Schneider Says Freight Recovery Picking Up

**Lee Klaskow** (0:07)
Hi, everyone, this is Lee Klaskow, and we're Talking Transports. Welcome to Bloomberg Intelligence Talking Transports podcast. I'm your host, Lee Klaskow, Senior Freight Transportation Logistics Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg's in-house research arm. Before we get started, if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review, as well as share it with your friends. Your support helps us continue bringing you conversations with leaders shaping the freight, transportation, and logistics industry. If you'd like to connect, you can find me on the Bloomberg terminal on LinkedIn or on X at Logistics League.
Today, we're coming to you from Bloomberg's global headquarters in New York, where I'm pleased to welcome Jim Filter, President and CEO of Schneider National.
Jim officially became CEO on July 1st after spending more than 25 years with the company, building his career from maintenance team leader to the company's top leadership role. Along the way, he's led Schneider's intermodal business, Mexico operations, commercial organization, and most recently served as EVP and Group President of Transportation and Logistics. Today, we're discussing his journey to CEO, his vision for Schneider's next chapter, the outlook for the trucking market, and why he believes we're still in the early innings of the current freight recovery. Jim, welcome to Talking Transports, and congratulations on becoming Schneider's new CEO.

**Jim Filter** (1:30)
Thanks, Lee. Pleasure to be here.

**Lee Klaskow** (1:32)
And for those that are not aware, Schneider is a public company. It trades on the ticker SNDR, has a market cap of around $6 billion.
So, Jim, after 28 years at Schneider, what was going through your mind on July 1st when you officially took over the role of CEO?

**Jim Filter** (1:53)
Yeah, well, it's an exciting day, but it's not that one day. This is a process that lasts a couple of years in the making. And of course, that one day when you're finally walking into the office for the first time, a sense of responsibility, knowing that you're responsible for 19,000 associates that are looking up to you, to all of our customers, our investors, and at the same time, a sense of excitement of all the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

**Lee Klaskow** (2:21)
Right, and you spent nearly three decades with Schneider in a variety of leadership roles, as I mentioned earlier. How has that prepared you for the job today that you're in?

**Jim Filter** (2:31)
Yeah, it was important to have that variety of roles, from talking to drivers and mechanics every single day to understand what was going on in their world, to roles in logistics where I was spending time with our customers, understanding how are they thinking about building supply chains and helping them improve service to their customers, and then opportunities in Mexico, where I had an opportunity to lead all of Schneider's service offerings, but also having that direct communication with the local government prepared me. And so every role, you take something away from it. But importance before a role like this is to have that opportunity where you have really broad experience.

**Lee Klaskow** (3:09)
Your predecessor, Mark Rorke, who's actually been on the podcast previously, he remains as chairman. You know, what did you learn from him that you'll carry forward, and where do you hope to put your own stamp on Schneider?

**Jim Filter** (3:21)
Yeah, you know, I've learned so much from Mark over the years, worked alongside him for a long time. But one thing that always impressed me is the investments he makes in people, whether those are associates or customers, investors. And then he does so in a way where you drive down into the business to have a very deep understanding of what's going on. But at the same time, you do so in a way that everybody still feels this sense of accountability and agency to take actions within their areas of responsibility.
And then that ability to step back and leave them prepared to go and execute.

**Lee Klaskow** (3:57)
And now that you're CEO, what's the one thing you think the market under appreciates about the company and the one thing you're going to try to change?

**Jim Filter** (4:08)
Yeah, I think the one thing that the market under appreciates is the sophistication of a trucking company. I think most people, when they show up to our headquarters in Green Bay, are shocked of what they're going to see.

**Lee Klaskow** (4:19)
Right.

**Jim Filter** (4:20)
And the investments in technology that we make, that we're constantly innovating and find opportunities to take costs out of a supply chain. I think the market looks at trucking companies as something that's old school, and you're just driving trucks around, and not this level of sophistication to use artificial intelligence and just being open to change and find opportunities to improve the business.