Seasonal uptick in Q4 helped Schneider National reach its first quarter of year-over-year earnings improvement since mid-2022.
The carrier’s income from operations for the final quarter was $42.4 million, a 35% increase compared to Q4 2023, according to an earnings release.
While the Wisconsin-based firm is seeing more of a trend toward seasonality in demand, that uptick hasn’t quite reached pre-COVID-19 levels, EVP and CFO Darrell Campbell said on an earnings call Thursday.
“Seasonality, which began in the second quarter was even more evident in the fourth,” President and CEO Mark Rourke said on the call. “Carriers are still not being adequately compensated for the value provided and the cost to deliver, resulting in continued attrition of supply.”
Quarterly rate increases last year helped offset inflation in many areas, but they didn’t cover rising insurance and fleet growth costs, said Jim Filter, EVP and group president of transportation and logistics.
Meanwhile, rate renewal conversations have notably improved compared to those in recent years, when shippers were the ones to benefit from pricing, Rourke said.
“We are finding that customers are more receptive to rate restoration than they have been in the last two years,” Rourke said on the call.
The carrier is in early discussions with strategic and large customers over renewal pricing, and businesses understand that costs like insurance are creating pressure, executives said.
Schneider’s low-end guidance on the market ahead projects “similar conditions to those in the fourth quarter of 2024” persisting throughout 2025, while the upper end calls for “enhanced freight market conditions” starting in Q2, Campbell told investors.
“We anticipate continued improvement in freight market conditions in 2025, leading to revenue and earnings growth with enhanced margins and asset returns progressing throughout the year,” Campbell said. “For 2025, our truckload network focus is on returning the business to profitability by improving price, growing variable cost capacity, and continuing to execute cost and asset efficiency actions.”
