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FedEx Corporation (FDX)

Q3 2026 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 19, 2026

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the FedEx Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jenny Hollander, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Jenifer Hollander

Analyst

Good afternoon, and welcome to FedEx Corporation's Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. The third quarter earnings release, Form 10-Q and stat book are on our website at investors.fedex.com. This call and the accompanying slides are being streamed from our website. [Operator Instructions]. Certain statements in this conference call may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For additional information on these factors, please refer to our press releases and filings with the SEC. Today's presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to investors.fedex.com for a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Joining us for prepared remarks on the call today are Raj Subramaniam, President and CEO; Brie Carere, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer; and John Dietrich, Executive Vice President and CFO. Now I'll turn the call over to Raj.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, Jeni. First, I want to extend a sincere thank you to Team FedEx for delivering very strong results this quarter, supported by an exceptional peak, our most profitable yet. The team's commitment to make every FedEx experience outstanding and their consistent execution drove our strong Q3 financial performance. I also want to express my gratitude to our team members in the Middle East. Their safety and security is our top priority. We are closely monitoring the situation, have implemented contingencies and are operating in alignment with local authorities as we continue delivering the best possible service to our customers. Our strong Q3 results were largely driven by Federal Express Corporation, or FEC, demonstrating the power and resilience of our global industrial network. As we recently outlined at our Investor Day, the entire FEC organization is aligned and making progress across our 4 strategic priorities: growing in high-margin verticals, transforming our network and building on our data and technology advantage while delivering ongoing efficiency gains. Our strategy enabled us to deliver sequential and year-over-year adjusted EPS growth for FedEx Corp., ahead of our expectations coming into the quarter. This operational performance, combined with our CapEx discipline is translating to strong adjusted free cash flow. Additionally, our plans to spin off FedEx Freight on June 1 remain on track. We are confident that the separation will unlock meaningful long-term value for our stockholders. Turning to our consolidated Q3 results. Revenue was up 8% year-over-year, driven by yield and volume strength across nearly all our package services. And we delivered a 7% increase in adjusted operating income year-over-year as we successfully managed headwinds tied to changing global trade policies, a challenging LTL demand environment and the grounding of our MD-11 fleet. We also effectively overcame significant weather-related service constraints. At FEC,…

Brie Carere

Analyst

Thank you, Raj. I would like to add my thanks to our team members for delivering another incredible peak season. On a year-over-year basis, we increased volume and improved service during the quarter, all while delivering faster to more locations than the competition. In December, we delivered the best monthly revenue performance in our company history, which, of course, supported strong Q3 earnings growth. We served our customers with excellence during this critical period and delivered on our targeted growth strategy, while, of course, remaining disciplined on pricing. With our team's focus and outstanding execution, we grew FEC revenue 10%, driven by 10% U.S. domestic package revenue growth. This marked our highest quarterly U.S. domestic revenue since fiscal year '22. International export package revenue also grew a strong 8%. Europe and the Asia-to-Europe lane stood out as key drivers. We continue to win profitable share in the global airfreight market, delivering 14% growth in international priority and economy freight revenue, supported by our Tricolor strategy. At FedEx Freight, revenue declined 5%, pressured by lower shipments. We are encouraged by our sequential increases in both revenue per shipment and in the attainment of contractual price increases as FedEx Freight prioritizes revenue quality in a challenged LTL market. At FEC, we grew average daily U.S. domestic volume by 5%. Our strategic focus on B2B verticals supported 7% volume growth in U.S. Priority and Deferred Express services. International export volumes inflected positively for the first time in fiscal year '26, up 2% year-over-year. This is an impressive achievement given the sustained declines on the transpacific lane due to the dynamic global trade environment. This international growth is a direct result of our targeted strategy to reroute capacity to our Asia-Europe and intra-Asia lanes, both of which delivered significant revenue growth, along with continued…

