Hub Group - Q2 2016
July 26, 2016
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Hello, and welcome to the Hub Group's Second Quarter 2016 earnings conference call. Dave Yeager, Hub's CEO, Don Maltby, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Terri Pizzuto, our CFO, are joining me on the call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. In order for everyone to have an opportunity to participate, please limit your inquiries to one primary and one follow-up question. Any forward-looking statements made during the course of the call represent our best good faith and judgment as to what may happen in the future. Statements that are forward-looking can be identified by the use of words such as believe, expect, anticipate, and project. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in those forward-looking statements. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Dave Yeager. You may now begin.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in Hub Group's second quarter earnings call. I'm joined today by Donald Maltby, Hub's President and Chief Operating Officer, and Terri Pizzuto, our Chief Financial Officer. We had strong financial results in the second quarter, despite a soft freight environment. All of our business lines contributed to the earnings growth as we continue to press forward with segment-specific initiatives. Our corporate development initiative continues to have good traction as we're exploring several potential acquisition targets. There are some very interesting opportunities that would assist Hub in diversifying our service offerings while adding earnings and bringing strategic value. Now I'll review the details of our intermodal business. The increased profitability of intermodal occurred despite a slight decline of 3% in consolidated intermodal volume. Sequentially, June was intermodal's best month, increasing by 1.5% year-over-year.
In fact, the last week of June was the second-largest intermodal volume week in Hub history. The improvement is the result of bid awards, marketing initiatives, and reaping the benefits of our operational realignment. For the second quarter, Local Lease volume was down 11%, Local West was flat, and Transcon was up 6%. Despite the volume decline in the second quarter, we are still forecasting 2%-4% volume growth for the full year. We continue to realize benefits from our realigned intermodal operations and account management group. Our on-time performance with our customers was up 560 basis points year-over-year, while our accessorial costs were reduced by over 51%. The pricing environment continues to be very competitive.
However, intermodal's gross margin was up 14% as a result of modest price increases, coupled with the significant improvements that we've seen in reducing our operating expenses. Rail service continues to be very strong. For the second quarter, rail on-time performance improved 25% on a year-over-year basis and 1% sequentially. Fleet turns improved half a day to 14.6 days on average. GPA installations in our container fleet, now at 90%, will help us make yet further improvements with our fleet turns. Hub's current fleet size is 28,500 containers. We previously stated that we intend to acquire 4,000 containers this year, of which 3,300 will be replacements and 700 additions to the fleet.
As a result of our most recent award activity, we've increased our container order by 2,000 units, bringing our total to 6,000 for this year. The additional 2,000 containers will allow us to meet the increased demands of our customers and provide excellent service. With that, I'll pass the call over to Don to go through the specifics of our other business segments.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Thank you, Dave. Good afternoon, everyone. We are very pleased with the quarter results as we continue to focus on areas of growth, margin enhancement, internal efficiencies, and overall performance across all our business lines. This quarter, we again made several service level improvements and can report that we have the highest on-time performance in our company's history. With our improved service levels, combined with a better-aligned sales and account management structure, we are seeing an increase in our multimodal account onboardings and an increased share of wallet with our existing customers. Our multimodal account management teams are still on pace to have the majority of our business under one model by the end of the year, with full implementation scheduled for the first and second quarter of 2017.
Our focused approach has delivered the results we are seeing now as we remain steadfast in our efforts to take costs from our network while improving our overall service levels. We will continue to focus on our overall growth strategy, while at the same time looking at operating efficiencies and margin enhancement opportunities. Now let's talk about the business lines. Truck brokerage. Our truck brokerage division grew volume by 2% in the quarter, in spite of a challenging market and overall sluggish demand. The focus remains on strategic customers for targeted multimodal growth opportunities and integrated value-added services to our customers. During the quarter, we continued to add a number of core carriers to our portfolio for specific markets to strengthen our network capacity. We believe we will continue to see a challenging marketplace for the remainder of the year.
However, we are well positioned for growth and opportunities. Unyson. During the quarter, Logistics revenue declined by 1%, which was anticipated due to softer volumes from our key customers. However, it continued to deliver strong net results due to improved internal efficiencies and mix of customers, along with improved network solutions to support our growing customer base. The revenue decline for the quarter was due to softer volumes from our key customers. Our logistics service offering remains strong and is poised for growth contributions in the second half of the year. The pipeline of new business is robust, and the second half of the year will benefit from multiple onboardings. In addition to the new onboardings, we remain focused on expanding our solutions with our existing customers to improve overall yield and provide cost efficiencies for our customers.
Finally, we continue to onboard new customers onto our new TMS technology platform that will further strengthen our logistics service offering. Mode. Although overall revenue was down by 1%, Mode Transportation generated solid volume growth for the quarter of 4.1%. In spite of the overall decline in revenue, Mode's truck brokerage volume grew by 18% for the quarter due to a new multimodal onboarded customer, along with an increased cross-selling across their network. Our team remains focused on delivering operational excellence with our new customer onboardings while driving results for the remainder of the year. Finally, during the quarter, 1 new IBO was added to the network, along with 12 new salespeople, and our pipeline for new IBOs remains strong.
