Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and Welcome to The North American Construction Group Earnings Call for the Third Quarter Ending September 30, 2022. At this time, all participants are in listen- only mode. Following the management's prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for analysts, shareholders and bondholders to ask questions. The media may monitor this call in listen- only mode. They are free to quote any members of management, but they are asked not to quote remarks for any other participant without the participant's permission. The company wishes to confirm that today's comments contain forward-looking information and that actual results could differ materially from a conclusion, forecast or projection contained in that forward-looking information.
Certain materials, factors or assumptions were applied in drawing conclusions or in making forecasts or projections that are reflected on forward-looking information. Additional information about those material factors is contained in the company's most recent management discussion and analysis, which is available in SEDAR and EDGAR, as well as on the company's website at nacg.ca. I would now like to turn the conference over to Joe Lambert, President and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Sergio. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. I'm going to start with our Q3 2022 operational performance before handing it over to Jason for the financial overview. I will conclude with the operational priorities, bid pipeline, outlook for 2022, and our first look at 2023 before taking your questions. On slide three, our Q3 trailing 12-month total recordable rate of 0.67 is the same as it was after Q2, but remains above our industry leading target frequency of 0.5. We will be focusing our efforts on further advancing our Green Hand new hire training programs, prevention of high potential injury events, and our winter hazard awareness programs as we enter our busy winter season and continue to add to our workforce.
On slide four, we highlight some of the major achievements of Q3. Most of these topics are discussed in other slides later in the deck, so I would simply summarize that we resolved our Q2 issues, executed well, and are now focused on our winter works program and a safe and efficient closeout of the year. Moving on to slide five. We have added a new slide showing how we have moved away from vendor supported maintenance and continue to develop, attract, and retain our skilled maintenance trades people to improve fleet utilization. NACG has an extensive and comprehensive program to expand both our Acheson and field-based maintenance workforce. We had some slight site setbacks in our programs earlier in the year as we tried to resist unusual and high skilled trades wage increases, but we are back on track and expect to continue the hiring trend.
As this slide clearly shows, we know how to grow our maintenance workforce, and we have been doing this for a long time. We have long understood that the skilled maintenance trades are decreasing in supply, and even when under average demand, the industry cannot supply enough skilled trades people. We have also long known that wage increases often don't increase supply, and that successful companies will develop and train their own. We believe we do this better than anyone else. We would prefer if this was not the case, because if others in the industry will likewise grow their own, we'll all benefit from a more suitable supply of skilled maintenance trades people. Moving on to slide six. We achieved our highest Q3 utilization on record and the demand for our fleet remains high.
The Q3 utilization of 62% was directly correlated to increased maintenance manpower and improved fleet mechanical availability. We expect the high demand to remain into and possibly beyond 2023. We likewise expect our progress on increasing the maintenance labor workforce will directly correlate to continued improvements in fleet utilization. Lastly, on this slide, I would just like to point out that other than the obvious pandemic impacts, our diversification efforts over the last several years had delivered into expectations and demonstrated higher Q2 and Q3 fleet utilization as we have moved the smaller, underutilized portions of our heavy equipment fleet out of oil sands and into other geographies and commodities where they have achieved more operating hours. The diversification now built into the business has removed much of the seasonality and cyclicality seen in previous years.
Slide seven describes our most recent acquisition, and adds further to both our internal and external maintenance capabilities. In addition to welcoming the ML Northern team to the NACG family, I want to acknowledge the strength of skills and abilities this team brings to us. We historically had used ML Northern as a subcontractor when our internal servicing fleet was being stretched beyond capacity. After several years of being an ML Northern customer, we realized they share our safe, low cost culture, and we also realized they're experts at caring for and operating a service fleet. Rather than trying to emulate, we decided we would be better off operating and managing our service fleet through ML Northern and keeping our NACG team focused on the heavy equipment fleet.
