Yellow | Chicago ridge reopening!
- Thread starter Yellow97
- Start date
The days of strictly ANYTHING are over. The more qualified WE become, the more work WE will have.
That IS the "nutshell."
I'll accept your feeble attempt at an apology.......It's actually more than I expected......
We stand at a fork in the road , so to speak. We have the opportunity to recognize that some work rules and practices negotiated and adopted during the heyday of unionized LTL are no longer practical. Are we going to become foot notes in history like the blacksmith, the telegraph operator, the linotype operator, etc? Or are we going to move forward and embrace changes that will insure our continued existence as well as, with some luck AND hard work, prosperity? Make no mistake, the choice is OUR'S.
A very frustrating aspect of the management of this organization is the at times condescending and patronizing dialog about business. With the many changes we have endured, those who remain (from janitors, clericals, dock men, and drivers, to dispatchers and other supervisory personnel) are an experienced and capable work force who DO know this industry. It's long over due, but please begin to treat us as an asset, because we are.
The future of not only YRC Freight but also Holland, New Penn and Reddaway is OURS to shape. Most here are proud of their heritage, but the time has come to abandon what was and begin to look to where we want to go!
I don't know who you speak for but here at holland the members voted 3 times in a row to give up our work rules years ago.everything goes to break bulks at night which road drivers do all the work.stripping,loading,hooking,droping,switching,everything.and that's 90% of our total road bids. So like I said,I don't know who you speak for but we have given enough,and the pos company still can't make a dime after all the years of stealing us blind.it's a wonder the junk even makes it to the break bulks at night.somebody just needs to put them out of their misery,I just hope it's a strike to finish them off. They are nothing but liars, thieves,and scammers.that's how they operate on a daily basis.what we have voted away for them they continue to treat us like dirt,and only continues to get worse.the equipment is laughable,the facilities are dumps and they are getting millions at the top.it's a real morale booster for sure.like I said ,LAUGhABLe.
I know you're a ray of sunshine. But realistically we, regardless of which company is your employer, CANNOT go back to what was. If you TRULY believe what you say .somebody just needs to put them out of their misery,I just hope it's a strike to finish them off. why stay here. I am as frustrated as ANYONE, but to continue to bemoan our fate as if we have NO control is futile. Just as I am sure you loved Holland, I also loved Roadway. But those days are gone. You seem to read and post here often enough to know my opinion on the condition of our equipment as well as our properties. The values and priorities of YRCW are a far cry from what each of us were accustomed to. But it is time to move forward or we will be left on the pile of once was.
If it is like you say at Holland, i.e., road drivers doing everything from driving to switching, dock,etc., then it must be working there since you guys do make a profit. 30-40 years ago when LTL was probably 75-80 unionized, we had the upper hand. But now the industry is about 85 % non, and to compete we will have to change, or we will be left behind. Used to be Yellow, and Roadway each did about 80,000 bills a day. Now Fed Ex and Conway do that, along with all of the others, and we are in the 40,s range as one company. My opinion is that we pretty much control our own destiny as far as whether or not we change ourselves to compete with them. You will always have that small percent of non- believers, and negative people at every barn, and that will never change. But I still think there are enough good, experienced people in this company with a positive attitude, good work ethic, and drive to do their job to the best of their ability, which is in my opinion what we need to help turn this thing around.
Holland and New-Penn actually are doing well. It is of the Freight division that is Mr Welch's greatest challenge right now. And WE should all realize that it is no small task. I like everyone else would like to have seen MORE change's come faster. But for many reason's unknown it takes time,kinda like saying Rome wasn't built in a day. But given Mr.Welch's time frame in office,the man deserve's more time to sort it all out and as Allbag said, WE need to move Forward.
what more do you feel we should give away to them? I don't understand your logic? We have given them billions in concessions alone,not counting work rules we give away also saving them major dollars. They don't fix anything,everything is wore out junk. I'm not looking back,I am looking ahead and see failure of all kinds.they don't respect any of us or any one,or our contract,what's left of it. I see no money or person in the world will pull them out of this black hole we have been in for 5 years. I stay here because I choose to and my seniority allows me to, that has nothing to due with our pos company's laughable operations. And holland made money hand over fist before they came in and changed every operational program that we had in place to make the money we did and ran us into the ground.and that is what we have become today,another bottom feeder company. We are a perfect example of a once was after yellow took over.our fate here is in managments hands now,not ours.they chose that path long ago, and it shows today.
another one I will ask,after giving them billions in concessions,not counting work rules given up,what more do you want to give them to waste for upper brass? This pos company will never compete with any one union or non,they would need 20,000 pieces of new equipment to start alone.they are finished,bottom line.
Team How many years do you have at Holland?