We believe that Mode's volume growth and expansion of its sales force in the second quarter leave it well positioned to capitalize when freight capacity tightens and freight levels recover in coming months. Now I'll turn it over to Terri to go over the financials.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Thanks, Don, and hello, everyone. As usual, I'd like to highlight three points. First, despite the tough freight market, we had an outstanding quarter, with 16% income growth contributing to our best-ever second quarter earnings per share. By the end of the quarter, we'd completed 85% of our $100 million share repurchase authorization. And third, as expected, we continue to see a challenging environment for intermodal volume and pricing. Here are the key numbers for the second quarter. Hub Group's revenue decreased 5% to $856 million, primarily due to lower fuel revenue. Hub Group's diluted earnings per share increased 20% to $0.61. Now I'll discuss details for the quarter, starting with the financial performance of the Hub segment. The Hub segment generated revenue of $649 million, which is a 6% decline compared to last year.
Taking a look at the business lines, Intermodal revenue was down 6%. This decline was due to lower fuel revenue and a 2% decrease in Intermodal loads. Price was up, partly offsetting the decline. The volume decline was driven by a 7% decrease in loads from consumer products customers and a 3% decrease in loads from retail customers. These decreases were partially offset by a 20% increase in loads from automotive customers. Truck Brokerage revenue was down 11%. Truck Brokerage handled 2% more loads, but fuel mix and price combined were down 13%. Logistics revenue decreased 1%, due mostly to lower fuel revenue. We're excited about new customer onboardings and expect strong revenue growth in Logistics in the back half of the year. Hub's gross margin increased by $10.9 million or 15%.
Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 12.8%, or 230 basis points higher than the second quarter of 2015. Gross margin increased in all three of Hub's business lines. Intermodal gross margin increased because of price increases, improved accessorial management, better utilization, and lower dray costs. Rail cost increases partially offset some of this improvement. These same factors drove a 210 basis point improvement in intermodal gross margin as a percentage of sales. Truck brokerage margin increased because of growth with targeted customer accounts. Truck brokerage gross margin as a percentage of sales was up 320 basis points due to value-added services and better purchasing. Logistics gross margin increased due to growth with new and existing customers.
Logistics gross margin as a percentage of sales was up 250 basis points due to improved customer mix, operational efficiencies, and more cost-effective purchasing. Sequentially, compared to the first quarter of 2016, the Hub segment gross margin as a percentage of sales decreased 40 basis points. Intermodal gross margin deteriorated 90 basis points, while truck brokerage increased 40 basis points and logistics increased 100 basis points. Hub's costs and expenses increased $5.7 million-$55.8 million in the second quarter of 2016, compared to $50.1 million in 2015. This increase relates to a $4.5 million increase in salaries and benefits, and a $1 million increase in general and administrative expense. Salaries and benefits are up due to higher headcount, annual employee raises, and an increase in bonus expense.
General and administrative costs are higher because of an increase in IT costs, including costs for our new transportation management and human resource systems and satellite tracking. Finally, operating margin for the Hub segment was 4.2%, which was 100 basis points higher than last year's 3.2%. Now I'll talk about our Mode segment financial performance. Mode's revenue was $232 million, which is down 1% from last year, due primarily to lower fuel revenue. The revenue breaks down as $117 million in Intermodal, which was down 1%, $81 million in Truck Brokerage, which was down 2%, and $34 million in Logistics, which was up 2%. Mode's gross margin increased $1.8 million year-over-year due to growth in Truck Brokerage. Truck Brokerage loads increased 18%, primarily due to growth with existing customers.
Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 13.5%, compared to 12.6% last year, due to a 260 basis point improvement in Truck Brokerage yields as a result of purchasing more cost effectively. Mode's total costs and expenses increased $2.2 million compared to last year, primarily because of an increase in agent commissions. Operating margin for Mode was 3.1%, compared to 3.2% last year. Turning now to our headcount for Hub Group. We had 1,671 employees, excluding drivers, at the end of June. That's up 33 people from the end of March. Now I'll discuss what we expect for this year. We believe that our 2016 diluted earnings per share will range from $2.20-$2.35. This guidance excludes one-time costs in the first quarter and includes the impact of expected share repurchases.
We expect that utilization in 2016 will be about half a day better than 2015. We project gross margin as a percentage of sales for the second half of the year to range from 12%-12.5%. We believe that our quarterly costs and expenses will range between $85 million and $87 million. Here are the levers to get to the high end of our EPS guidance. In Logistics, we have some significant new business awards and deals in the pipeline that could provide upside to our forecast if they come to fruition. In Intermodal, the opportunities are exceeding our goals on cost savings initiatives, customer bid awards fully materializing, and a robust peak season. In Truck Brokerage, we'd have upside if we can maintain the yields we had in the first half of the year. Turning now to our balance sheet and how we used our cash.
We ended the quarter with $164 million in cash and $145 million in debt, including capitalized leases. We spent $20 million on capital expenditures this quarter for containers, IT projects, and satellite tracking. This brings year-to-date total capital expenditures to $25 million. In 2016, we expect to purchase 6,000 containers and 25 tractors. By the end of June, we'd received 1,500 containers that were financed with debt. We intend to fund the purchase of the remaining 4,500 containers and the tractors with debt. We're also investing in technology projects, including transportation management and human resource systems and satellite tracking. Capital expenditures are expected to range from $95 million-$105 million for the year. And finally, to wrap it up on a positive note, through the end of June, we purchased 2,305,874 shares of stock for $85 million, completing 85% of our share repurchase authorization.