ML Northern will continue to perform work for external maintenance customers, but will also take on the operations and maintenance of the full NACG fleet of support equipment for servicing of the NACG heavy equipment fleet. The initial integration of ML Northern has been seamless, and we expect to have the full NACG service fleet under ML Northern management over the next few months. I am excited about the benefits we believe ML Northern can bring to our business and look forward to sharing those achievements with you in more detail on our next call. On slide eight, my final slide before handing over to Jason, I just wanted to highlight the open and honest discussions with our oil sands customers regarding cost escalation. These conversations result in what we believe are fair and equitable contractual amendments.
These client relationships are cornerstone to our business in all commodity and geographic areas we work, but were developed, tested, and proven strong many times over a half a century working right here in Alberta oil sands. On the lower half of the slide, I also wanted to highlight that our Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project, which just broke ground this past quarter, is on track with original cost, schedule, and margins. The project is less than 5% complete, and we're excited to be ramping up and heading to our first full operating year. With that, I'll hand it over to Jason for the Q3 financials.
Thanks, Joe. This quarter's financial review begins on slide 10 with a few of our key performance indicators. Combined revenue of CAD 270 million represented the highest level of revenue this company has ever had in a quarter, and is a noticeable increase from the last three quarters revenue, which were each around CAD 235 million. This revenue has culminated with trailing twelve combined revenue now exceeding CAD 950 million, and is closing in on a target we've set of exceeding CAD 1 billion. From a gross margin perspective, we realized 14.7% based on the improved context that Joe touched on and is much discussed throughout this quarter's materials. Getting started with slide 11. On a total combined basis, revenue was 30% ahead of Q3 2021. which is a recurring variance percentage throughout our financial metrics.
Revenue generated by our core heavy equipment fleet was up 18% quarter-over-quarter, with the driver of this increase being equitable contributions from higher equipment and unit rates, as well as improved equipment utilization. Equipment and unit rates were updated in the quarter to reflect the specific inflationary cost pressures being experienced in the Fort McMurray region. Equipment operating hours and the associated operational headcount were both up 10% in the quarter and yielded utilization of 62%, which was significantly higher than Q3 2021 utilization of 52%. The month of September was particularly strong and provides good momentum heading into the fourth quarter. Vacancy rates related to the heavy equipment technician roles have lowered with net new hires of approximately 50 in the past three months, which was the primary factor in the overall equipment utilization achieved.
The other wholly owned business lines, primarily being DGI Trading and the external sale of rebuilt haul trucks, each posted strong revenue in the quarter consistent with Q3 2021. Our share of revenue generated by joint ventures was CAD 78 million compared to CAD 43 million in Q3 2021. Nuna Group of Companies had its best financial quarter on record, driven by the activity at the gold mine in Northern Ontario, as well as the core businesses operating at better than historic levels. Secondary drivers of the increase in combined revenue include the continued growth of top-line revenue from rebuilt ultra-class haul trucks now being owned by our joint venture with the Mikisew, and the increasingly important impact of the joint ventures dedicated to the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project.
The groundbreaking ceremony and official start of construction work occurred in the quarter and ramp up of activities is underway with the project currently at less than 5% complete and remaining on budget and schedule in this early phase of the project. Combined gross profit margin of 14.7% was much improved from the 9.6% we posted last quarter, Q2 2022, and reflected strong operational performance in the quarter as our primary operations in Fort McMurray, Northern Canada, and Northern Ontario experienced predictable and productive weather conditions for the majority of the quarter. Our joint ventures continued their trend of strong, consistent operating margins, and the updated equipment and unit rates were drivers for the Fort McMurray operations returning to historical margin performance.
Margins realized from the parts and component sales made by DGI contributed to margin stability when compared to Q3 2021, given the acquisition occurred on July 1 of last year. The Second Life Rebuild program commissioned and sold two 240-ton haul trucks and one ultra-class haul truck during the quarter. Before closing this slide out, I would like to take the opportunity to point stakeholders to page M7 of our MD&A, in which we provide a functional breakdown of our cost of sales. There is useful information in that table, and we expect to utilize this moving forward to message and explain the cost profile of our business. Moving to slide 12.
Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 60 million was easily a Q3 record and virtually matched our company record of CAD 61 million. As the 30% revenue increase translated to a 26% EBITDA increase on steady margins previously mentioned. Included in EBITDA is general and administrative expenses, which were CAD 6.6 million in the quarter, equivalent to 3.4% of the strong revenue quarter. As always, we pride ourselves on G&A discipline, and Q3 was no different. Going from EBITDA to EBIT, we expensed depreciation equivalent to 10.6% of combined revenue, which reflects the depreciation rate of our entire business. When looking at just the wholly owned entities, the depreciation percentage for the quarter was 13.8% of revenue and reflected an extremely effective use of our fleet this quarter.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of CAD 0.65 was 30% up from Q3 2021, as the revenue increase translated all the way down to net income. EPS was driven by CAD 30.7 million of adjusted EBIT net of interest and taxes. Our overall interest rate to date is now 5.1% as we trend up from the 2021 effective rate of 4.3% from well-known interest rate increases. Our credit facility, which currently sits at CAD 180 million drawn and made up approximately 42% of our total debt, is directly impacted by rate increases. We expect debt levels to decrease in Q4 based on our projected free cash flow generation. Moving to slide 13, I'll summarize our cash flow.
Net cash provided by operations of CAD 40 million was produced by the business, with the difference between this figure and the CAD 60 million of EBITDA being cash interest paid in the quarter of CAD 6.9 million and the timing of joint venture cash distributions in relation to the quarterly EBITDA they generate. Sustaining maintenance capital of CAD 31 million was primarily dedicated to maintenance of the existing fleet as we invest in the fleet that drives our core business. Working capital was required in the quarter and is fully expected to reverse in the fourth quarter. I'll end with slide 14. Total capital liquidity of CAD 162 million reflects the importance of our credit facility in getting through the challenges that come with being a heavy equipment contractor.
On a trailing twelve-month basis, our senior leverage ratio, as calculated by our credit facility, remained fairly steady at 1.7 times, but which we expect will be the high watermark for the year. Net debt levels increased CAD 16 million in the quarter as break-even free cash flow of CAD 3 million was more than offset by the purchase and cancellation of 1.1 million shares for CAD 15.8 million in the quarter. With those financial comments, I'll pass the call back to Joe.
Thanks, Jason. Looking at slide 16, this slide summarizes our priorities for 2023. I have previously discussed our commitments to increase our skilled trades shown in item four, but wanted to highlight the other three areas that will be particularly important to progress in 2023. The first area of focus and core to our culture and values is our ongoing efforts to ensure each and every one of our employees returns home safely at the end of every workday. Although we have an extensive health and safety management system and multiple initiatives for improvements, far too extensive to go into depth here today, we feel our growing workforce requiring increased new hires and an industry supply lower in experience will be best served with an increased focus on further developing our frontline supervision and expanding our Green Hand training programs.
The second area prioritizes continued expansion of our operational and maintenance expertise. We will prioritize new technologies such as our telematics system, which is now installed on half of the fleet with the remaining fleet installs scheduled for 2023, and continuing to in-house and vertically integrate our maintenance services and supply, such as the previously mentioned ML Northern acquisition and our component remanufacturing business with the newly expanded facility and added large hydraulic cylinder rebuild capabilities. We believe this prioritization and focus will continue to lower costs and improve equipment availability and utilization. Last but not least, item three describes our prioritizing of winning bids and achieving our target of greater than CAD 2 billion in backlog by end of next year, which is a great transition to our next slide 17.
