First the Roush family sold Caliper and then Roadway Corporation.
Yellow | Yrc Freight to drop the R Yellow Freight
- Thread starter 2fast2me
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Why, oh, why, do so many blame the "R" or the "Y"??? I am so tremendously sick of hearing it's Yellow, or it's Roadway as the cause of the demise of 2 great companies. IT WAS MANAGEMENT!!!! Dollar Bill to be precise! As for myself and my co-workers, we showed up every frickin' day, did our job (some of us even did a little extra) and those that are still there, for the most, part continue to do so. For gawd sake, QUIT blaming the "R" or the "Y". Do the job, as a professional, and expect, hope and pray that those in the Crystal Palace will do the same. It is not the same management! They got into this predicament because of some terrible managers/executives! I truly believe that it will take some considerable time for Mr. Welch and his crew to realize just exactly how much damage was done by good old "Bankrupt'em Bill". Then it will take even more time to correct it all. It may never happen, but if anyone can get YRC back on the right path.... my money would be on James Welch.
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SHOTGUN716
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I agree papajim, & there would b less riffs amongst us & on truckingboards, too many will not let go& I like u am tired of hearing it, precisely why I rarely get on, before it became an open forum & the name change from yellow freight ( can't remember if it was trucking boards or what after it) there was less complaining, now that's all there is & saying the same ol y or r, we're riding the same pony & if we don't work together to do what's necessary there won't b the pony we'll all b outside lookin in. Time to let it go & go forward.
Roadway Services was the holding company that spun off Roadway Express and then became Caliber. Fedex bought Caliper. Roadway Express then started Roadway Corporation who was bought by Yellow Corporation.
I really need to spend more time here... just don't since I was laid off a few years ago - politics is more fun :p
Regarding Technology: Roadway owned no technology. It was all outsourced. They were faced with a huge uptick in technology spend, either to continue the outsourcing arrangement, or buy new computing equipment to bring it back in house.
Both companies had some very good technology, some very good architecture, some very good computing - Roadway's back end IT systems were older, but their in-cab stuff was better than anything Yellow had. Yellow had incredible planning, loading, and finance systems. Both relied on some technology that was inadvisable. Roadway had Model204, and ancient environment with little support, Yellow had AS/400s and an in-house specially developed planning system, along with a trailer system based on a specially developed in-house program that was a bear to maintain.
I was involved in the planning and decision process for technology. I can tell you that the Roadway IT folks either lied or simply didn't know the extent of their liabilities. The ultimate decision was primarily made on cost, and secondarily on the systems that Yellow and Roadway folks wanted to see. The "Yellow" proposal for technology was significantly more costly than the "Roadway" proposal... however, after a couple of years of implementation, the actuals out of that financially were significantly upside down. The "omissions" in Roadway IT cost millions more than even the Yellow proposal.
That's the truth of the technology equation - but I've said this before... The faults and failures of Yellow, Roadway, and the combined companies are shared equally by all involved. Executives made bad decisions, Management did, Drivers did, Line workers did, Union and Non-Union employees alike. The companies combined at the wrong time. I have no doubt had the bubble not burst, that both companies would be riding high today - because they just had that much momentum behind them. Sadly that momentum was on the downhill portion of that trip.
It's easy to blame the "other guy" for failure. The truth is somewhere in between.
I remember the early days of this. Yellow employees were exhorted again and again that there will be no "us and them", that we are all a team, that this made us all stronger, "so lets work together!" There's only so much that pep talks can do. Years later - these same arguments, it's sad, really.
Regarding Technology: Roadway owned no technology. It was all outsourced. They were faced with a huge uptick in technology spend, either to continue the outsourcing arrangement, or buy new computing equipment to bring it back in house.
Both companies had some very good technology, some very good architecture, some very good computing - Roadway's back end IT systems were older, but their in-cab stuff was better than anything Yellow had. Yellow had incredible planning, loading, and finance systems. Both relied on some technology that was inadvisable. Roadway had Model204, and ancient environment with little support, Yellow had AS/400s and an in-house specially developed planning system, along with a trailer system based on a specially developed in-house program that was a bear to maintain.
I was involved in the planning and decision process for technology. I can tell you that the Roadway IT folks either lied or simply didn't know the extent of their liabilities. The ultimate decision was primarily made on cost, and secondarily on the systems that Yellow and Roadway folks wanted to see. The "Yellow" proposal for technology was significantly more costly than the "Roadway" proposal... however, after a couple of years of implementation, the actuals out of that financially were significantly upside down. The "omissions" in Roadway IT cost millions more than even the Yellow proposal.
