EXPD, §1A diff (2016 → 2017)

ITEM 1A - RISK FACTORS RISK FACTORS DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE International Trade Expeditors primarily provides services to customers engaged in international commerce. Everything that affects international trade has the potential to expand or contract our primary market and adversely impact our operating results. For example, international trade is influenced by: • currency exchange rates and currency control regulations; • interest rate fluctuations; • changes and uncertainties in governmental policies, such as taxation, quota restrictions, other forms of trade barriers and/or restrictions and trade accords; • changes in and application of international and domestic customs, trade and security regulations; • wars, strikes, civil unrest, acts of terrorism, and other conflicts; • changes in labor and other costs; • natural disasters and pandemics; • changes in consumer attitudes regarding goods made in countries other than their own; • changes in availability of credit; • changes in the price and readily available quantities of oil and other petroleum-related products; and • increased global concerns regarding working conditions and environmental sustainability. Service Providers As a non-asset based provider of global logistics services, Expeditors depends on a variety of asset-based service providers, including air, ocean and ground freight carriers. The quality and profitability of our services depend upon effective selection, management and discipline of service providers. In recent years, many of our service providers have incurred significant operating losses and are highly leveraged with debt. Additionally, several ocean carriers have consolidated, with the potential for more to occur in the future. Changes in the financial stability, operating capabilities and capacity of asset-based carriers and space allotment made available to Expeditors by asset-based carriers could affect us in unpredictable ways. Any combination of reduced carrier capacity, pricing volatility or more limited carrier transportation schedules could negatively impact our ability to maintain historical profitability. Expeditors' carriers are subject to increasingly stringent laws, which could directly or indirectly have a material adverse effect on our business. Future regulatory developments in the U.S. and abroad could adversely affect operations and increase operating costs in transportation industries, which in turn could increase our purchased transportation costs. If we are unable to pass such costs on to our customers, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. Key Personnel Identifying, training and retaining key employees is essential to continued growth and future profitability. Effective succession planning is an important element of our programs. Failure to ensure an effective transfer of knowledge and smooth transitions involving key employees could hinder our ability to execute on our business strategies and level of service. The loss of the services of one or more key personnel could have an adverse effect on our business. We must continue to develop and retain management personnel to address issues of succession planning. We believe that our compensation programs, which have been in place since we became a publicly traded entity, are among the unique characteristics responsible for differentiating our performance from that of many of our competitors. Significant changes to compensation programs could affect our performance and ability to attract and retain key personnel. Technology Expeditors relies heavily and must compete based upon the flexibility and sophistication of the technologies utilized in performing our core businesses. Future results depend on our success in developing competitive and reliable systems to address the needs of our customers and suppliers. Development and maintenance of these systems must be accomplished in a cost-effective manner and support the use of secure protocols, including integration and availability of third party technology. We are continually enhancing our systems, including significant upgrades to core operating and accounting systems. These efforts are inherently complex and if not managed properly could lead to disruptions in our operations or our ability to remain competitive. 11. RISK FACTORS DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE Network Continuity and Cybersecurity As Expeditors, our customers and suppliers continue to increase reliance on systems, and as additional features are added, the risks also increase. Any significant disruptions to our global systems or the Internet for any reason, which could include equipment or network failures; co-location facility failures; power outages; sabotage; employee error or other actions; cyber-attacks or other security breaches; reliance on third party technology; geo-political activity or natural disasters; all of which could have a material negative effect on our results. This could include loss of revenue; business disruptions (such as the inability to timely process shipments); loss of property, including trade secrets and confidential information; legal claims and proceedings; reporting delays or errors; interference with regulatory reporting; significant remediation costs; an increase in costs to protect our systems and technology; or damage to our reputation. Foreign Operations The majority of Expeditors' revenues and operating income comes from operations conducted outside the United States. To maintain a global service network, we may be required to operate in hostile locations and in dangerous situations. Doing business in foreign locations also subjects us to a variety of risks and considerations not normally encountered by domestic enterprises. In addition, we operate in parts of the world where common business practices could constitute violations of the anti-corruption laws, rules, regulations and decrees of the United States and of other countries in which we conduct business, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act; as well as trade and exchange control laws, or laws, regulations and Executive Orders imposing embargoes and sanctions; and anti-boycott laws and regulations. Compliance with these laws, rules, regulations and decrees is dependent on our employees, service providers, agents, third party brokers and customers, whose individual actions could violate these laws, rules, regulations and decrees. Failure to comply could result in substantial penalties and additional expenses, damage to our reputation and restrictions on our ability to conduct business. Growth Expeditors has historically relied primarily upon organic growth and has tended to avoid growth through acquisition. Future results will depend upon our ability to anticipate and adapt to constantly evolving supply chain requirements and innovations. To continue to grow organically, we must gain profitable market share in a highly competitive environment and successfully develop and market new service offerings. When investment opportunities arise, our success could be