Okay, good morning, and thanks for joining us on our Ninth Annual Credit Suisse Industrials Conference. I'm Brian Markovich, the North American industrial sector specialist. I'm pleased to present the management of Yellow Corporation. With me today are Darren Hawkins, CEO, Dan Olivier, CFO, and Tony Carreño, VP of Investor Relations. Guys, thanks for taking the time today to go through your story with the investment community. With that, I think Darren is gonna give a quick overview of the company, and then we can get into the fireside chat. Darren, the floor is yours.
Good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin by thanking Brian and the team for hosting us this morning. The inherent uncertainties of forward-looking statements. Just keep those in mind as we go through the slides this morning. Tony, if you will advance those. Yellow is the holding company for the second-largest LTL carrier in North America and the fifth-largest trucking company in North America. Our 30,000 employees have delivered 17.5 million shipments over the LTM period. We do that through 317 terminals with 13,500 tractors and 42,000 trailers. If you haven't been following the Yellow story closely, there's a lot going on. Let's go to the next slide.
We're in the middle of an enterprise transformation where all of our four asset-based brands are coming together as one Yellow super regional carrier. We've made significant progress on this since 2019. Our sales team is already consolidated and going to the customer as one brand. Our operational leadership structure has also been consolidated to do the same. As Yellow Corporation and a super regional carrier, we'll provide the same regional service that we've always brought and the transcontinental service through our national piece, but we'll do it through one pro number, one contact, and one customer outreach process that allows them to engage pricing through Yellow and not through the four individual brands. Coming out of the other side of that from a technology place, New Penn, Reddaway, and YRC Freight are already on the One Yellow technology.
Our last op co, Holland, is moving over as we speak and will be completed by the end of the year. This technology conversion is the linchpin for us to go to market as one super regional carrier. Next slide. As we reinvest in the business, we've had basically two years worth of CapEx in 2021, and that's allowed us to move forward on our equipment recapitalization strategy. That half a billion dollars that we put into the company in 2021, primarily in tractors, but also in trailers, technology, box trucks, containers, lift gates, has the company positioned well to reap those benefits as we go into 2022.
I'm proud to report that our tractor deliveries, because we put those in in 2020, we haven't had any setbacks in taking delivery of those, and they will be in full deployment as we go into 2022. Next slide.
That was the last one, Darren.
Yeah. Thank you for your time and your interest in Yellow today. Now we would be happy to take any questions that you have as I turn it back over to Brian.
Thanks for that quick overview, Darren. To follow up on your company overview, can you talk a little bit more about what Yellow will look like operationally, and just explain how vastly different that will be from YRC Worldwide?
Yes. The exciting piece about the operational changes is with four different asset companies, we've got redundancies throughout the United States. YRC Freight overlaps New Penn and also Holland and Reddaway. From that perspective, we've got the situation where we would have two of our company drivers, two of our tractors, two of our trailers at the same customer on the same day. One Yellow will correct that, and as we transition and get everything on one technology that's going to be available in just a few weeks, we're able to reap the cost efficiencies from not having redundant drivers, tractors, and trailers. From a human capital standpoint, right now, everyone's familiar with the driver shortage that's persistent throughout the United States.
This allows us to create our own capacity without doing anything different other than redeploying our human capital and our asset utilization. This doesn't affect the employees in having to move or do other things. They're able to go to work in the same facilities they've been. We will just be operating as one company versus four throughout 2022.
Okay. Can you tell us a little bit more about your network optimization, with the changes taking place there?
Yeah. The real inherent value of any LTL carrier is the power of their network. It's what, you know, is difficult to replicate and brings the high barriers to entry that we see in LTL. It also right now is what's creating a very tight capacity environment. Just by the technology change. We will be able to run our line haul network without using dual paths. In the example in the Midwest, where Holland would have a line haul run and YRC Freight would have a line haul run, we're able to put those shipments together, create density, and reduce miles by just having one Yellow line haul run from those facilities. The 317 facilities we've got right now, that is close to where we will finish.
By the end of 2022, we're estimating that we'll be around 309. The ones that will be removed are very small facilities. Where we've been able to do it, we've already got two of our operating companies operating under the same roof. Once the technology's complete in a few weeks, we will start operating those facilities as a single entity, and that's what takes the redundancy out from the local city pickup and delivery operations and also from the over-the-road line haul operations. Sometimes when we've talked about synergies and other things, the execution risk can be high. That's why I use the word redundancy. All we're doing is pulling out redundant resources, and that makes the execution risk much lower on a big change like this.
