UPS Freight Returns to the No. 6 in Kansas

For the second and final time this season, UPS Freight will be featured on David Ragan’s No. 6 Ford Fusion .

As David makes his third Cup Series start at Kansas Speedway this weekend, his car’s design will incorporate the gray of UPS Freight, along with traditional UPS brown and gold crushed glass coloring. These colors reflect UPS Freight vehicles that are out on the roads each and every day.

“The last time our team ran the UPS Freight car, we heard a lot of compliments from fans about how much they liked how the car looked,” said David. “It’s always neat to have a different design on the car, and this one definitely stands out on track. UPS employees are second to none, so it’s great to have a special design that brings some extra attention to a specific part of UPS. We’ll do our best to put the UPS Freight Ford Fusion in Victory Lane this weekend in Kansas.”

UPS Speeds Transit Times to Kansas

Center of the country now three days from either coast

UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload division of UPS, cut transit times between northeast Kansas and more than 70 cities from California to Virginia.

The expedited transit times will mean next-day service from Manhattan, Salina and Marysville in Northeast Kansas, to Wichita, Kan., Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo., Tulsa, Okla., and Des Moines, Iowa.

In addition, as a result of the direct routing, Houston, Nashville and New Orleans all fall into an expanded two-day window for the three northeast Kansas locales, UPS said. Freight destined for Northeast Kansas from as far as Los Angeles and San Diego and Norfolk and Richmond, Va., will arrive within three business days.

Overall, the company has reduced transit times on some 16,000 lanes over the past two years.

YRC sees up to $185 mln in charges; stock plummets

U.S. truck firm YRC Worldwide Inc said on Tuesday it expects to report first-quarter charges of up to $185 million due to ongoing restructuring of its network and the faltering U.S. economy, sending its shares down 20 percent.

In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, YRC said the charges include severance pay and pension settlements.

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company also said that daily freight tonnage in its U.S. national network was down 29 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

The U.S. trucking sector has suffered from weak freight volumes since the third quarter of 2006 due to a combination of weak retail and auto sales, the meltdown of the housing sector and the decline of the overall economy.

This has forced truckers to slash prices to compete for business.

YRC has had additional problems of its own because of over-capacity in its network following a couple of big acquisitions in 2003 and 2005.

The company has slashed jobs, closed facilities and its unionized workers agreed to more flexible conditions. They approved a 10 percent wage cut in January in return for 15 percent stake in the company.

In February the company also finalized an amendment with its lenders on its credit facilities, a step seen by analysts as crucial to avoiding collapse.

In its filing on Tuesday, YRC said it expects to have 400 facilities by the end of 2009, compared with 521 at the end of 2008.

The company plans capital expenditures of $130 million, and said they could reach a maximum of $150 million.

YRC said it still expects to raise around $100 million in excess property sales in 2009, with $18 million raised in the first quarter.