Slide 17 highlights a net increase of around CAD 600 million to our already strong bid pipeline. In Q3, we also received RFPs, bid and were awarded several winter projects in oil sands totaling around CAD 100 million, which never showed up on this list and essentially have us fully booked through winter. We continue to expect to win our fair share of the large Red Dot regional oil sands tender, but believe this scope award is delayed or possibly scheduled for re-tender next year, although we have not heard so formally. Lastly, we believe we will see another meaningful Blue Dot win outside of oil sands over this winter, which will continue our diversification success and potentially offer some upside to our forecasted smaller fleet 2023 utilization.
On slide 18, our backlog sits at CAD 1.5 billion, and we continue to replenish and win our fair share of work across all resource sectors. What I continue to believe is a key takeaway on this slide is that our backlog is roughly proportionate to our diversification target, demonstrating both confidence and sustainability of our diversification efforts. Lastly, on backlog, I'd previously stated expectations of exceeding CAD 2 billion before the year is out. With the assumed deferral of the Regional Oil Sands tender award, which was the driver of that expected increase, we have likewise deferred our expectations to next year. On slide 19, we have provided our revised outlook for 2022.
With our strong Q3 results, progress on priorities, Q3 tender wins, and focus on a safe and efficient close to the year, we have been able to increase the midpoint for almost all of our key financial metrics. A bit of free cash flow was deferred into the new year, predominantly due to work expanded and extended at our Northern Ontario Goldmine JV with Nuna. We made what we believe were high-value investments in growth through the acquisition of ML Northern and in shareholder-friendly buybacks, which we see as complete for the year and will direct the remaining expected free cash flow to deleveraging. On slide 20, we have provided our initial outlook for 2023.
As stated in my letter to shareholders, we expect some pressure on earnings and free cash flow due to increased interest rates, but are pleased to show continued annual EBITDA growth coming out of a record expected combined revenue of over CAD 1 billion. Free cash flow between CAD 85 million and CAD 105 million continues to show the strength of our business, and we are eager to continue the trend, execute the 2023 work safely and effectively, and continue to profitably grow and diversify our business. Regarding 2023 capital allocation, we continue to assess our options in light of market and other macro conditions, and we'll provide our expected outlook in more detail on our next call.
In closing, I would just like to thank our fantastic NACG employees, partners, and clients for all your efforts and support in helping us achieve these record third quarter financial results in a challenging economic environment characterized by high cost inflation and increasing interest rates. With that, I'll open up for any questions you may have.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw your question, you can press star two. Once you have completed your questions and would like to return to the queue, please press star one. After a response, we'll begin the Q&A. Your first question comes from Aaron MacNeil from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey. Morning, guys. I know, Joe, you just said you'd speak to it on the next call, but you know, at a high level, in terms of where your head's at on capital allocation next year, I mean, you've already blown through the NCIB pretty quickly. Leverage ratios are pretty good. You're guiding to, you know, a good chunk of free cash flow next year. I guess I'm wondering, you know, what are gonna be the priorities? Like, have you considered a dividend increase to make the yield a bit more competitive in the context of rising interest rates, special dividends, more acquisitions, organic growth, debt reduction, SIBs? Like, I know it's a broad question, but I guess I'm trying to just gauge where your head's at.
Yeah. Appreciate the question, Aaron MacNeil. I agree that, you know, our dividends are probably less meaningful in this high interest rate environment and what we think should be an increasing share price environment. We'll certainly be reviewing that. We have two board meetings between now and our next call, actually. You know, when it comes to M&A or growth, we're always just looking at what that accretion and return is versus other opportunities. You know, our share price relative to our value assessment is gonna drive whether we look at NCIBs or SIBs or otherwise. And then looking at those dividends as far as whether we think it's meaningful and what we need to do to adjust them if so. You know, I don't have a direct answer.
I'd tell you that, you know, when we have these discussions with our board, we try and be very tangible about how we measure it and not be emotional and compare what opportunities are there at the time or that we see coming, be it M&A growth or looking at dividend or other shareholder-friendly activities. I know it's not a direct answer to you, but that's probably the best I can do right now. You know, this quarter is a big one for us because this is where we get our cash flow. Getting all that cash flow in and then figuring out what to do with it, that's our focus over the next couple months here.