We've been working on it since 2019. The planning is in place, and we've been very stable, focused, and paced as we make these changes so that the customer only experiences positive pieces from the change, not any negative pieces. We don't wanna lose $1 of revenue over the internal changes we're making. This is all about creating a value proposition that spurs growth for the company overall.
Okay. How are you managing the tightness in the market, either labor side or assets? You know,
Yeah.
As you look in the next couple of years.
We haven't put out our mid-quarter update yet like some of our competitors have, but if you go back to our earnings call, we've been an industry leader on the yield side. Our way to manage through a very expensive purchased transportation process right now and also tight capacity is naturally to make sure that we're priced for profitability in this new normal that we're all living in today. We've done that. We've successfully done that, and the tonnage that we've seen leave our network was in lanes that we didn't find conducive to the kind of purchased transportation rates that we would need to see. I'm real pleased with what we've done from a pricing standpoint and also what we've done on the tonnage that's no longer in our network.
Make no mistake, we're going after new tonnage, and as long as it's profitable and it aligns with the benefits that our network brings to the consumer, then I believe we'll continue to see new business come on board.
Can you talk about, do you have any metrics on profitable new business? Like, do you look for a certain operating ratio or anything like that? Or what are the key metrics that investors should look for?
Yeah. We don't publicly share those, but we've got a sophisticated pricing model, and also we're fully deployed on dimensioners. We know exactly what's moving through our networks and the profitability of those shipments. It allows us to be very strategic in the lanes that we want business in and also the lanes that we might have too much tonnage in that's creating cost pressure from either expensive purchased transportation or repositioning of our own internal equipment. Those are the pieces that play in heavy. I think also the progress you see at our company over the last two quarters and what you've seen in the stock and other things is particularly aligned with that pricing strategy and how well we've executed on it.
Okay. Let's turn to the CARES Treasury loan that you received in 2020. Can you talk about the terms of that loan, size, rate, maturity, and the equity owned by the U.S. Treasury?
Sure, Brian. I'll let Dan speak to those things. Go ahead, Dan.
Yeah, sure. Good morning. The total size of the U.S. Treasury loan is $700 million, and that is made up of two tranches. Tranche A is for $300 million, and that was used primarily for the repayment of deferrals that were made during the height of the pandemic in the Q2 of 2020. The interest rate on Tranche A is LIBOR with a floor of 1%, plus a fixed rate of 3.5%. There's a cash interest component that is 1.5% of that, and the rest of that is treated as paid in kind and accrues to the balance of the loan. Then there's Tranche B, which is for $400 million, and that was used solely for the investment in tractors and trailers.
The interest rate on Tranche B, that's also LIBOR plus 3.5%, and that is all paid in cash. The maturity of both tranches is September of 2024. Then finally, as part of the agreement, the United States Treasury received 15.9 million shares of common stock, which now roughly represents about 30% of the total outstanding shares.
Speaking of the investment in the tractors and trailers, you know, have you had to push delivery of equipment into 2022 due to supply chain issues or chip shortages?
Go ahead, Dan.
Yeah. We were fortunate that we got the Treasury loan in the middle of 2020, and we were able to get the orders for all of our equipment in at that point in time. A majority of all the equipment that we ordered and took delivery of supported by the CARES Act, you know, we only got all of that. We have run into some challenges on the trailer front, but not on the tractors. You know, as we mentioned in the company overview, the total CapEx plan for 2021 is in the range of $480 million to $530 million. That's certainly one of the largest CapEx plans in our company's history.
You know, we're essentially making, as Darren mentioned, over two years worth of investment inside of a 12- to 15-month period that began in the Q4 of 2020. Beginning in Q4 of 2020 throughout 2021, we have acquired approximately 2,500 tractors, which represents about 18% of the total tractor fleet, which is around 13,500 units. Over that same timeframe, we've acquired roughly 3,600 trailers, which represents about 9% of our total trailer fleet of almost 42,000 units.
Okay. Talk about your terminals as well. I know earlier in the opening remarks, you were talking about 317 going down to 309. Over the next couple of years, where do you think that gets to?
I think it stays static around 309. That we're not gonna give up any capacity. We're not gonna give up any geography in this process. I think the LTL freight, is only getting bigger over time with what we've seen happen during the pandemic. We like our real estate footprint and just other than some minor adjustments in redundant areas, that 309 number should be about right for Yellow as a super regional carrier and also maintaining, you know, us being the second-largest LTL carrier in the nation.
Okay. Maybe talk about, like, the LTL just the secular trends in the LTL market for you guys, how you see the growth happening and how you plan to participate and keep your share.
