Thursday, November 05, 2009

Yellow Brick Wall: Undercutting YRC keeps LTL rates down

Sometimes the highways can look a lot like the jungle landscape seen in reruns of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Marlin Perkins narrated the '60's-era show back then, but today it's The Wall Street Journal reporting predatory activity along the trucking LTL food chain.

The Prey? Beleaguered LTL freight giant Yellow-Roadway Corp. (YRC), which, the Journal reports, has been under raptor-like attack from its competitors who are trying to price the carrier out of business.

And because of the size of market share controlled by the carriers involved, the cutthroat pricing is keeping rates depressed across the entire sector.

David Congdon, CEO of Old Dominion Freight Line, told the paper that although the recession has led to the worst pricing environment he's ever seen, some pricing trends "likely stem from deliberate moves to undercut YRC," which has flirted with bankruptcy more than once this year. Full Story......

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