John Dietrich

Analyst

Thanks, Brie. Our Q3 results highlight our team's commercial execution in delivering premium revenue growth while aggressively managing our costs in a very dynamic environment. And we achieved these strong results while also continuing to advance our longer-term transformational and strategic initiatives. On a year-over-year basis, we grew Q3 adjusted operating income by 7% and delivered strong adjusted EPS growth of 16% I should note that our Q3 adjusted EPS includes a onetime benefit of $0.41 due to a favorable effective tax rate impact of $99 million related to our business restructuring in Brazil. And we delivered these results while navigating the impact of global trade policy changes, demand pressures at FedEx Freight, and the grounding of our MD-11 fleet. This is a true testament to the tireless focus of our teams and the resilience of our premier global industrial network. Now providing more segment detail for Q3 on a year-over-year basis. At FEC, we grew adjusted operating income by $252 million or 18%. This was driven by both base yield and volume improvement as well as execution on our cost reduction priorities. Growth in premium revenue in our international export lanes, particularly U.S. outbound and our Asia-to-Europe lane contributed to adjusted operating income improvement in the quarter. Yield trended better than expected, which reflects the improving pricing environment, both in U.S. domestic and international, and we'll be focused on continuing this momentum in the fourth quarter. With respect to our fleet, Q3 marked the first full quarter with our MD-11 fleet grounded. My sincere thanks go out to our world-class team, including our pilots, network planning and flight operations teams who did an outstanding job adjusting the network under very difficult circumstances to mitigate the operational and financial impacts of the grounding during the peak season. In total, the…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question today is from Ari Rosa with Citigroup.

Ariel Rosa

Analyst

Congrats on a strong result here. Raj, I was hoping you could speak about the impact of the Iran conflict. I understand, obviously, we're only a few weeks in here. But just talk to us about how you're adjusting the network and to what extent it's maybe disrupting flows, and to what extent it would have a bit of a profit headwind in fiscal fourth quarter.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, Ari. First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers go out to the team members in the region and all those impacted by the conflict. While the situation remains fluid, the safety of our team members always comes first. I have to tell you that our team has done just an absolutely remarkable job of managing our network in a very quick fashion to accommodate the conflict zone and moving the traffic around that. And at this point, we are assuming that the broader global demand from Q3 continues into Q4. And our first 2 weeks of March essentially are in line with that trend. The Middle East itself is a relatively small part of our total revenue. And so we'll obviously monitor these trends as we go forward. I'll just add on to this. I know there's a comment maybe people are thinking about fuel as well. I would just say that fuel is part of our pricing strategy and our net fuel impact, especially at FEC is expected to be relatively muted for FEC for the fourth quarter. Hopefully, that answers your question, Ari.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

Stephanie Benjamin Moore

Analyst

Echo that congrats on the good quarter. Since we do have John and team on the line, I wanted to touch on the LTL business a little bit. You clearly called out, John, some investments that we saw during the quarter having an impact on year-over-year profitability but also noted some pressure in underlying volumes. As you think about your outlook for the fourth quarter and then maybe even a 12-month outlook, can you talk a bit about those magnitude of investments we should expect to see? Is the fiscal 3Q a level something that we'd expect going forward? Should we expect to see a step-up? And then maybe any commentary on just the overall volume environment as well.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, Stephanie. Let me have Marshall Witt, our CFO for FedEx Freight, to answer that question.

Marshall Witt

Analyst

Stephanie, thanks for the question. So let me first just talk about the quarter 3 results, and then I'll touch on Q4. So as you saw in the prepared remarks, our volume and revenue were down mid-single digits. That's not unique to freight. It's a broader reflection of the LTL industry itself. As we look at the actual investments that we saw, that we're defining are showing as separation costs, we did see some increased separation costs in Q3 and anticipate that to continue in Q4. We look at those as good cost incurrences primarily because they're related to building out our IT infrastructure, which we will need as part of our spin, which is projected to be on 6/1 and also building out our talent, and that represents both folks that are coming on board externally and folks that are transitioning over from FedEx Corporation. Having those folks and those platforms being built now and being ready to address the spin-off and the stand-alone of FedEx Freight is a positive outcome for us. And then as regards to your question about the outlook over the next, call it, 12 months or 4 quarters and beyond, we plan to speak to that further at Investor Day.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Richa Harnain with Deutsche Bank.

Richa Talwar

Analyst

Can you guys hear me okay?

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Yes, we can.