Well, I think one of the reasons that I believe the LTL pie will continue to expand and that we could see better expansion than we've seen over the last decade in LTL, which really hasn't kept up with GDP overall. My belief is the industrial economy. We're seeing a resurgence there. For most LTL carriers, including us, that can be over 60% of your total business mix. I believe that's going to continue to do well as we see more items being assembled, manufactured, and supplied directly from the United States, which benefits us as a North American carrier. The other piece is the e-commerce side. I'm not talking about the delivery to mine or your home.
I'm talking about that middle mile where because of our real estate footprint in LTL, we're everywhere our customers want us to be, and those customers in supplying their end customer find LTL to be a very attractive solution from a time standpoint. You can go through the majority of our large distribution centers and be at any ZIP Code in the United States in less than two days. That gives the customers the benefit of our real estate portfolio. Lastly, just because LTL, even though many carriers are adding capacity, we're actually doing an organic capacity increase by eliminating that redundancy I talked about earlier. That capacity comes in slowly because of the time it requires to secure real estate to hire drivers, to get those places completely staffed.
That's not keeping up with the pace of demand we're seeing right now. At some point in 2022 or beyond, as things maybe even normalize some, I think LTL will continue to be a beneficiary of the overall changes just because the demand for our services, and the real estate footprints that we all have is, very strong.
How are you guys addressing the challenges in the labor market? It's as tight as it's ever been. I know there's always a lot of turnover, but like what things have you guys been doing to keep your talent?
Yeah, I can say right now that we certainly don't have all the drivers that we want at this particular period in time. We have had a successful year in hiring. We do that through running 16 of our own driver schools. We've got a good career progression in our company where an employee can come in as a dock worker, they can transition to a box truck driver, then they can go through one of our driving schools and get a full-blown Class A CDL, all with their pay progressing along with each of those job assignments. We can create organically a lot of the drivers that we need.
Also, we have a very good quality of life in LTL, so we can get drivers from not necessarily other LTL carriers, but we can get drivers that I think the pandemic has driven this some, where people wanna be home more. All of our city driving jobs, the pay is good, the benefits are excellent, and you can be home every night. Then even on our over-the-road pieces, you can still be home several times a week. You're not going out for weeks at a time like some other parts of the broader industry does.
I think LTL carriers will be able to secure the drivers they need. In our case, we'll be able to grow our own. I think that'll be an advantage for us over the next couple of years because I don't think the driver shortage is going anywhere around getting addressed industry-wide trucking-wide across the United States. I think in LTL, we've got the best opportunity to get the drivers we need.
Okay. Maybe talk about the pricing side. You recently implemented your second GRA in 2021. How do you see the pricing environment shaping up for 2022?
Yeah, I've been encouraged with what I've seen from a pricing front, but I'll let Dan speak to the overall pricing piece as he sees it.
Sure. You know, as we mentioned on our Q3 Earnings Call, through October, we continue to see strong pricing trends. Even through November, our contractual renewals, they're still in the range of 10% plus or minus, and that has been very consistent over the past several months. Next week, we plan to issue our Q4 mid-quarter update for October and November, where you'll be able to see the result of those strong pricing trends. You know, in such a tight capacity market, you know, it's so important to ensure pricing reflects the demand for the service that we provide. In the near term, as Darren mentioned, you know, we're leaning into yield growth over tenant growth to help manage through the industry-wide shortage of drivers. That strategy also helps us manage through elevated purchased transportation headwinds.
With demand poised to stay strong and the pricing environment, you know, the way that it is, it looks to remain strong as well and carry into 2022.
Can you guys just talk about the current competitive environment in the less-than-truckload industry? Do you think there's any structural changes plus or minus?
Well, you know, we've seen activity with, you know, Knight-Swift entering the market through the acquisition of AAA, those type things. We've seen, you know, the biggest one this year with TFI acquiring UPS Freight. I like the landscape as we see it. I think the big difference in LTL over my 30-year career in what I've seen the last couple of years is all carriers are much more sophisticated in their pricing and determining what's moving through the system. When you're getting these smaller, you know, 1,000 to 1,500 pound shipments, and you're picking up tens of thousands of them every day and delivering the same, it can be an arduous process to determine what's actually moving through your network. Well, dimensioners have changed all that.
We've got good visibility. We can see that. We can price accordingly. We've always had a good handle on our internal cost. It's just the size and shape of what we're moving, that we didn't have a good view of in the past. That's changed, from the industry as a whole. The landscape as I see it and the high barriers to entry that I mentioned earlier, you know, we might see, further acquisitions take place across the sector just because of the confidence a lot of people have in LTL overall, including myself. I think the overall value proposition to the customer and the positioning of the current players in the industry, with it already being so consolidated, that none of that would have a tremendous impact on the overall progress of the individual carriers.