We intend to aggressively execute on the $15 million that remains on the authorization. Dave, over to you for closing remarks.
David Yeager (CEO)
Great. Thank you, Terri. In conclusion, we're very pleased with our second quarter results. Yet again, every business line contributed to the earnings growth. We believe that we're well positioned for growth in the second half as we continue to drive out unnecessary costs and gain market share. With that, we'll open up the line for any questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press the pound sign or the hash key. If you're using a speakerphone, you may need to pick up the handset first before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one on your touchtone phone. Standing by for questions. Ben Hartford is on the line. Please go ahead.
Speaker 6
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. I guess I mentioned your take here and now on the intermodal side. Obviously, the bulk of the bid season is done, so maybe a two-part question. First, what would you estimate the market is running right now in terms of pricing growth on a year-over-year basis as we get into July first? And second, what are your expectations for 2016's peak season?
David Yeager (CEO)
Okay, great. Ben, I can answer that. This is Dave. You know, from a pricing growth perspective in the latter half of the year, you're right, we are about 70% of the way done with the bid season. A couple major bids are coming. We'll know the status of that in the next week or so. I would say, you know, we're looking at flattish. It's slightly up, it's slightly down. We're not seeing. We continue to see a lot of competitive pressures downward overall with pricing. So, we're not anticipating that, in fact, we're going to see much upside from a pricing perspective this year.
From a peak perspective, I think it depends upon if we look at it for the industry, we think it's gonna be flattish. We don't think that there's going to be a tremendous peak season this year. From Hub's perspective, we do expect a very strong peak. That is why we made the decision for the additional 2,000 containers. And, as we said in the prepared remarks, that's mainly just due to the recent awards, and we anticipate a very strong second half from an intermodal volume perspective.
Speaker 6
Okay, good. Then, Terri, just to clarify, when you talk about aggressively executing what's left on the share repurchase, is it safe to assume that you'll have that done by the end of the third quarter?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
That's a good assumption. Yep.
Speaker 6
Great. Thank you.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Justin Long. Please go ahead.
Speaker 7
Thanks, and good afternoon. Dave, I just wanted to ask about your strategic approach to this bid season. That was clearly a very challenging and competitive environment. It seems like you were a little bit more focused on growing market share with certain shippers, and this seems to be a change versus the strategy over the last couple of years, where you were more willing to lose business due to price. Is that a fair assessment of your strategy shift? And if so, can you just talk about the rationale behind this change?
David Yeager (CEO)
Justin, you're spot on. We were very focused on specific clients and specific markets where we felt as though we had either a competitive advantage or we had a lot of velocity that would we be able to sustain business at a decent margin, candidly, at a lower price. So that was our focus. I think that in the past, we were too focused on just raw gross margin and margin per unit with each. So I think this more focused approach is going to allow us to grow this year, our volume, while also, at the same point in time, be able to increase our margins overall.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Right.
David Yeager (CEO)
In addition to that, we also, with our realignment, what put us in such a good position to do that is we've been able to take out a lot of unnecessary operating expenses. Obviously, from the salary numbers that Terri read off, it's not from headcount reduction, it's from taking out costs such as railroad accessorial, storage, detention, this type of thing, which just took an operational focus, in order to be able to reduce them substantially.
Speaker 7
Mm-hmm.
David Yeager (CEO)
You're right on target as far as how we changed and why we changed is we are of the conclusion you cannot shrink to prosperity. If you select the markets and the clients to grow with, that you can grow volume while at the same time enhancing margins.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, network balance is of critical importance, so that's why Dave talked about the markets. And the other areas where volume helped is improving our empty miles, so that we have more loaded miles, and it helps with utilization.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Yeah, Justin, I would just add that it's a disciplined approach to the market. We did not take a broad-brush cut prices. We took a, we knew the pressure that's out in the marketplace, and we selectively targeted markets and customers to be able to grow the business.
Speaker 7
Okay, great. That's all really helpful color. And maybe secondly, these are probably more questions for Terri, but a couple on the guidance. Is there any color you could provide on the expectations that you have for gross margins in the Hub segment, specifically in the back half of the year? And then overall, when we look at the EPS guidance, could you speak to the cadence between the third and the fourth quarter? Should it be split pretty evenly, or could some of the pricing pressure late in the bid season pressure four Q EPS a little bit more than three Q?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Sure. In terms of the Hub segment gross margin as a percentage of sales for the last half of the year, we'd expect it to be between 11.3% and 11.8%. And in terms of the cadence of gross margin as a percentage of sales, is that what you're asking, Justin, for the consolidated group?
Speaker 7
Well, it was actually more on EPS, but if you have the answer for consolidated gross margins as well, that would be helpful.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, in terms of the consolidated, you know, gross margins, we're expecting them to be about the same in Q3 and Q4, in terms of the gross margin as a percentage of sales or the yield. In terms of what our operating income is going to be, we would expect operating income to be lower in the last half of the year than it was in the last half of 2015.