Fair enough. That was about as good as answer as I was expecting. Maybe I'll ask something a bit, you know, more tangible. As it relates to the, you know, ongoing inflationary pressures and your increased equipment and unit rates, it's obviously great to see that you were able to resolve those issues with your customers in an equitable way. I guess I'm wondering, you know, where's your head at in terms of, you know, inflationary pressures today? Like, are they still there? And what levers do you have now with those amendments to prevent, you know, future margin contraction that we saw earlier this year?
I think the inflationary pressures we're seeing now and what we would expect to see over the next six months or a year, I think will be captured in our escalation clauses and our normal indices. If we see something unusual like we saw in wage escalations in Fort McMurray, you know, we now have a precedent and a template to address it, be it escalation or de-escalation. I think we're in a very good spot. I think you know, just having clear, open, honest communications with clients where no one's trying to, you know, hide things or trying to benefit off of something, then, you know, I feel very comfortable going forward, regardless of whether, you know, future inflation is covered under indices or not. I think we're in a great spot for that.
Okay, fair enough. Maybe I'll sneak one more in. I know you covered the Fargo-Moorhead margin expectations in your prepared remarks. Like, do you think we'll start to see, or will it be material enough that, you know, you'll be able to prove out your expectation in Q4? Or do you think we have to wait for Q1 or Q2 to really see kind of the full run rate impact and that project is kind of tracking as you expected?
You know, typical for us would be, we have to be kind of in the 10%-20% complete range before we even start looking at reanalyzing or going into real depth of reforecasting. Just because, you know, right now, we're less than 5%, and I don't even think we get much beyond that before the end of the year. You know, I doubt we'll see any updates until likely this time next year.
Okay. No, that's fair. Great. Well, I will turn it over. Thanks for taking the questions.
Thanks, Aaron.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Yuri Lynk from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys.
Morning, Yuri.
Joe, did the updated rates impact the full quarter or just the tail end?
It's the full quarter there. You know, without getting into details of it's, you know, there was going back to when we submitted things, we had adjustments, but we had accrued some of that. It, you know, it affected the whole quarter, regardless of how the amendment works out technically.
Okay. Just on the bid pipeline, can you provide any more detail on the large Blue Dot that is gonna be awarded sometime this winter? Just in terms of, is it another mine or is it on the construction infrastructure side?
It's a North American gold mine contract.
Okay. Last one, just for Jason. I did have some trouble getting to 2023 EPS from the midpoint of EBITDA. Can you just share with me what your interest expense assumption is for next year and also if you're gonna be paying cash taxes next year?
Yeah. We're right around 6% of a cost to capital assumption for next year all in. That should be, you know, with our debt coming down in this quarter and then similarly next year that Q4 would be the quarter to pay down debt. No cash taxes next year yet. We're projecting 2024 for cash taxes at this point and continue to manage that. Free cash flow is not impacted by any cash taxes next year.
The 6%, you're saying that's gonna be your effective,
Yeah, effective rate over all of our debt. Yeah, that's right. Which includes the convertible debentures and capital leasing and the credit facility.
Okay. Okay, maybe I'll follow up with you offline. Seems a bit low. Yeah, otherwise, good quarter, and I'll get back in the queue. Thanks.
Thanks, Yuri.
Thanks, Yuri.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Monachello from ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hey, good morning, guys.
Morning, Tim.
Morning, Tim.
The implied guidance for 2022 implies a pretty wide range for Q4. I'm just wondering if you could describe the levers that could get you to the upper end, what gets you to the bottom end of that range?