When you've got a dozen carriers that basically control the entire market and that all those carriers have a good handle on what they're moving through their networks, I just expect to see consistency moving forward and all of us adding capacity either organically or creating capacity by being more efficient. Overall, with the LTL pie expanding like I believe it's going to, I think it's a very good time to be in LTL. With a network like we've got, I think it's a great time to be at Yellow.
Okay. I know in 2024, there's an emissions standard change coming on heavy duty trucks. Are you guys thinking about that in terms of, like, your capacity needs for 2022 and into 2023? You know, people are talking about that's gonna be like $10,000 to $20,000 incremental on the cost. Just your thoughts on, in a tight market, how you're thinking about your capacity needs over the next couple of years.
Well, you know, for guys that's been around it a long time like me, we talk about the deregulation of trucking that happened, you know, 40 years ago. The truth of the matter is we're still, you know, a very heavily regulated industry, and we're quite accustomed to operating within those regulations. We've already got certain states that are much more stringent than others. We have to do things not only with tractors but also with yard equipment, forklifts, those type things to be in compliance. We've got a very large equipment services team to manage a fleet the size of ours. We don't expect any material disruption from those type pieces.
The great thing is, with 20% of our fleet being replaced this year and what the OEMs are doing in that regard, we're in good shape there.
Okay. Earlier this year, the American Rescue Plan was passed to help shore up the multiemployer pension plans. Can you talk about this and the implication it has on Yellow?
Yeah. The big takeaway from there when the American Rescue Plan Act came through is that the multiemployer pension plans and for investors and, Brian, guys like you that are analyzing the markets constantly, the big question was, okay, what happens if a large multiemployer pension plan becomes insolvent? What does that do to the employer? There was a lot of gray areas in that question. What the American Rescue Plan Act did is take away any concern over that. Basically, the multiemployer pension plans are backstopped by the federal government until 2051 and protected from that insolvency risk regardless of the funding of the plan.
For Yellow and mainly, and most importantly, for our employees that we've paid into these funds on behalf of their retirements are protected, and that also takes away the uncertainty for any investors that were to look at our company or other companies that are in multi-employer pension plans. That just takes that investment risk off the table, between now and 2051. I don't know about all those that's watching, but I do know as far as me, I love running this company, and I wanna do it for a long time. When I get a 30-year promise, that's one I can take to the bank.
All right. Thanks for that. Debt levels continue to be top of mind for Yellow. With net debt around four turns of EBITDA, just remind us, like, your plan for bringing down leverage, what your target is over the next couple of years and how you intend to get there?
Yeah, I'll let Dan Olivier address it, but I'll just make this comment. It's something we look at every day. With the performance you've seen, and the staircase of financial improvement that I've talked about on the last two earnings call, that is the number one path to a multitude of options for us in that regard, but I'll let Dan give you some more color.
Yeah. I'll just say that, you know, we don't have any significant debt maturities until 2024. With all of the things that we have going on, our transformation, and as Darren continuously talks about, you know, our staircase to financial performance improvement that will happen between now and there in 2024, we feel comfortable that we're gonna be able to grow into that capital structure much more than where we're at today. That's gonna open up a wide range of options in terms of how to deal with that at that time, whether it's refinancing, whatever those options might be, we have the time and space to execute operationally to grow into that capital structure.
Okay. With that, we're getting close to bumping up on time, so maybe just, I'll leave it to you guys. Is there anything else? You know, what do you think investors are missing about the Yellow story?
Well, when you look at 317 terminals, and us being the second-largest carrier in the space, and also what we're doing with the new equipment, we didn't get to mention some of the egregious leasing that we had in the past that Dan and his team have been able to clear up. We've got a lot of momentum right now, and we've got a market that is hungry for our services. We're positioned well. I think 2022 brings more of the same from a yield opportunity, and then we're planning to turbocharge that with all the new equipment, eliminating the redundancies. As I mentioned, it's certainly a good time to be in LTL, but I think it's a great time to be at Yellow. I'm excited about our story.
Being you know, in the industry 30 years, it is great to see truckers getting the accolades that they are and the way that they're supporting our nation. You know, I'm proud to be at Yellow, and I'm proud to be in the trucking industry. Just thank you so much, Brian, for having us and for everyone that's tuned in. I appreciate your interest in our company.
Thanks for the time, guys. Have a great day, and have a good holiday and stay safe.
Thank you, Brian.