Speaker 7
Okay. But between the third and fourth quarter, should it be pretty even? It sounds like at least from a margin standpoint, looking at consolidated gross margins, it will be.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, pretty close. Exactly.
Speaker 7
Okay.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 7
Perfect. That's very helpful. I appreciate the time.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thanks, Justin. Thanks, folks.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Todd Fowler. Please go ahead.
Speaker 8
Great. Good afternoon. I guess, Dave, if you could, maybe just help me think about the volumes here in the quarter and then the volume guidance. The 2% decline in the quarter, was that a function of the difficult comparisons last year or the sluggish market? And then in maintaining the 2%-4% on the full year basis, was that more success than what you were expecting in the bid season? And I guess really what I'm asking is, you know, have volumes trended the way you were expecting through the year, or were you more successful in the bids than, you know, what you were initially expecting with your, with your guidance earlier?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yes, Todd. You know, as far as the overall comparables for the second quarter of this year, we were in fact there were very high volume levels last year with the ending of the port strike on the West Coast. And so it was a pretty high hurdle. There's no question about that. You know, and as far as we're thinking, I wish we were that prescient to be able to predict the volumes and how we're going to come out of bids.
But again, I think that we went into this bid season, particularly in the latter half of the first quarter and through the second quarter, just very focused on specific markets, the clients, and we were very pleased with the outcome and how we've been able to drive the volume and the awards forward. Now, of course, there's always the question of will the awards actually live up to what we believe will come about? But we feel pretty confident in those numbers for the second half of the year. And you know, I think that strategy has definitely paid off for us. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 8
Okay, that helps. And then just kind of reconciling the volume expectations with the change in the full year guidance. You know, you bumped it up modestly at the low and the high end, and you also had the operating expenses going up. I'm just trying to think about, you know, the main change here in the guidance. It seems like that the gross margins are, you know, a little bit better than what you were thinking. The volumes are in line. You know, what is the difference between, you know, the full year guidance now versus where you were at the end of the first quarter?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
You're right, Todd. We raised it about a nickel, and why we did that was Q2 results came in slightly higher than our expectations. In addition, we have more clarity now on awards in logistics and our intermodal.
Speaker 8
Okay
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Bid results.
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
So those are.
David Yeager (CEO)
We're through the bid numbers now, Todd, so.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah. And then in terms of our cost and expense guidance, were you asking about that as well?
Speaker 8
Yeah, Terri, that would be helpful. I mean, I'm just a little bit curious about the step up. I mean, a lot of the.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah
Operator (participant)
Comments in the prepared remarks were about, you know, maintaining expenses, but they are moving up sequentially. So yeah, any color you have on that would be great.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Right. So we increased our cost and expense guidance from $79 million-$83 million, which we had last quarter, to $85 million-$87 million that we have now. We expected the third and fourth quarter cost and expenses to be at the high end of the previous range, which would have been the, you know, $83 million.
Speaker 8
Mm-hmm.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
And so if you're trying to reconcile from the $83 million to the $87 million, that's the high end now, the biggest drivers of that increase are two things, about $2 million quarterly for higher bonus related to expected earnings per share and personal goal achievement, and about $1 million quarterly for expected headcount adds, primarily in logistics.
Speaker 8
Okay, that helps. Hey, and Don, Cleveland's looking pretty good these days.
David Yeager (CEO)
I'm surprised you didn't introduce yourself as the world champion of the Cleveland Cavaliers. That would have been. That sounds great.
Speaker 8
It does. After you know, almost 50 years, it's pretty easy to get used to saying that. So thanks for the time tonight, guys.
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah. Thank you.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Thanks, Todd. Take care.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Kelly Dougherty. Please go ahead.
Speaker 9
Hey, everybody, thanks for taking the question. Dave, I just want to follow up on something you mentioned earlier about, you know, seeing how much of the awarded volume actually comes through. Do you guys have, you know, any, any history that, you know, 90% or 80% or whatever the number might be, of what you get awarded generally comes through in any given year? And, you know, do you expect this year to be any different for any particular reason?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah, Kelly, that's an interesting question. We do track it, and we track it mostly based upon client, because it's very client specific. Certain ones are very good with their forecasts, and right on. Some always underestimate, and some always overestimate. So we know who that is, and if it's a customer that traditionally overestimates the amount, we'll cut them back by an appropriate percentage, whether it's 10, 20, 30%, as far as what we're forecasting from a volume perspective. So yeah, we have enough history with our clients that we know they're forecasting, which may be good, bad, or indifferent. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 9
Okay, so that 2%-4% is already kind of probability weighted for, for those things?
David Yeager (CEO)
It's already probability weighted. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 9
Okay, great, thanks. And then I think you previously talked about, you know, rail cost increases, covering rail cost increases, kind of half with pricing and half with internal initiatives. Looks like pricing might be a little bit weaker everywhere. So just kind of wondering if there's other things that you guys have identified on the efficiency side. And then maybe kind of related to that, you've got a bunch of different IT initiatives going on. Maybe can you help us quantify some of the savings of those things?
