Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Certainly. (Operator Instructions). We'll go to Tom Wadewitz with JPMorgan.
Thomas Wadewitz - JPMorgan
Yes, good morning.
David Congdon
Good morning.
J. Wes Frye
Good morning.
Thomas Wadewitz - JPMorgan
Let's see, so where do you think the impact is going to be as we have what appears to be a pretty active bid season? And clear... you said pretty clearly your approach on pricing, which makes a lot a sense. But to what extent can you resist the downward pressure on price if shippers, on a broad basis, put a lot of business up for bid?
David Congdon
Tom, we have been very successful for the last number of years with our pricing philosophy and our value proposition. So I don't think it's going to be a whole heck of lot different than it has been in the past. And we should be continuing to be successful with our approach with customers.
Thomas Wadewitz - JPMorgan
So...
David Congdon
Our bids to year round. It's not like it's all of a sudden, we are going to have a big bid season and all the prices are going to be adjusted. The contracts that we have with customers go pretty much year around and we are not having any trouble convincing our customers on our value proposition.
Thomas Wadewitz - JPMorgan
So you think you can, I mean, maybe you see a little more pressure. But you don't anticipate seeing a big step up in pressure on rates in terms of what you are able to achieve?
David Congdon
Not for us. Maybe some others... other carriers might choose to play the price game but we are just... we weigh every single account on its own merit and look at this. We have a certain profitability that we expect to achieve and that we've got to achieve in order to give the service levels that we are giving. And that's the value proposition and it sells well when you in fact have the underlying value.
Thomas Wadewitz - JPMorgan
All right, that makes sense. Let's see, the tonnage front I may have missed this. I don't know if you've said by months or talked about that it all. But can you give us a sense of what the progression was in tonnage year-over-year by months and if you have any comments on what it looks like in January so far?
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