Mostly it's weather and operational. You know, it's the sooner it freezes, the better we're off usually. You know, typically, by the end of the first week or so of November, you start freezing day and night. You know, the weather plays a lot to do with it because our dance card is full. It's just a matter of whether we get started earlier or run later kind of thing. It's no different than kind of spring breakup. You know, the earliest it actually freezes and stays frozen and we don't have freeze-thaw events, the better off we are. That's really what drives a lot of it more than anything else, Tim.
Okay. I guess same question for 2023, the guidance there.
As far as what's driving the, you know, I think the
Yeah. Like, what do they take you at the top end? What would it take you at the bottom end?
A lot of it is our equipment utilization and mechanical availability that we're looking at and the opportunity side of that. We also have fleet coming out of our Ontario gold mine joint venture with Nuna. We've assumed a pretty modest amount of hours on that fleet and remobilization. There's some upside in that, especially with one of those big blue dots would fit that really well. So, you know, the upper end of the range, everything's driven by utilization. The upper end of the range is winning more work that has better utilization on the smaller fleet and gaining better mechanical availability out of our fleet.
The upper end of the range would include winning some of these bigger projects on slide 17? Is that correct?
No. It's kind of more of a that those assets return to the lower utilization of oil sands use. If we get one of the bigger Blue Dots, then we'd actually improve on that.
Okay. Got it.
So the-
Sorry, go ahead.
It's more driven by the fleet utilization, the mechanical availability. You know, we see extremely strong demand, so it's keeping the equipment running to feed that demand.
Got it. It's a good segue into my next question, which is just around slide 17. You've got a big Blue Dot in the active tender phase, which looks like it could commence before year end. That, you know, I don't think that showed up in the last presentation from the previous quarter. Can you talk a little bit about, I guess, your near-term opportunities that we might be well-positioned for?
Actually that Blue Dot is the goldmine I was speaking of, and that has a spring of 2023 start. What we're anticipating in that. I'm pretty sure this chart shows when we expect the award, not necessarily when the start date of the project is. We should probably look at how we represent that because it's difficult to do both. This has actually been re-scoped and re-tendered a couple of times. We think this is the final one, and we expect to know in the next few months with a, you know, kind of an April/May kind of start in 2023.
Okay, got it. Good quarter, guys. I'll turn it back.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Maxim Sytchev from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, gentlemen.
Morning, Max.
Max.
I had a quick question in terms of the unit rates. I know you addressed that it sort of impacted the full quarter, but there was no catch-up dynamic, I guess, right? Like, the margin that we're seeing, it's not like you didn't benefit from the previous two quarters sort of low rates that materialized in Q3. Is that an accurate way to think about it?
Yeah.
You can comment on it?
Absolutely. Yeah. There was no recognition in Q3 beyond what we did in Q3.
Okay, perfect. Thanks for clarifying. The other question I had just around, I suppose the need for the guidance sort of so early, and for 2023, I mean. I guess in terms of the level of confidence in having these numbers out so early, do you mind maybe just providing a bit of sort of the rationale in terms of how you and the board approached the budgeting process for 2023? Thanks.
Yeah. Actually, we've done this at this time for the last few years, Max. You know, I don't think it's unusual for us to provide our initial outlook. We do actually. This is our budgeting season. Our next board meeting will be to review that budget, and these numbers reflect that work that we've done. This is really just part of our normally scheduled reviews that we do. Once we get our kind of 2023 budget, in the range we believe it's accurate, we put it out with our Q3 results. These are what we expect to be in our budget documents that we bring to our board here in about three weeks.
Right. No, I guess, I mean, it is, you know, perhaps a bit more of a fluid, you know, environment, maybe relative to what we would have seen in the past. Yeah, just was curious to see what was the thought process there.
Yeah. We have a lot more kind of in the books kind of work than we used to have years ago. I think the fact that we can see that backlog and we know this work very well gives us a lot more comfort in doing this. You know, I'd say really the only kind of estimating or we were doing here was in that fleet coming out of Ontario and whether we get a nice big Blue Dot to roll directly into or not. You know, generally, we're fairly conservative on those assumptions.