Richa Talwar

Analyst

So John, I think you did a really great job like comprehensively running down of what's embedded in the outlook. But just big picture, on one hand, given the strong base and kudos to you on a very good Q3 outcome, you're assuming less of a sequential step-up. I think that's clear. But on a year-over-year basis, the incremental margin in FEC sort of does come in. And as Raj, you just reminded us, you are assuming sort of demand hangs in, in Q4. So just wanted to better understand the headwinds on Q4. And I know it's very early, but looking out to fiscal '27, Network 2.0 starts to ramp and you have a ton of momentum in underlying your business. Do you think that we could look forward to EPS growth? I know it's early, but I wanted to give that one a shot.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Yes. Well, Richa, let me try to address that and then, of course, John can add to it. Strategically, one of the things that's very important from a sequential perspective that we need to be aware of is that our team has done just an absolutely outstanding job this peak season. It is the most profitable peak in our FedEx history. Now let me help you understand why this was the case. First, we did a fantastic job of forecasting. We're much more disciplined and data-driven in how we forecast and operated. And that better modeling and close customer collaboration led to a much more effective resourcing for peak. And this resourcing on both sides, scaling up and also scaling down postpeak. Second, we had -- the commercial team did a really nice job managing through the strategies in place, especially driving revenue quality in the peak season. And finally, the efficiency with which we operated, and we have some early wins from Network 2.0 as we got into this. So -- and the new technology tools that we talked about also helped a lot. So between our improved forecasting and the efficiencies thereof, between our commercial strategies and our overall efficiency, we had a really, really good peak. The reason I bring this out here today is that these are permanent changes in how we operate and really making a structural shift how we think about peak profitability. And consequently, the traditional seasonalities of our business is now fundamentally altered as our Q3 strength becomes a new standard. So that's one thing you got to keep in mind as we look on a quarter-over-quarter basis. On a year-over-year basis, pretty straightforward. We have a $500 million headwind in the year-over-year basis, $275 million is because of variable comp. There is $135 million because of the LTL business and a $50 million thereof from MD-11s. They explain your year-over-year impact on the results. So hopefully, that puts it in picture -- gives you a context and understanding of how we guided you for the full fiscal year.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Scott Group with Wolfe Research.

Scott Group

Analyst

So if I take a step back, we've got domestic volume up mid-single-digit plus, domestic yield up mid-single digits, international volumes just turned positive, international yields are up a lot. And I ask this in the context of like I don't think we're seeing this anywhere else in freight world. Like, I guess, I don't really understand why we're seeing this mix of volume and yield growth. And ultimately, I guess, my question is, like, how sustainable is this going forward? Or do we need to start thinking about some, like, impossible, like, revenue comp for next year? Just any thoughts about why this is happening and how sustainable?

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, Scott. I give you Brie.

Brie Carere

Analyst

Thank you for the question, Scott. I think, first of all, this has been a couple of years in the making, right? We have been incredibly focused. We shared a lot of this at Investor Day that we really needed to retrench the team, and we have done so to be equally disciplined on B2B and B2C. We have a world-class value proposition in B2C and have had that for many years. As you know, that enabled us a 20-year run rate of market -- profitable market share growth. And we had to retrench on B2B, and we've done that, and we've got the commercial team really, really focused on that. So we feel great about this quarter. We do acknowledge that this is an anomaly in the market. We have taken profitable market share for 11 consecutive quarters in Europe. Here in the United States, this is the strongest profitable market share growth we have seen in more than 20 years. So it was a remarkable quarter. We feel good about these trends continuing in Q4. A couple of things to note that near the end of Q4, we will lap the momentum that we are seeing on the international priority volume domestically here. We acknowledge we took on some very large health care customers late last year, and we will lap that. That being said, from a total volume perspective, we've got some momentum that will make sure that we sustain this. As we come out of this year into next year, the goal that we expressed in Investor Day is still our goal. We're focusing on 4% revenue growth. We want to stay incredibly disciplined. That 4% target allows us to make sure we maintain revenue quality, but we feel like we've got great momentum as we exit the year and feel good about next year.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Well said, Brie. Let me make a couple of points. One, what Brie said -- meant was domestic priority volume on international. So I had to just make sure to get that. But secondly, let me take this opportunity to give a huge congrats to Brie and her commercial team. The execution has been just absolutely stellar. So BC to the whole team.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from David Vernon with Bernstein.

David Vernon

Analyst

So maybe just drilling in on that a little bit, Brie. If you look at the priority and deferred, that 6% and 9% sort of ADV growth, I'm assuming that's where the health care is. And then the ground and home delivery piece is really where the Amazon sort of big and heavy is. Can you confirm that? And then if you think about the impact that the Amazon onboarding is having with the big and heavy stuff, like, how much is that driving of -- like, what percentage of the growth is being driven by that in the ground part of the business?

