The presentation and letter are available at www.VoteNorfolkSouthern.com and on the company's investor relations page.
Highlights of the presentation include:
This includes a detailed, ground-up plan to capture 400 basis points of productivity savings and upcycle improvement
In 2024, the plan targets to deliver 100-150 basis points of OR improvement year-over-year, with line of sight to 400-450 basis points of improvement in the second half of 2024, compared to the prior year period
The board appointed
Shaw has developed a balanced strategy focused on service, productivity, and growth, with safety at its core
The strategy was working prior to the East Palestine (EP) incident in
Shaw and the board addressed the challenges following the EP incident head on and acted decisively to overhaul safety standards to protect the franchise. Following EP-related network disruptions and necessary investments in service and safety in 2023, the strategy is back on track and driving meaningful improvements
Orr is a 40-year industry veteran with a successful track record of implementing scheduled railroading strategies to drive sustainable, long-term value creation
Since Orr joined the company four weeks ago, he has instilled more diligent plan adherence and began efforts to streamline operations. Already, these initiatives have improved Merchandise velocity by 8% and terminal dwell by 8%
The company expects to deliver further sequential OR improvement as operational changes scale throughout the network
In the next 60 to 90 days, under Orr's leadership, the company expects to: Reduce terminal dwell in two major yards by 30%
Reduce overtime by 20%
Reduce recrew rate by 20%
Increase on-time connections system wide by 10%
Strong execution from
Following the EP incident, the company acted decisively to overhaul safety standards to protect the franchise and long-term shareholder value
The company reduced its mainline accident rate by 38% year-over-year in 2023, achieving the lowest rate since 1999 and positioning itself among the best of the North American Class I railroads
The board has been thoughtfully constructed and refreshed with six new directors added in the last five years, including two in 2023
The company's directors bring areas of expertise highly relevant to
The board has refined its executive compensation plans to ensure accountability, including adding safety as a component to the annual incentive plan, and adopting a supplemental clawback policy that exceeds the NYSE requirements
Most recently, the board added operating ratio as an additional performance metric for management compensation to align with the improvements needed to achieve a sub-60% OR in three to four years2
Ancora's plan would dangerously put
Ancora intends to take control of the company and execute wholesale leadership and board changes to implement an ungrounded and irresponsible PSR implementation strategy that would, in
It is attempting to replace a crisis-tested CEO with a candidate who has no railroading experience, and a highly regarded COO with a candidate who has a demonstrably poor track record on service quality, safety, and overall performance
Ancora's inferior director nominees bring little board and safety experience, and would unseat incumbents who are critical to the proper oversight of the company and functioning of the board
Ancora's slash-and-burn playbook is unsuited to our regulatory, labor, and competitive environments, and has already prompted public concern from regulators and customers
About
Since 1827,
Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this communication are 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance, including statements relating to our ability to execute on our strategic plan and our 2024 Annual Meeting and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or our achievements or those of our industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words like 'may,' 'will,' 'could,' 'would,' 'should,' 'expect,' 'plan,' 'anticipate,' 'intend,' 'believe,' 'estimate,' 'project,' 'consider,' 'predict,' 'potential,' 'feel,' or other comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates, beliefs, and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the Company's control. These and other important factors, including those discussed under 'Risk Factors' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
Contact:
Tel: (855) 667-3655
(C) 2024 Electronic News Publishing, source