Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Certainly. (Operator instructions). And your first question comes from Gaurav Jaitly. Your line is open.
Gaurav Jaitly - UBS
Great, thanks. Good afternoon guys. I have a quick question on the expense side. You mentioned several puts and takes in the cost of services in SG&A line. So how should we look at it going forward? I think you said that Gene that, the full run rate of the headcount reduction is not in your cost of services number yet. So should we expect to see sequential improvement? And given the other expense reduction initiatives, should we expect to see continued improvement in the expense plan going forward?
Trevor Erxleben
Yeah Gaurav, the script mentioned there was potentially a little bit of opportunity in cost of service. There are also some factors that relate for the compensation cycle which might cause some sequential upward pressure on expenses. Over the long-term, as Gene indicated, we think we have the opportunity to continue to improve efficiencies. So without providing specific expectations for next quarter or even the quarter after that, we believe the long-term trend is headed downward.
Gaurav Jaitly - UBS
Okay, great. Thanks. I'll just stick to the one question. Thanks.
Trevor Erxleben
Thanks Gaurav.
Operator
Your next question comes from Mike Rollins, your line is open.
Michael Rollins - Citigroup Investment Research
Hi, good afternoon.
Trevor Erxleben
Hi, Mike.
Gene Betts
Hi, Mike.
Michael Rollins - Citigroup Investment Research
I was curious if you could give us an update where are you in terms of the programs that you've announced to cut costs with respect to the total savings opportunity? I think it was as of the last call like $125 million to $150 million. And in terms of realized savings, when you -- what percentage along are you in capturing those in the numbers?
Gene Betts
Okay, Mike, this is Gene. To set the stage, I think you are familiar that we have set forth an initial $300 million target, and I think on the last call we said that we had in motion actions that should result in about $250 million of the $300 million. Now some of those are projects that have not come online yet, like some of our workforce management programs in our network area but we feel very good about the trajectory we're on. We are not behind on any of the projects, so it is really no change. We expect to continue on the path to take out the 300 basis points. As we said, our objective really is to go further than that. We think that is really the minimum we should obtain and given our scale visa-a-vie smaller competitors it will not be logical that we could go somewhat beyond that.
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