YRC Worldwide Inc. will lay off about 3,750 drivers and dockworkers as it merges its Yellow Transportation and Roadway carriers, a 15 percent reduction in its 25,000 employees, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.Overland Park, Kan.,-based YRC said Sept. 8 that it was speeding up the integration of Yellow Transportation and Roadway.
The company's earnings and revenue fell during the third quarter as the economic slowdown continued to take a toll.
YRC is a less-than-truckload operator and a direct competitor of Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best Corp. and California-based Con-Way Inc.
This is the third round of layoffs taken this year by YRC Worldwide.
Earlier this month, YRC Logistics Inc. cut 50 jobs in St. Louis and about 150 in nearby Edwardsville, Ill., as part of a change in service providers by one of its clients.
In February, YRC said it would close 27 such facilities at USF, with the loss of 1,100 jobs.
Like the rest of the U.S. trucking sector, YRC's business has been hit by a combination of weak retail and auto sales, and an overall crumbling housing sector.
More than 1,900 trucking companies have failed this year, the highest level of industry bankruptcies in more than seven years. Analysts estimate 4.5 percent of the U.S. trucking fleet was idled in the first three quarters of 2008.
Analysts have questioned whether in a prolonged downturn YRC will be able to pay down its debt and maintain cash flow. The trucking company says that it will be able to do both.
Shares of YRC closed Thursday at $4, down 20 cents on normal volume with 3.19 million shares trading hands.
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