and we've got to think that one through, because that market's going to tighten significantly. Any demand push when the US drivers are not going to be readily available to come to Canada, that one could be interesting. We'll watch that one carefully, the cross-border movement.
Speaker #7: So we'll focus on where it's a little more difficult, where it's these gems that we talk about. We don't go after the rock pile.
Speaker #7: We go after the gems. We look at where there's opportunity to generate free cash. So you've got to be very thoughtful. And you, I can just tell you, truckload's not where it's at.
Speaker #7: Now, you might consider the cross-border as a little different animal now. And I've got to we've got to think that one through because that market's going to tighten significantly.
Speaker #7: Any demand push when the U.S. drivers are not going to be readily available to come to Canada—that one could be interesting. We'll watch that one carefully, the cross-border movement.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. That's great. Appreciate your time.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. That's great. Appreciate your time.
Speaker #10: Okay. Okay. That's great. Appreciate your time.
Murray Mullen: On the long haul, Walter, we love intermodal long term.
Murray Mullen: On the long haul, Walter, we love intermodal long term.
Speaker #2: On the long haul, Walter, we love intermodal long-term. Yes.
Walter Spracklin: Mm-hmm.
Walter Spracklin: Mm-hmm.
Murray Mullen: Yes.
Murray Mullen: Yes.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. That's great. Thanks very much for the time.
Walter Spracklin: Okay. That's great. Thanks very much for the time.
Speaker #10: Okay. Okay. That's great. Thanks very much for the time.
Murray Mullen: Excellent.
Murray Mullen: Excellent.
Joanna Scott: Thank you.
Joanna Scott: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Excellent.
Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mullen for closing remarks.
Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mullen for closing remarks.
Speaker #7: Thank you.
Speaker #1: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mullen for closing remarks.
Murray Mullen: Thanks for joining us, folks. It's been a full morning already. Everybody's busy. Thanks for everything. We had a pretty good quarter. We were working hard to make sure that we continue to produce great results, and we look forward to chatting with you at the end of Q2. Thank you for joining us.
Murray Mullen: Thanks for joining us, folks. It's been a full morning already. Everybody's busy. Thanks for everything. We had a pretty good quarter. We were working hard to make sure that we continue to produce great results, and we look forward to chatting with you at the end of Q2. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker #2: Thanks for joining us, folks. It's been a full morning already. Everybody's busy. Thanks for everything. We had a pretty good quarter. We were working hard to make sure that we continue to produce results—great results.
Speaker #2: And we look forward to chatting with you at the end of the second quarter. So, thank you for joining us.
Operator: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.
Operator: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.