Brie Carere

Analyst

Great question. So yes, the answer is from a domestic priority perspective, that is where you will see the majority of the health care. There is a little bit in the deferred, but actually, the deferred volume is actually coming from the momentum that we have in our small and medium customer segment. And so it's actually more spread between B2B and B2C that's actually not just health care. So I anticipate that deferred momentum will actually continue into next year. From a home delivery, yes, that is where you will see the majority of the Amazon volume. It is still ramping, and it is not material in this quarter, and we don't anticipate it will be material. We feel really good about the partnership. Just a huge shout-out to the operators as they're bringing this volume on. We've been really disciplined. It will be accretive. They will not be our top customer, and it was not material in the quarter, but it absolutely is in there.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Ken Hoexter with Bank of America.

Ken Hoexter

Analyst

I'll echo it. Great job. Great to see the share gains, Network 2.0 rollout gains and the Europe rebound for so many quarters. But I want to hit on the high end and low end of your outlook. It seems like salaries and benefits up 13% year-over-year at FEC. John, you mentioned some of the incentive comp, purchase trends, cost scaling. But I guess, given the combination, I would have guessed that costs would have come down a bit as you eliminate overlapping costs. Maybe walk us through how the math works there and what we should expect on that going forward.

John Dietrich

Analyst

Thanks, Ken. I think in large part, the impact that you're talking about relates to volume. And so it really -- that's the factor that's in play here. We feel really good about our cost containment and all the initiatives that we have in place to manage our costs. There's been some harmonization with regard to our benefits. And another big piece of this, too, is the variable comp piece that we've been talking about. So I think those 3 factors are all in play.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Tom Wadewitz with UBS.

Thomas Wadewitz

Analyst

Congratulations on the strong results and execution. So I wanted to get your thoughts about the kind of potentially tighter airfreight market. I think the events in the Middle East and just how would you potentially see some benefit come through in your international? Would that be -- assuming there's a benefit from a tighter airfreight market, would that be on price? Would that be in the kind of IP freight or IP package? Or how do we think about the kind of -- maybe is that something you would expect? And where would that benefit come through in international?

Brie Carere

Analyst

Tom, it's Brie. So I think first and foremost is that we have -- if we think about the mid-range or the midpoint of the range as we head into Q4 is we are not expecting material impact because of the conflict in the Middle East. So I think that's the most important. From a fuel perspective, the fuel index is doing its job. It's adjusted weekly. It will cover and ensure that we maintain profitability. At the beginning of March, obviously, significant capacity came out of the market. Actually, I think at the peak, it was close to 20% of air cargo capacity came out. That has now leveled off, and it's closer to 10%. We have adjusted our pricing accordingly. We do have demand surcharges in place today. And so the team, as Raj mentioned, is just doing an outstanding job of keeping an eye on capacity, pricing, a huge shout-out to our air ops and our engineering team who are working tirelessly to manage this. But right now, we do not expect any material impact in Q4, and the team is just executing policy.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Conor Cunningham with Melius Research.

Conor Cunningham

Analyst

Maybe just -- I mean, I realize that the spike in energy has been -- is relatively new. But I was hoping you could give some perspective on historical how, like, demand has trended after a sustained elevated energy environment, whether it's on your B2B partners or your B2C partners. I'm just curious if you could just help talk about a little bit about demand shock, like, when you would expect that to happen? I realize you're not seeing it now. But if it were, like, what are you looking for? How are you talking to customers today? What are they saying to you currently about their outlook right now?

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, Conor, for the question. Obviously, this is not a -- there are so many factors that go into demand. As we look into the fourth quarter, our current expectation is that the demand trends fundamentally remain unchanged. And our first 2 weeks in March have essentially been in line with our expectation. Obviously, we will monitor this extremely carefully. One thing that you hopefully will now recognize is that we are focused on the things that we can control and the resilience that now we have built into our system to manage through these kinds of changes. So that's what we're doing. We expect the demand trends to be reasonably good to continue into the Q4 as we have laid out, and we'll, again, monitor and adjust as we need.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Jonathan Chappell with Evercore ISI.

Jonathan Chappell

Analyst

John Smith and Marshall, I know you'll probably touch on this on April 8, but I want to take the opportunity here as well. If you look at the margin at FedEx Freight, it's like at a 5-year low. I understand that the macro is not great. You're obviously hiring a bunch of people trying to get ready for the spin and to be a stand-alone company. But if we look at some of the other metrics like shipment rate of change is decelerating, weights moving up a little, but not much, yields moving up a little bit but not much. It feels like this is more top line driven than maybe we're seeing in other parts of the LTL segment, especially over the last quarter or 2. So what kind of stems the tide on those revenue drivers, those top line drivers? Is that something that's strictly macro? Or is there something that's going on as you're unbundling maybe from FEC to FedEx Freight that can kind of, I don't know, maybe flip switch in the right macro backdrop as you start as a stand-alone entity?