David Yeager (CEO)
Terri, I don't know if you would like to do that.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
I'll take a stab at some of it. Sure. There are three, three main areas of cost savings, Kelly. We've got improved utilization, lower dray costs, including selecting the best carrier from a price and service perspective, improving loaded miles, reducing truck ownership costs, and reducing insurance and claims costs. And then we also have a bucket, you know, that we're trying to lower our accessorial costs and better accessorial cost recovery. Our goal is about $15 million of savings for these initiatives for the entire year, and the realignment of our operations was a key factor in being able to realize those cost reductions that we've experienced so far. You know, we're seeing renewed intensity and openness to change throughout the organization, and we feel pretty confident that we're going to get those cost savings.
In terms of the IT initiatives that we're working on, the transportation management system that has helped us to win a lot of new customers in logistics. And we've been very busy with onboarding new customers. It's our highest year ever in terms of onboarding new logistics customers. And then from the human resource management system, that's more for internal purposes, but it will help, we were really doing everything with paper, and it's going to help us to be a lot more efficient and to help our people benefit too, because we'll have better career planning for our people.
David Yeager (CEO)
Right. As soon as this is a great deal of talent management, which is very important, as obviously the hiring environment in the locations we're at has picked up quite a bit, and so we need to make sure we've got good career paths and can identify our high-achieving individuals and progress them through the organization.
Speaker 9
Understood.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Kelly, to Terri's point, on the IT side, one other important aspect is the satellite tracking, which is around 70% of our fleet is complete. The 100% of it will be done by the end of the year, and that has really helped us in managing equipment and, and improving the dwell time.
Speaker 9
Great. Thanks, guys. One other just quick one. I, I think you've also previously mentioned you were seeing more conversions back to truck than you have in a long time. Just any kind of update on, on how that's been trending recently and, you know, kind of how you think about it in the back half?
David Yeager (CEO)
I can answer that. I think that as we look at the decline in local lease, probably half of that decline is due to conversion back to truck, and the other half is some intermodal competition that we saw this past quarter. So, truck continues to be very competitive. We are finding some clients also, though, that we've been able to convert from truck to intermodal. So if I looked at it, we're probably still converting more to intermodal than from, but there's no question the trucks in the very short hauls continue to be very competitive with this fuel environment and with a very soft freight economy.
Speaker 9
Thanks very much, guys.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Kevin Sterling. Please go ahead.
Speaker 10
Good afternoon.
David Yeager (CEO)
Hi, Kevin.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Hi, Kevin.
Speaker 10
Dave, you know, obviously talked a lot about the challenging environment, and I believe your rail cost increase went into effect June 1. As this environment, you know, really kind of muddles along, if you will, are your rail partners willing to work with you at all regarding any price concessions? Have you been talking with them, or is it just, you know, here it is what it is?
David Yeager (CEO)
Well, Kevin, I'll, you know, we know we've been in this business long enough to know that, rails on an ongoing basis have cost increases, whether the market allows it or not. We feel as though that, our, our two rail partners have been quite reasonable this year, but, in fact, the price increases, were larger than what we were able to obtain in the market. We are able to make, some of that up, due to our own internal operational efficiencies. But that's just part of the business. I mean, the rails, they're, they're whether the, we're in a 2009 recession or whether, in fact, we're in the current freight recession, where prices are very stagnant, they still have capital requirements.
And, so we just expected that there would be price increases. It did outpace what we were able to get in the market with our clients. But again, we just fully understand that, and, that's the way the business operates.
Speaker 10
Yeah, no. Okay, thanks. And then, lastly, I believe you mentioned a pretty healthy M&A pipeline. Are you looking at any new verticals possibly, or is it just maybe some more bolt-on acquisitions?
David Yeager (CEO)
There is some bolt-on, but the vast majority is new verticals. And as part of our acquisition strategy, is to, in fact, be able to diversify our service offerings to our clients. We feel as though we're very well positioned with our intermodal product and our Unyson product, as well as truck brokerage. But we feel as though there's other verticals that we should enter, in order to have, tool to offer to our clients.
Speaker 10
Great. Okay, that's all I had. Thanks for your time, and congratulations on another solid quarter.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thanks, Kevin.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Scott Group. Please go ahead.
Speaker 11
Hey, thanks. Afternoon, guys.
David Yeager (CEO)
Hey, Scott.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Hey, Scott.
Speaker 11
Just following up on that last point about M&A. Dave, I think last quarter, a couple quarters ago, you highlighted dedicated as a new vertical. Is that still an area of focus, or is it other areas that you're more focused on right now?
David Yeager (CEO)
Of course, what is currently active, dedicated is not among them. So, we do, you know, we continue to feel as though it's of interest. We feel as though it's going to be the one segment within the regional truckload segment that might be attractive, but we are not currently pursuing anything in that vertical.
Speaker 11
What kind of areas are you looking at if you care to share?
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Asset-light models, similar to a 3PL model, that would be one. Truck brokerage, if it fits, and anything in regards to the logistics space.
Speaker 11
Okay. So, just, Terri, one thing I wanted to clarify in the guidance. What earnings number are you using for the first quarter? The $0.51 reported or the $0.58 adjusted?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
The adjusted number.
