YRC cuts quarterly loss to $2 million, going back to Yellow brand

Goodbye YRC Worldwide, welcome back Yellow. 

YRC Worldwide, a holding company that collectively controls about 10% of the $46 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) marketplace, is trimming its quarterly losses and going back to its branding roots. It is resurrecting the venerable “Yellow” brand.

Founded as Yellow Cab Transit in 1924 (and later shortened to Yellow Transit in 1926), the company was known for decades as Yellow Freight, or simply “Yellow.” Following its purchase of long-haul LTL rival Roadway Express in 2003, it changed to Yellow Roadway Corp., and later simply YRC.

“Following an in-depth study, Yellow is the right brand and it’s the right time to modernize our existing holding company brand in conjunction with our enterprise transformation,” CEO Darren Hawkins said in a statement.

He said YRC Worldwide was selected over a decade ago when company strategy under direction of previous CEO Bill Zollars included pursuits outside of North America, including as far away as China.

“Today we have one of the largest, most comprehensive LTL and logistics networks focused on serving North America and the Yellow brand, as the original LTL company, reflects a strong and proud history,” Hawkins said.

While the holding company will be known simply as Yellow, the company anticipates its LTL brands Holland, New Penn, Reddaway and long-haul YRC Freight, as well as HNRY Logistics will continue operating under their current names.

Whatever it’s called, Yellow’s finances have improved during the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Operating revenue was $1.183 billion and operating income was $19.4 million. In comparison, operating revenue in the third quarter of 2019 was $1.257 billion and operating income was $23.8 million, which included a $1 million net loss on property disposals.

Yellow’s net loss for third quarter was $2 million compared with a net loss of $16 million in third quarter 2019. 

“During the quarter we transitioned to managing our business in a tighter capacity environment and setting the stage for 2021,” Hawkins said, adding that improving tonnage trends late in Q3 allowed LTL pricing “to firm up with less volatility expected moving forward.”

The company said it ended the quarter with just over $450 million in liquidity. At the beginning of the quarter, the company secured a commitment with the US Treasury and in October it received the first $75 million of the $400 million in Tranche B funds from the CARES act to combat coronavirus-related losses. Hawkins said that money would go to modernizing YRC’s fleet.

LTL revenue per hundredweight including fuel surcharge decreased 4.0%; however, LTL weight per shipment increased 2.2% resulting in an LTL revenue per shipment decrease of 1.9% when compared to the same period in 2019, the company said. Excluding fuel surcharge, LTL revenue per hundredweight was down 1.4% and LTL revenue per shipment was up 0.8%.

LTL tonnage per day decreased 4.1% when compared to 3Q19. LTL tonnage per day improved 6.2% in September as compared to August. Consolidated operating ratio for the quarter was 98.4 compared to 98.1 in 3Q19, the company said.

In a related development that the company said was not part of any internal disagreement, Jamie Pierson has resigned as the chief financial officer and its board.

“Jamie has been instrumental in several financial transactions at critical times that have helped preserve an essential part of the American supply chain and the livelihoods of 30,000 families,” Hawkins said. Pierson is credited with helping facilitate a $700 million loan from the CARES Act to help YRC cope with financial fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dan Olivier was named interim CFO. He has 22 years with YRC, including 12 years as the vice president of finance at Holland, its Central States regional LTL unit. Most recently Olivier was vice president, financial planning and analysis at YRC Worldwide.