Marshall Witt

Analyst

Jonathan, this is Marshall. I'll start and then pitch it over to John Smith if he has any follow-up questions. So good observation. Generally, at the highest level, I do think it's a broader LTL market that we're in, and there's nothing necessarily unique about our volumes and what we're seeing in the various attributes of revenue. But with that said, we certainly recognize that we do and need to continue to improve our yield growth. If I think about where I believe those will come from, we will expect to continue to improve our customer experience. As Brie has mentioned -- had mentioned, we expect to continue to be disciplined in our pricing, contract renewals. We also believe that the continued momentum will continue with this dedicated sales team, which John may speak to in a little bit. And then we'll continue to enhance our priority economy product offerings.

John Smith

Analyst

Yes, Jonathan, just to add to that, Marshall mentioned our sales team. I wanted to expound on that. We have been hiring since February, a dedicated LTL sales team, and we're basically complete with that and it's a mix of both great internal candidates and external hires. And our goal is to provide an outstanding sales experience and it'd be data-driven with personalized service for our customers. So the sales team also is strategically positioned across our network to align closely with our customers and our operations as well as our best asset, our drivers. So we're really excited about getting that team up and running and feel really good about the future going forward.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Chris Wetherbee with Wells Fargo.

Christian Wetherbee

Analyst

I guess, I wanted to ask on the cost side. So it looks like this year is trending better than expected. You sort of reduced the cost dynamic in the bridge. It sounds like you'll be above the $1 billion of savings. Although, Raj, I think you mentioned $2 billion cumulative by the end of next year is still the way to think about it. I guess, where are there further opportunities on the cost side? And maybe if we can take a peek a little early at the bridge for next fiscal year. I know you're going to be changing into calendar, so it's a little bit confusing there. But what are the big pieces we should be thinking about? I know trade costs drop away, but what are the other factors that are sort of in your control?

John Dietrich

Analyst

Right. Thanks, Chris. And really, it's across the board is where we're focusing on our costs. We're delighted, as we said in our remarks that we're going to be actually exceeding the $1 billion in transformation-related savings. And the improvement has been the -- based on the favorable execution on our structural cost-out initiatives through drive and through SG&A. Our maintenance costs are down. And as I've said before, in this category, we view that as kind of a journey, not a destination. It's part of our culture. And so as we continue to migrate down One FedEx, Network 2.0, we're going to be continuing to find and discover more and more savings opportunities and efficiencies, and we're starting to see the leverage of that as you saw in Q3, which was a large part of the benefit that we saw, particularly in our base expense numbers. So we're excited about the future and where it's going to take us, and we're going to be relentless in going after our costs.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Jordan Alliger with Goldman Sachs.

Jordan Alliger

Analyst

I'm just sort of curious, the ground commercial business, which I think has been up 1% or so for the last couple of quarters. Presumably, there's -- that's business-to-business. So I'm just sort of wondering what B2B side of the equation will ultimately drive that growth rate up?

Brie Carere

Analyst

Jordan, thanks for the question. So yes, ground commercial is B2B. That is sort of the backbone of the ground product portfolio. From a focus perspective, we think actually 3 of the 4 big health care -- or 3 of the 4 big vertical focuses are targeted in that area. So we know automotive has opportunity in ground commercial, and we're very focused on that. As I mentioned, we've been looking at some of the opportunity to expand our weekend even further and use our weekend coverage for commercial purposes versus just e-commerce purposes, and we see some opportunity there. We know that as data centers expand that, yes, there will be some LTL business for my friends over at freight. But in addition, there is going to be some parcel business going to drive commercial up. And then also, I still have small business market share opportunity in this segment. This is an opportunity. The team has done an outstanding job from an SMB perspective. It has really been a great win this year for us as well and really getting our field sales team focused on the ground commercial products. So those are some of the focus areas there and the opportunity.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Eric Morgan with Barclays.