Speaker 11
Okay. Okay. Within your gross margin guidance for the back half of the year, that implies a pretty big kind of sequential step down. Is that more in intermodal or brokerage, or maybe is it just the mix of Unyson starting to grow more? I don't know.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
It's mostly in intermodal.
Speaker 11
Mm-hmm.
And we've also planned for. You know, in our forecast, we also have about 100-200 basis points decline in truck brokerage yields. Now, you know, one of the levers to our forecast that I had mentioned was if we could maintain the yields we had in the first half of the year, that would provide, you know, upside to our guidance. But right now, it's based on the forecast is gross margin as a percentage of sales being lower for both intermodal and truck brokerage.
Okay. And you gave us kind of the levers to get to the high end, but not the low end. Is that just because if you're thinking, if you're gonna be on one side, you're thinking closer to the high end than the low end? Is that a fair interpretation?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, as Dave mentioned, you know, we're pretty confident in that 2%-4% volume growth for the year, which does imply high single-digit volume growth in the last half of the year. But we have clarity on the bid awards now, we know that. We also have a lot of clarity on the logistics awards, which have been, you know, in the, in this quarter, we onboarded about $20 million annually of new logistics business. We expect to onboard between $35 million and $45 million annually of logistics business here in the third quarter. Why that's such a big range is we're just ramping up with the customers now, and we're not sure what the peak season surges are gonna be for those particular customers that we're onboarding.
Speaker 11
Mm-hmm.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
So, you know, we feel pretty confident to the middle, to the high end of the guidance, I guess, to summarize.
Speaker 11
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, that's helpful. Just last thing, Dave, just kind of big picture. You mentioned the change in maybe strategy heading into bid season this year, but if I take a look at the guidance, it does imply lower earnings in the back half than what we just saw in the second quarter. So, you know, is your point that if you didn't have a different strategy and you just kind of saw this weak pricing environment, that it would have been even worse? Or am I kind of missing something here?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah. A good question, Scott, and I would suggest to you that our volumes would be declining dramatically, and that our overall margin therefore would also be declining, and we'd be looking at a well, much more serious situation in my mind. I think with this we've been able to grow the business. Granted, yes, the margin per unit may be declining somewhat, but it is this environment, and we think that the alternative of just giving up share was not an alternative. Right.
Speaker 11
Yeah.
David Yeager (CEO)
We would have stood still. We would've been eroding margin and volume greater.
Speaker 11
Right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, and we're positioned to grow in the future as well, you know, once we pass this pricing season.
Speaker 11
Right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Hopefully, the market tightens up some next year, and we're able to price up more next year, and we're providing the best service we've ever provided. That's part of the reason we got, you know, the 6,000 containers to make sure with this significant growth in intermodal that we're having in the last half of the year, that we can continue that trend. So we, we feel that we're very well positioned for the future, not just for.
Speaker 11
Okay
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
The second half of this year.
Speaker 11
Mm-hmm. That makes sense. Okay, thank you, guys, a lot. Appreciate it.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thanks, Scott.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Tom Wadewitz. Please go ahead.
Speaker 12
Yeah, good afternoon. Wanted to see if you could comment a little bit. I know that intermodal trends near term maybe aren't don't have the same changes necessarily the truck does. But we have heard from trucks about some tightening in the market, off a low base and a little bit of improvement in spot market in, say, June, July. What are you seeing in July, and is that a pickup in the market, and there is, is there some tightening that would be supportive potentially from an intermodal perspective and truck perspective?
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Hey, Tom, this is Don Maltby. Yeah, we saw a tightness, the last week or the last two weeks of June and over the Fourth of July holiday, which is normal, but, and it's back to being fluid again. So we're not seeing any tightness out there in the marketplace, nationally. You might have a spot here and there, but, no, capacity is fluid.
Speaker 12
Okay. Okay. In terms of the, I think you were asked one question on the kind of rail pricing. Is there, so I apologize if you, you commented on this, but is there a meaningful difference in terms of the increase you're paying west versus east? And does that kind of flow into, you know, the pattern you had where you were down quite a bit, in the east? I mean, I recognize that's more truck competitive length of haul, but maybe if you can comment a little bit about, you know, is there a big difference in the, you know, cost inflation with rail in the east versus west?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah, we, of course, don't really talk about the contracts specifically for both lines. I think what the primary issue that you've got there. There are several. Number one, as I'd said, I thought that the cost increases with the rails were reasonable, but if you can consider any increase in this environment reasonable, it certainly was difficult to try and retain our existing margin with our having to try to pass that on to our clients. You know, the primary within the 50% of, as I'd said, of the loss in the east was specifically due to truck competition.
Speaker 12
Mm-hmm.
David Yeager (CEO)
And so it's just a shorter length of haul, and with that short length of haul, inevitably, in this type of environment where you have fluid truck capacity, they're going to be going after that short haul business, what we consider to be short haul business. To them, it's longer haul, if you will. So, less so due to different pricing increases than just different markets.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Yeah, I think the truck rates fell fell quicker.
Speaker 12
Yes
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
In the first half of the year in Local Lease, certainly first quarter.
Speaker 12
Right.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
We were following that.