Excellent. That's helpful. Last quick question, just in terms of the labor costs, I mean, should we assume that we're seeing some, you know, moderation in terms of, you know, wages as you know, ramp up, hiring? I don't know if you can, you know, quantify or maybe directionally speaking, like if we're, you know, probably up versus last year, still kind of on a rolling basis, but probably kind of down versus the peak. Maybe just any directionality there. Thanks.
Yeah. You know, we really haven't seen any unusual wage increases outside of what we saw for maintenance personnel in Fort McMurray. You know, I think we're still in those typical, you know, 2% to kind of 4% years. Maybe inflation will push us to the higher end of that. You know, our operator wages and our normal wages are really never an issue. Because our escalation clause is tied directly to our union contracts. You know, where we had issues were in maintenance wages because they're actually covered off in equipment costs, not in your normal operating wages. And we believe that's pretty much, you know, come to a head and we got a pretty good idea where that's going. You know, I don't think we see anything unusual as far as wage escalations going forward.
More just looking at availability of people and focusing on the fact that, you know, our training side and the fact that we're probably gonna have more or less experienced people than we've had in the past, so that we need to really focus on our training and development of that frontline supervision and those new hires.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. That's it for me.
Thanks, Max.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one. Your next question comes from Bryan Fast from Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning, guys.
Morning, Bryan.
Just what were some of the key drivers in attracting talent in the quarter? I mean, that's a pretty large step up. Maybe are those technicians coming from outside of the region, or is it just a matter of shifting from some of your competitors?
We're getting quite a bit of outside. You know, we've got a pretty innovative process, especially when it comes to maintenance personnel. You know, we've attracted apprentices at all levels, from entry-level to you know, guys that were light vehicle or medium duty kind of mechanics and getting them back to get their heavy duty certifications. You know, I'm extremely pleased and proud of our HR efforts in bringing in mechanics and bringing in apprentices, bringing in what we call direct service providers, which are kinda individual contractors that we hire into the business. It's a mechanic and a truck. You know, even our vendors. We've added a significant amount to our vendors, where historically our you know, our OEM dealers haven't been able to adjust much.
You know, we've brought in 30-odd people from outside vendors. Talking about my shareholder letter that, you know, from as far away as Australia. You know, both building our own, attracting others, looking in new places. We'll continue doing all that and I believe we'll be successful. Really what held us back was we didn't feel a need to raise wages back in the earlier part of the year because we know it doesn't increase people by just raising wages.
But unfortunately, at some point, you start losing people to those higher wages, and you need to adjust. Our adjustment was we adjust our wages to where the market was at the time. We couldn't resist that any longer. You know, we don't try and pay over market. We pay market rates, and we try and attract based on the quality of our programs and what we can do for employees.
Thanks. That's good color. I just wanna get some more color on the rebuild program. Have you now completed the order for MN ALP? Maybe could you talk about the level of interest you're seeing from maybe some of your clients on rebuilds and remanufacturing?
You know, we've completed. Today, I think we have one more truck that we're doing for an MN A LP, our joint venture. We continue to look at. They're great opportunities for us when we can find these core machines and rebuild them for, you know, 40% less than the new ones are. They're great value to MN A LP. It'd be great value if we could market them externally. I think our kind of limiting factor on this is we wanna make sure we do our own maintenance first. There's high value to us in that utilization when our demand is high. You know, it's a real balance to make sure we get all of our own gear running before we start fixing or building somebody else's.
Okay, thanks. I appreciate it. That's it from me.
Thanks, Bryan.
Thanks, Bryan.
There's Sergio.
Okay, Mr. Lambert, it looks like there are no further questions. I would like to turn the conference over to you again, Mr. Joe Lambert, President and CEO, for closing remarks.
Thanks, Sergio, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Really appreciate your time. Look forward to talking to you next time.
Thank you. This concludes the North American Construction Group Q3 2022 conference call.