Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Alex Brand with Stephens. Please proceed.
Alex Brand - Stephens Inc.
Thanks, good morning, Mike.
Mike Ryan
Good morning, Alex.
Alex Brand - Stephens Inc.
Just with respect to some of the progress you talked about in coal and energy, and the modal conversion strategy. Without naming specific customers, can you give a more specific example of how something maybe has gone and where you've had some success so we can just understand what kind of progress you are making?
Mike Ryan
Sure, I'll give you a couple of examples. One, on the interior system movements from rail heads to actual industrial sides that are multi-modal in form, and again without naming a customer, these are coal flows that were traditionally rail, or rail to barge where we've been able to introduce ourselves in lanes where we had empty activity. So we're actually repositioning empty equipment, and went back in and bid to capture multi-year coal, rather than waiting for grain that was just spiking up and down.
So that's one example where we kind of repositioned the assets to pursue a more stable base and stable flow of business on our interior section which actually reduced our empty days and empty miles.
A second example is actual conversion of origins; some of the export flow is right now were coming off of the eastern carriers and going rail direct to the Gulf. We've been successful in introducing new western originations in rails to barge combinations to actually displace number of those moves. So we've had some interesting success and it has been multi-modal in impact. So it's kind of paid some dividends knowing not only the barge side but the rail side.
Alex Brand - Stephens Inc.
And competitively speaking, I mean how aggressive do you have to be in pricing? Or since you are going after business that, I assume, your traditional barge competitors are, is pricing not the primary competitive dynamic for that business?
Mike Ryan
Well, you still have to have a fairly competitive price, but it is still, the trade-offs that we are realizing are still improving the overall profitability. So that the business that we are displacing not only is ratable but it is a higher margin.
Alex Brand - Stephens Inc.
Okay. If I can, I just have a couple of technical questions. Can you quantify Tamra if you did it and I missed it, I apologize. How many barges were scrapped in the quarter and how much is that and where is it on the P&L?
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