Speaker 12
Right. Okay, so what would you expect, given the new bids and the acceleration in volumes you're looking at in the second half, would that mix be similar, where it's a pretty big difference in terms of east still being very weak and the transcontinental being kind of the best of the three segments?
David Yeager (CEO)
Transcon certainly does continue to be very strong. We are looking for a bit of a pickup in the Local Lease as well, as we've been able to find some, if you will, longer haul Local Lease conversion freight that will be quite significant. So, it'll increase in both areas, but certainly the Transcon is—it's just a very compelling business case to convert, to ship by intermodal, on those lengths of haul that are anywhere from 1,500-2,500 mi.
Speaker 12
Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Okay. Makes sense. All right, thanks for the time.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thanks, Tom.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Brandon Oglenski. Please go ahead.
Speaker 13
Yeah, thanks, everyone, for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter. I did want to, I did want to circle back, Dave or Don, to the, the comments you made earlier, and then Scott's question about effectively, you know, the new strategy can improve margins and drive volume growth. But, you know, how do we square that again with margins that are arguably going to be contracting in the back half of the year? Was that a comment you were making more about the long term, Dave?
David Yeager (CEO)
It really is about the long term, and that's what, you know, obviously, we need to focus upon. You know, this market is just not one that you're going to increase your margin per unit or your gross margin on. It's not, but if in fact, you can gain some market share, you can, to a large extent, make up for that.
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, price discipline. Price it, you know, as aggressively as you can, but without going to the bottom of the tier. So we're seeing, again, our customers tend to be medium to large. It's a bid season every year, and we really took an approach of how we were going to grow the business in certain markets with certain customers and certain verticals.
Speaker 13
Okay. And Don, maybe if you can follow up with, with Terri's discussion of the cost savings, because I think she, she mentioned a few items that add up to about $15 million of targets that you guys have. But something that was interesting to me was the accessorial charges that the rails might be charging you and how inefficiencies in the system might have been driving higher charges than you were looking at. Is there any way to quantify it? Is that a longer-term target that you can work even beyond the $15 million, or is it not that interesting from, you know, a high-level perspective?
Donald Maltby (President and COO)
No, it's interesting from a high level. In a way, I would describe it as the blocking and tackling, where the basic elements of accessorials are storage per diem to our customers. And we feel we've got, with this restructuring, our arms around that cost, and we're continuing to wring it out along the way. I think we still have a runway for that. And as I think Terri mentioned, we are underlying rail costs have gone up. We know that, and the way to offset some of those, 50% of that, is through a reduction in accessorials.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, I think Dave mentioned in his prepared remarks that accessorial costs were reduced by over 51% this quarter, and I echo that. And, you know, if you were to say, well, how much, you know, was that? It was north of $4 million of savings in that area alone in the second quarter. Now, we, you know, we had some changes to our operational structure last year, so we're not sure the benefit will be that big.
Speaker 13
Right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
in the last half of the year because we'll, you know, we changed things around a bit in the fourth quarter, predominantly. But that's certainly an area that we continue to focus on and think we have a lot of improvement.
David Yeager (CEO)
I don't think we really saw the biggest drop, though, until it's been sequentially getting better and better.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Exactly.
David Yeager (CEO)
So.
Speaker 13
Right.
David Yeager (CEO)
with this realignment of our operating group and with our account management, it's
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm
David Yeager (CEO)
Added, which took place actually officially on the first of the year.
Speaker 14
Right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah.
David Yeager (CEO)
It's assisted us in being able to reduce those costs. They're just, candidly, they're just unnecessary if, in fact, you can put attention and focus to them.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 13
Right. We identified the issue in the fourth quarter of last year, and, in November, actually.
David Yeager (CEO)
Right.
Speaker 13
and implemented January 1st with the new structure, so.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah, and some in December.
Speaker 13
Mm-hmm, because we've got a runway.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 13
Okay, appreciate it. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Alex Vecchio. Please go ahead.
Speaker 14
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Dave, what, what inning would you say you're, you're currently in on, you know, these various self-help and cost reduction initiatives, if you can kind of help us think about? I presume different initiatives are at different stages, but can you kind of help, help us think about what, what inning you're in there?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yeah, that's, that's an interesting question, and, and you're absolutely right that different initiatives are at different stages in their life cycle. We were just talking about the accessorials. That's probably in the third inning or so. I would say in the aggregate, we're probably still in the early innings on a lot of this. There still is some inefficiencies within the organization and the way we operate, that we can, in fact, take costs out. So we're probably in the third, mid-third inning, of which I assume the Cubs will win, but that's a different issue. So yeah, I would say in that area, if you look at it globally, as far as all the initiatives we have ongoing.
Speaker 14
Okay, that's helpful. Maybe one for Terri. Terri, do you still expect Unyson revenues to be up mid to high single digit revenue growth for the full year? Can we see upside to that at this point?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
We think for the back half of the year, it'll be in the mid-teens.
Speaker 14
Okay. And then just one last housekeeping. What tax rate should we assume for the back half?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
38.2.
Speaker 14
38.2. Okay, that's all I have. Thanks very much for the time.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Matt Brooklier. Please go ahead.
Speaker 4
Hey, thanks. Good afternoon. Could you provide some color in terms of your intermodal volumes on a month-by-month basis for 2Q?
