AMERCO (UHAL) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2022

August 4, 2022 11:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the AMERCO First Quarter Fiscal 2023 Investor Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Sebastien Reyes. Please go ahead.

Sebastien Reyes

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Welcome to the AMERCO First Quarter Fiscal 2023 Investor Call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements during this call, including without limitation, statements regarding revenue, expenses, income and general growth of our business, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended.

Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may affect AMERCO's business and future operating results, please refer to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

I'll now turn the call over to Joe Shoen, Chairman of AMERCO.

Joe Shoen

Good morning. The truck rental business rate of growth is slowing. It looks like, however, we're going to be able to retain the expanded customer base we developed over the last 2 years. This has really moved overall business ahead. We will continue at U-Haul to probe markets where we can expand. Our U-Box product and service continues strong growth. We have some factors pressuring margin, as I mentioned last call, repair and maintenance expense due to a higher-mileage fleet than we had in 2020. Repair costs per mile vary with total mileage on the unit. This will continue -- this trend will continue until we can get sufficient new vehicles. Once the OEM spigot is turned back on, it will take perhaps 3 years or more to normalize.

Inflation, of course, will negatively impact us as we re-fleet. We are continuing to expand our self-storage footprint and to a lesser extent, our self-move footprint. Freight costs increases have pressured margins at U-Box and are a significant component of U-Box costs. I expect those will normalize again at some point in the future. I look forward to continued success. Thank you.