dependent on our ability to evaluate and integrate acquisitions. Regulatory Environment Expeditors is affected by ever increasing regulations from a number of sources in the United States and in foreign locations in which we operate. Many of these regulations are complex and require varying degrees of interpretation, including those related to trade compliance, data privacy, employment, compensation and competition, and may result in unforeseen costs. In reaction to the continuing global terrorist threat, governments around the world are continuously enacting or updating security regulations. These regulations are multi-layered, increasingly technical in nature and characterized by a lack of harmonization of substantive requirements among various governmental authorities. Furthermore, the implementation of these regulations, including deadlines and substantive requirements, can be driven by regulatory urgencies rather than industry's realistic ability to comply. Failure to consistently and timely comply with these regulations, or the failure, breach or compromise of our policies and procedures or those of our service providers or agents, may result in increased operating costs, damage to our reputation, restrictions on operations or fines and penalties. Competition The global logistics services industry is intensely competitive and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. There are a large number of companies competing in one or more segments of the industry, but the number of firms with a global network that offer a full complement of logistics services is more limited. Nevertheless, many of these competitors have significantly more resources than Expeditors, and are actively pursuing acquisition opportunities and are developing new technologies to gain competitive advantages. Depending on the location of the shipper and the importer, we must compete against both the niche players, larger entities including carriers, and emerging technology companies. The primary competitive factors are price and quality of service. Many larger customers utilize the services of multiple logistics providers. Customers regularly solicit bids from competitors in order to improve service and to secure favorable pricing and contractual terms such as longer payment terms, fixed-price arrangements, higher or unlimited liability limits and performance penalties. Increased competition and competitors' acceptance of expanded contractual terms could result in reduced revenues, reduced margins, higher operating costs or loss of market share, any of which would damage our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. 12. RISK FACTORS DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE Taxes Expeditors is subject to many taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. In many of these jurisdictions, the tax laws are very complex and are open to different interpretations and application. Tax authorities frequently implement new taxes and change their tax rates and rules, including interpretations of those rules. In December 2017, the United States made significant changes to its tax laws, which added complexity and uncertainty in calculating corporate tax liabilities. We are regularly under audit by tax authorities, including transfer pricing inquiries. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits, including any potential penalties and interest, could be materially different from our tax provisions and accruals and negatively impact our financial results. Litigation/Investigations As a multinational corporation, Expeditors is subject to formal or informal investigations from governmental authorities or others in the countries in which we do business. In addition, we may become subject to civil litigation with our customers, service providers and other parties with whom we do business. These investigations and litigation may require significant management time and could cause us to incur substantial additional legal and related costs, which may include fines, penalties or damages that could have a materially adverse impact on our financial results. Economic Conditions The global economy and capital and credit markets continue to experience uncertainty and volatility. Unfavorable changes in economic conditions may result in lower freight volumes and adversely affect Expeditors' revenues and operating results, as experienced in 2009 and 2012. These conditions may adversely affect certain of our customers and service providers. Were that to occur, our revenues and net earnings could also be adversely affected. Should our customers’ ability to pay deteriorate, additional bad debts may be incurred. Predictability of Results Expeditors is not aware of any accurate means of forecasting short-term customer requirements. However, long-term customer satisfaction depends upon our ability to meet these unpredictable short-term customer requirements. Personnel costs, our single largest expense, are always less flexible in the very near term as we must staff to meet uncertain demand. As a result, short-term operating results could be disproportionately affected. A significant portion of Expeditors' revenues is derived from customers in retail and technology industries whose shipping patterns are tied closely to consumer demand and from customers in industries whose shipping patterns are dependent upon just-in-time production schedules. Therefore, the timing of our revenues are, to a large degree, impacted by factors out of our control, such as a sudden change in consumer demand for retail goods, product launches and/or manufacturing production delays. Additionally, many customers ship a significant portion of their goods at or near the end of a quarter, and therefore, we may not learn of a shortfall in revenues until late in a quarter. To the extent that a shortfall in revenues or earnings was not expected by securities analysts or investors, any such shortfall from levels predicted by securities analysts or investors could have an immediate and adverse effect on the trading price of our stock. Volatile market conditions can create situations where rate increases charged by carriers and other service providers are implemented with little or no advance notice. We often times cannot pass these rate increases on to our customers in the same time frame, if at all. As a result, our yields and margins can be negatively impacted, as recently experienced, particularly with ocean freight. Catastrophic Events A disruption or failure of Expeditors' systems or operations in the event of a major earthquake, weather event, cyber-attack, terrorist attack, strike, civil unrest, pandemic or other catastrophic event could cause delays in providing services or performing other mission-critical functions. Our corporate headquarters and certain other critical business operations are in the Seattle, Washington area, which is near major earthquake faults. A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business or information technology systems could harm our ability to conduct normal business operations and our operating results. 13. ITEM 1B