YRCW announces next steps in Yellow Transportation, Roadway network intregration

More than four months after announcing plans to integrate its two largest subsidiaries—Yellow Transportation and Roadway—less-than-truckload transportation services providers YRC Worldwide Inc. announced the new brand name for the combined Yellow Transportation and Roadway network is YRC.

Last September, YRCW announced its intention to hasten the integration strategies of Yellow Transportation and Roadway, due to what company Chairman, President, and CEO Bill Zollars described as a positive customer response from meshing its sales teams, coupled with the economic downturn creating the capacity in the company’s networks that is needed to effectively integrate its operations, while improving service reliability and speed. And he added at the time that by offering a comprehensive service portfolio though one network would be a better tool to effectively serve customers.

YRCW officials said the YRC is “ahead of schedule to successfully integrate its national networks by early spring.” They added that since October approximately 80 shared service centers have been opened to manage the combined network and serve as a single interface fore Roadway and Yellow Transportation customers.

And when the network integration is complete, there will be around 450 YRC service centers, representing roughly 100 more service centers than the individual Roadway and Yellow networks. Company officials noted that in major metropolitan areas, the nearest YRC facility will be 20 percent closer to customers, allowing for quicker pick-ups and deliveries, increased flexibility, and reduced emissions, and they said that as part of the integration process YRC has added more than 21,000 direct new service points.

While the Yellow Transportation/Roadway integration has been in motion since September, the original plan was to keep the Yellow Transportation and Roadway names to maintain their own brands and presence in the LTL sector. And by operating one national network, YRCW said last year that it expects to increase its network density, with the result being lower fixed-costs and service improvements. The integration is expected to last through 2009 and result in more than $200 million in annual operating savings.

In a September interview with Logistics Management,YRC North American Transportation President and CEO Mike Smid said these savings will come from various sources. One being consolidating the number of facilities it operates out of from 650 to roughly 450, as it combines capacity in existing facilities as part of YRCW’s “one network, one operation” approach with this integration. Another area where savings will come from, said Smid, is local pickup and delivery handling.