CH Robinson Worldwide Inc at JPMorgan Industrials Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>All right. Thanks very much. So maybe we're going to start there with sort of the current state of the North American freight market from your guys' perspective. Any signs of life in the spot truckload market? Is this mostly weather, which I feel like we did this same thing last year, the market improved? People thought it was turning and then it was weather. So seasonality is a good thing to have back, but it doesn't feel like we're necessarily off to the races or an inflection at this point. But curious to see what you guys are seeing.

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So Damon, on that point with renewals, it's hard to judge just by one customer or one anecdote because everybody has got a different base that they're starting from. But what's sort of the range of renewals you mentioned that you're expecting to go up throughout the year? Consensus still seems to be the back half recovery, which should be third year in a row, but obviously, off to a little bit of a slower start, at least from our discussions, but I wanted to see if you guys had a different perspective here at the beginning of the year?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : And maybe this is a question you ask when you've been in a long trough freight market, but I do wonder if anything has changed from a market structure perspective over the last couple of years. I mean, you've got more private fleets, you've got greater visibility in tech tools, you've got trailer pools. So from your perspective, is any of that stuff maybe causing a longer and more extended trough here at this point just because there's perhaps more capacity than there was ever before or availability of capacity?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So you mentioned showing up like an asset carrier theme from the Investor Day. So what does that mean and I guess where do you sort of draw the line between owning more? And it does seem like there's going to be more of a hybrid model, just in general, over time with assets getting more asset light and vice versa. So how do you view that within Robinson and sort of if there's a line that you would draw in terms of like what you would or wouldn't own? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 11, 2025 / 1:00PM, CHRW.OQ - CH Robinson Worldwide Inc at JPMorgan Industrials Conference

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So when you think about the current conversations with customers, how would you characterize that? Obviously, there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of headlines, there's a lot of back and forth. Any short-term changes that people are making at this point? Are they making longer-term changes? Like I'm sure it differs by customer and by day, but how would you overall characterize those conversations right now?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : Interesting. Okay. Well, two questions, maybe more specific on forwarding. In terms of the first one, just the de minimis exemption we've seen it removed and then, I guess, restored. From your perspective on forwarding, would you expect an impact on maybe air freight rates and customs clearing? Did you see any volatility with people trying to get stuff over the border when that was pulled off for what, less than 24 hours? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 11, 2025 / 1:00PM, CHRW.OQ - CH Robinson Worldwide Inc at JPMorgan Industrials Conference

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : The other one that might be more material if it goes through would just be the layers of fees that they might charge on vessels either tied to or built in for China. So a big topic recently, especially at a recent conference with TPM, but what are you hearing from sort of your partners in that regard? Are they preparing for that yet? Or is it still a little too early? Because it seems like it would be a pretty significant event if it were to go through as written, which is, of course, the big question mark if that will actually happen?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So we often hear about -- asked about technology in the brokerage industry, and it's always difficult to figure out who has the best or leading tech from an outside perspective. So if you're in all of our seats, how would you sort of address that question?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So one of the big goals, I think, of the operating model in the next up cycle would be to decouple headcount in NAST with volume growth. So maybe working backwards from there, obviously, you did in Global Forwarding already, but are there some steps or project initiatives or successes that you already had that would give you some visibility and confidence to that happening, if and when we actually get to the upcycle here?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : All right. Appreciate that. Try to squeeze in two last quick ones here. First one on cargo theft. We hear about it more in the news, we hear about it more from shippers. So it's not just being reported more, they're definitely more concerned about it. It's obviously an industry supply chain challenge. But how does that affect Robinson? And what are sort of the conversations and concerns you hear from your shippers?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : So maybe to wrap up with just some thoughts on how to look at normalized earnings power through whatever a normal cycle end up being in the future, but maybe just to use the Investor Day framework, is that a good way to look at '26 forecast or your projection is that a good proxy for a normalized earnings power when you think about all the changes in the processes and the operating model that you've driven over the last 18 months or so?

Question: Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan - Analyst : Okay. Well, looks like we're out of time. That's a good place to wrap up anyway. So Dave, Damon, thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate it.