That's the truth of the technology equation - but I've said this before... The faults and failures of Yellow, Roadway, and the combined companies are shared equally by all involved. Executives made bad decisions, Management did, Drivers did, Line workers did, Union and Non-Union employees alike. The companies combined at the wrong time. I have no doubt had the bubble not burst, that both companies would be riding high today - because they just had that much momentum behind them. Sadly that momentum was on the downhill portion of that trip.
It's easy to blame the "other guy" for failure. The truth is somewhere in between.
I remember the early days of this. Yellow employees were exhorted again and again that there will be no "us and them", that we are all a team, that this made us all stronger, "so lets work together!" There's only so much that pep talks can do. Years later - these same arguments, it's sad, really.
rickroadway
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i'm just putting this out there for trivia, i might be off, but as memory serves me, 1980 roadway express only, then they inc roadway services(holding co), rs owns roadway express, then rs (not express) goes on buying spree and buys Viking, Spartan, coles of maine, central freight lines tx, Roberts expedited, reimer Canada, they spend 400,000,000 dollars to start roadway global air( which never moves any freight) and a hhg mover that I can't recall the name. all these were owned by rs NOT roadway express. in 1996 the unionized roadway express was spun off from the nonunion rs who changed the name to caliber system. as roadway express regains momentum rs nearly goes bankrupt and sells off or closes coles, global air and sells the remaining caliber cos to fedex to become fedex ground and fedex time critical and Viking becomes fedex express west. roadway express slips away and gains momentum replacing seriously old equipment. alone they own a large percentage of real estate and equipment and use investment dollars to purchase new penn. analysts at the time before yellows buyout value roadway express at 4 billion dollars.
during this time yellow buys and liquidates preston, smalley, saia, jevic. then yellow buys roadway and liquidates huge amount of assets to pay for the buyout. they inc yrc (holding co) and buy usf cos )Holland, duggan, reddaway, glen moore all including yellow frt and roadway express are owned by yrc. then yrc decides to merge yellow with roadway and new penn with usf. what a history!
CF becomes Conway.
but all you need do is look back at ltl trucking since deregulation in 1980. of the top 100 motor carriers listed in distribution mag only 3 remain and not in their original form
CF, Yellow and Roadway and they are here because the only thing that remains the same is Change.
during this time yellow buys and liquidates preston, smalley, saia, jevic. then yellow buys roadway and liquidates huge amount of assets to pay for the buyout. they inc yrc (holding co) and buy usf cos )Holland, duggan, reddaway, glen moore all including yellow frt and roadway express are owned by yrc. then yrc decides to merge yellow with roadway and new penn with usf. what a history!
CF becomes Conway.
but all you need do is look back at ltl trucking since deregulation in 1980. of the top 100 motor carriers listed in distribution mag only 3 remain and not in their original form
CF, Yellow and Roadway and they are here because the only thing that remains the same is Change.
Is this your thesis for your Masters in ancient LTL history?
Approx 140 mm. Not over a billion.
Black Bart
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Your right R owned everything....it was all bought at the turn of the century tho
twisted-hippie
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Na YRCPM(Yellow Roadway Corporation Personal Movers) sounds more like a ................
As many COO'S we have been through the name really fits.
Roadway hadn't been profitable for several quarters prior to the merger/sale. If someone can prove that wrong show me. (New Penn was) They were both headed down the toilet. Basically once FedEx decided to play and CF became Conway we should have jumped on board with them or just jumped off the whole ship completely. This is just my opinion.
layoffsucks
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Any of the good R management people who knew how to run a barn and were tired of getting over looked and covering the Y people screw ups have started to move on. I'll always miss the big R. But, ABF is quite similar to the way the big R was... 326 prime example. BB left when he had to do TF's work and cover his a$$ back in July.
So now we will be known as YRC Feight?
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Might as well throw my opinion in. If Roadway had sold to UPS when they were approached prior to the Yellow purchase, Roadway would be under the UPS umbrella, Yellow would be gone, the birds would be singing and the sun would be shining.
Kingfishcafe
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Don't they mean yellow leased a good computer system, as for the big R well once it was bought by yellow pretty much everything came to a standstill, people seem to forget the smid was running us into the ground long before the merger