“We need to see how you plan to absorb the fuel surcharges on the winter routes across the Midwest.”

Michael moved to the next slide.

He tugged at his watch strap.

He aimed the remote at the screen.

His red ledger of custody dates sat right at the corner of his stack of folders, next to his coffee-stained quarterly budget sheets.

“If you look at column four, you’ll see a negotiated rate cut with our carrier fleet,” Michael said.

“That works out to eleven thousand four hundred dollars a month in savings.”