“And while we certainly expect better availability, better service and more flexibility with our crew boards, providing more access to time off likely adds employees and expense.”

In context

“e view these costs as added inflationary pressures that we will reflect in our pricing. For the brake person agreement, we've already seen the impact of that upfront payment. Our expected payback period is roughly two years as it allows us to redeploy crew personnel, save on costly borrow-out positions as well as reduce our current hiring needs. Implementation of the BLET work rest agreement will start over the next month or so with completion likely in 2024. For this year, we estimate the work rest implementation will cost upwards of $20 million. The challenge in putting a finer point on that estimate is both timing and forecasting employee behavior. We don't yet have an agreement with SMART-TD, and we are still working through some technology and logistics before we start the rollout. And while we certainly expect better availability, better service and more flexibility with our crew boards, providing more access to time off likely adds employees and expense. The exact math depends on how employees utilize this greater flexibility as well as how we translate better predictability into increased levels of productivity and service that ultimately drive profitable growth on our railroad. Looking at our 2023 capital allocation. Our capital plan remains $3.6 billion. We also plan to maintain our current dividend of $1.30 per quarter as reflected in our dividend announcement this morning. However, we have paused share repurchases and don't expect to be back in the market for the remainder of 2023. While there's no change to our long-term capital allocation strategy, which is first dollar into the business, industry-leading dividend payment and excess cash to shares, we recognize our cash flows are impacted in the current environment with volumes a”