Eric Morgan

Analyst

I just wanted to follow up on the fuel comments. Raj, I know you mentioned the net surcharge impact will be relatively muted in FEC in 4Q. Can you just clarify what level of fuel prices you're assuming there? And then maybe just any help with the math, I think, would be helpful because I know you don't report surcharge dollars, but you have taken a lot of action on the surcharge curve moving it up over the last few years. So just curious how we should be thinking of the net fuel effect at different levels of fuel.

Brie Carere

Analyst

Yes. So it's a fair question. From a fuel surcharge perspective, the price of fuel, it's not that relevant. The index takes care of it. And so from a Q4 perspective, I think the implications are it's updated every week. There is a lag. So at the beginning of this quarter, obviously, we have some catch-up to do because of how quickly prices rose. I think most important is as they come down, we will also benefit because obviously, we benefit for the lag on the way down. In Q4, we are not anticipating material upside from the fuel. So it's really not relevant from this quarter perspective.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Brian Ossenbeck with JPMorgan.

Brian Ossenbeck

Analyst

Maybe just to come back to Marshall for a second here. You're talking about the impact of some of the, I guess, spin-off costs or separation costs for the business. And it sounds like it's people and some hiring and investment, and some of those are being held within they're not being adjusted out. But then on the walk to adjusted EPS, there's an additional $100 million of separation costs that are -- actually are adjusted out. So I just want to make sure I understand what's in and what's out and what's increasing here. And then maybe just following up on fuel to wrap it all up, if you can just give us a sense in terms of how this will -- how this fuel price spike will impact the freight business here in the fourth quarter.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Marshall, over to you.

Marshall Witt

Analyst

Brian, I'll take it first in terms of the -- what's in and what's out. So for both the GAAP and non-GAAP, on the GAAP side, those investments that I spoke to that you just confirmed are the key drivers for why we saw those accelerate from the beginning of the year to the end. If you think about H1 versus H2, the majority of those costs was in separation, I'll call it GAAP separation costs. And again, they don't qualify as non-GAAP. So they are included in GAAP expenses are driven by that. From a non-GAAP, the $700 million, John Dietrich, I'll probably lean on you. I think part of that increase is probably for the same reason. It's the cost of investments in technology platforms and other professional fees that are related to building out those platforms. But I just wanted to check with you on that.

John Dietrich

Analyst

Yes. Thanks, Marshall, and that's exactly right. I think another important note is that incremental $100 million we're talking about is not incremental to the total project. It's just acceleration of investment that will benefit freight in the postspin environment. So I want to make that point clear.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

And do you want to take the fuel, John Smith?

John Smith

Analyst

Yes, I'll take the fuel. When you think about it from a FedEx Freight perspective, our fuel surcharge, just like Brie said, the index updates weekly, and it's designed to protect our profitability. Our fuel surcharge is never truly a pure pass-through, but it's typically a net positive for FedEx Freight above our cost of fuel. The fuel surcharge can be a year-over-year headwind or a tailwind in any given year. And it's really, remember, only one element of our pricing strategy to truly drive improved revenue quality.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Jason Seidl with TD Cowen.

Jason Seidl

Analyst

Congratulations on the good quarter. I want to go back to the LTL front. And I think we all realize it's been a challenging demand environment for all the LTL carriers. But we've just had 2 good industrial index numbers for the first time in forever. And I'm assuming that as you come to the end of hiring all the new salespeople, there's going to be a ramp time until they start producing some fruits for their labor. And should we look at this as going forward that you could see some -- maybe some sequential tailwinds on the LTL side?

John Smith

Analyst

Well, Jason, I hope you tune in to our Investor Day on April 8. That's where we're going to share a lot of detail about our go-forward strategy. And with that said, anyone who knows me from my FedEx tenure knows that I always prioritize safety above all with a total focus on our people, but also an extreme focus on revenue quality as well as strong execution. So I look forward to introducing you to our senior leadership team and laying out our strategy over for the next several years going forward for freight. And we put together a very strong team of internal and external talent on our leadership team, and we're excited to share what we believe is an extremely compelling story of Freight as a stand-alone public company. And again, we will share long-term targets covering revenue, profit, other operational and financial metrics.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Raj Subramaniam for any closing remarks.

Rajesh Subramaniam

Analyst

Thank you, operator. In closing, this quarter's results are a direct reflection of disciplined execution of our strategic priorities. I'm incredibly optimistic about our path forward and extend my sincere thanks to Team FedEx for their relentless focus and dedication. We will continue to build on this momentum as we deliver significant value for our customers and stockholders. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.