Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) Presents at Morgan Stanley’s 14th Annual Laguna Conference Transcript

Nancy Hipp
Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Next we have Werner Enterprise and very happy to have with us President and CFO, Chris Wikoff, President and CLO Nathan Meisgeier and [indiscernible] Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us. Obviously, the cycle has taken precedence in [indiscernible] So start off by giving us a how [Audio Gap]– where are we right now?

Christopher Wikoff
Executive VP, Treasurer & CFO

[Audio Gap] Over indexing on more recent spot rates being a little bit softer, debate on is that seasonal or is that sub seasonal. It’s a data point. But when we’re talking about rate, we’re really talking about overall blended rate, contractual rates that continue to be high single digits, low double digits in terms of contract renewals.

So all of that is positive. It’s more supply driven. We think that’s going to continue. Enforcement has been multipronged. It’s also maturing. So not to deep dive into that right now. But while it’s supply driven, the freight flows continue to be positive, steady.

We’re seeing higher bid volume and some record highs on bid volume in Dedicated, some continued elevated mini bids in one way as I think shippers are transitioning from spot and evaluating the market and transitioning to more to contract and some of that in-between space. So overall, I think it’s positive. Not much to point to in terms of demand outside some of the tech and data center build-out. But overall, I think the fundamentals are strong