David Yeager (CEO)
Yes. Yes, we can. In fact, Terri, you have those?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah. June was the best. Volume change per business day in April was down 3.7, May down 5.7, and June up 1.5.
Speaker 4
Okay. And then where, where's that tracking in, in July?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
2.3% on a same-day basis.
Speaker 4
Okay. The change and better growth in July, is that a reflection of some of the new business that you've won? Is it, is it partially comp driven? Just trying to get a sense for, like, where that number could be headed, as we move forward.
David Yeager (CEO)
I think that's why you, you have to look at it, we look at it on the same day, because the way July fourth falls has a big impact on how it's looking. So no, this is, this is new business gains, and so directionally, as Terri had said, we're looking, we're looking at mid-high single digit growth for the second half with our intermodal volume.
Speaker 4
Okay. And then just turning to truck brokerage, I think Terri or somebody said it, expectations for your gross margin contraction by, I think, 200 basis points. That was a sequential contraction, or you expect your truck brokerage margins to be down 200 basis points year-over-year during the second half?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
That was sequential.
Speaker 4
Sequential pressure.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4
Okay. Then I guess, what's driving that? It sounds like June got a little bit tight. Seasonally, it should. Felt a little bit of tightness in the early part of July, but per Don, things have gotten a little bit looser. I'm just trying to get my arms around why, I guess, baked into the guidance, you have this margin contraction sequentially, if the market's looser here in July.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Sure. Well, you know, gross margin as a percent of sales and truck brokerage was up 320 basis points year-over-year in Q2.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Pretty, pretty darn high. Because of the way the spot market is, we think that our contractual pricing could be pressured.
Speaker 4
Right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
That's the primary reason that we've estimated in our forecast that it could be down sequentially between 100 and 200 basis points.
Speaker 4
That's right.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4
Okay. And then just one last one in terms of M&A. International forwarding, is that an area of potential interest if you're looking to add services to what you're currently offering?
David Yeager (CEO)
You know, it's something we've discussed a lot. I think that some of the barriers to entry is, if you look at our client base, they are larger, more sophisticated customers. If we acquire an international freight forwarder, trying to compete with the Expeditors and the Panalpinas and the Kuehne + Nagels could be quite difficult. I guess if we could find somebody that is in a particular niche that of which they have some kind of a competitive advantage, it may be of interest, but at this point in time, that's not high on our priority list.
Speaker 4
Okay. Appreciate the time.
David Yeager (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
As a reminder, that's star then one to ask your question. The next question comes from Ben Hartford. Please go ahead.
Speaker 6
Hey, I think everything was addressed. Thanks, guys.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Sure. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
All right, standing by for questions. We have a question from Matt Young. Please go ahead.
Speaker 5
Good afternoon, guys. Thanks. Could you talk quickly here, just a little bit about the additional levers you have to improve the drayage cost at this point? What would you say is the biggest opportunity there? Would it be balance of inside versus outside miles, or more a function of call it the internal network efficiencies at Hub Group Trucking?
David Yeager (CEO)
I think it's a combination thereof. One of the things that we have been very focused on is selecting the right drayman for the service and price in various markets, and that may be our own internal drayage, it may be outsourcing it. And in the past, we were too biased, if you will, towards our own, using our own assets instead of looking at other people's networks and seeing if, in fact, we couldn't be more efficient by utilizing them. So it's a combination thereof, of trying to optimize your outside spend, while at the same time trying to eliminate as much empty miles internally, so that you can spin your drivers. And it's a very fine line.
There's certain cases where we'll actually give the balanced freight to outside drayman, and then handle the deadhead miles ourselves, just because we can be more cost-effective. So it's really looking at our volumes in the aggregate, and then just coming up with it. It's a simple optimization model as far as which way you go, providing that you can get the excellent service that our customers expect.
Speaker 5
Fair enough. Are you, in most geographies, are you generally able to find the capacity that you need for the right price? I guess I'm also thinking about L.A. Since you've closed the terminal, have you found sufficient capacity, sufficient quality?
David Yeager (CEO)
You know, we're very enthused with the way that Los Angeles has turned out. If you look at it, our on-time performance both for pickup and deliveries, I don't have the exact number off the top of my head, Matt, but it's up significantly versus when we had our own assets on the ground there. And in addition, the Mode business model that we had operating towards the end in Los Angeles was highly price ineffective. So, it's the best of all worlds. We're saving money. At the same time, we're delivering a lot better service to our clients.
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
Yeah. I would add that we did, you know, 57% of our own drayage in Q2 this year, which is down from 60% last year in Q2, and slightly lower than the 59% that we did in Q1 of 2016.
Speaker 5
Okay. So that improvement would be a big piece of the gross margin improvement in the Intermodal segment, too, right?
Terri Pizzuto (CFO)
It is.
David Yeager (CEO)
Yes, there's no question.
Speaker 5
Okay. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
We now have no further questions. I'll now turn it back over to Dave Yeager for closing remarks.
David Yeager (CEO)
Well, great. Well, once again, thank you for joining us on our conference call. As always, if you have any further questions, please do feel free to contact Terri, Don, or myself.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