21 years here
muthatrucker
TB Lurker
- Credits
- 0
can we be realastic had zollars not wasted yellows money buying roachway and holland they wouldve gone out of bussiness anyway both companies had nothing but junk you dont even see the roadway dollys or pups anymore cause they were such pos after a while you get sick of hearing how great roachaway and holland were that being said if you hate it so much quit and go work somewhere el
se bitcdhin all the time will not change a thing its never going to spilt its one company now
se bitcdhin all the time will not change a thing its never going to spilt its one company now
Yellow who
TB Regular
- Credits
- 0
team, Welch made a major improvement by firing that dead weight fool Smid in his first month and replacing him with Rodgers, a freight man. The big problem I have with Welch and crew is the bonuses they took shortly after they were appointed, while we still work under concessions. Any improvement Welch makes will take time, the company is lucky to still be here today all in thanks to the Great Million Zollars. Rememeber every year under Zollars we were all going out of business at years end, I didnt hear any of that talk this year.. That in itself is an improvement..
Team 486, I do not agree with your expression of Yellow running Holland into the ground. Yellow if I remember left Holland management alone after the purchase,really did not upset the corp. ladder so to speak. Now let's remember the year's of 93-94 were of Consolidation that was inevitable because of de-regulation. The Teamster strike hurt many of companies big and small alike. Even TNT's mgmt. started to pull away from TMI during that time because the strike was in it's third week. I do know for fact that there was some kind of change of op's back somewhere in the 2007-08 time frame hard to remember exactly though. But in part of that included something to do with Holland. Well,it did not last long as Holland corp. talked to Yellow's and told them It is not working here. Yellow in K.C. told them go back and do what you do best and cancel what was in place. I do know from a friend of mine's brother that is a driver at Holland for many year's here in Ill. that back in 2007 thru 2009 give or take more, that YRC was diverting some freight to Holland from it's Freight division. Whether right or wrong, it helped keeping some Holland employee's from being on the unemployment line,and help Holland's bottom line till thing's got a little better. Back in the 80's Holland was the cadillac of Regional companie's here in the Midwest. NoBody could touch'em. They held some big account's with the Detroit automaker's. But prior to 2007-2008 and including, the automaker's did suffer a huge decline in Sales. From recessions. Therefore, it did put a big hurt on Holland not to mention the rest of their accounts.
I think what Allbag is saying,is it's not of giving back more money. I think we all gave enough. But as we see the the business climate change all around us. We have seen an ever increasing non-union companies business grow. We have lost alot of the customer base that Yellow & Roadway had prior to the merger. The integration of the 2 companies had to take place eventually by LAW. They could not remain seperate any longer. That in itself was a major fiasco that caused customer's to leave us. And the non,and union alike companies made out good over it. Such as UPS Freight, ABF,Fed-Ex ,Old Dominion,R&L carriers,Estes,Roadrunner. So given this climate now, how can we compete? The IBT know's very well WE are not going to give up anymore wages. The health insurance still is intact and is good compared to other's. What's the lesser of the evil's? Some work rule change's possibly that could help costs. Several month's ago,Dan Guetta (Regional VP) said, YRC intends on living up to the MOU.and return the 15%.
IMO, I do not see the pension plan going to remain the same down the road though. The IBT knew for a long time this bubble was getting bigger and bigger esp: after seeing companies closing up shop. The IBT has now been coming up with some of these New Hybrid Plan's they call it. And Yes, there is a mighty black hole that get bigger everyday that this company owes to the Pension Fund. I do not see how they could ever re-pay it. Nor, do I see if ABF was the Last Man Standing could afford such a liability. This has been brewing for many year's. Way before Zollars. I remember years and years ago, more than once Zollars saying, I do not mind paying for my employee's but we cannot afford to pay for the orphan's any longer. And the IBT did nothing. Once in awhile, I talk to a trucking analyst and one of the sharpest mind's in the industry IMO. Dave Ross from Stifel-Nichols. He once quoted many year's ago,Multiemplorer Pension Funds were DOOMED to FAIL from the start. Surely he was correct by the looks of the Pension Funds. Before de-reg, there were so many companies small union ones,midsize etc. that apparently the PIE had enough slices to it that they all shared profitability. Now I'm just say-in: if de-reg did not ever happen maybe then the Multi-Emplorer Plan would have been the Best thing out there.
Zollars did in Fact go on a spending spree purchasing companies. It was the Holland Purchase alone that former President J.Welch left Yellow. He did not agree with Z on the matter. Z wanted to be The largest trucking co. in the world. That purchase alone caused some dissent among the upper rungs of the corp. ladder. Then the Roadway one caused further emotion's and such as well. Whether paying to much,which was true as trucking analyst's have made mention of. Or, at the time the economic's of the time-frame simply was not worth it. Or perhaps' maybe to much of a financial strain at that time. Team486. many years ago,well before your time. Read my past posting to another member Yellow who in regards to Holland and Yellow. There you will really see what Yellow could have done to Holland for sure.
Remember, last contract the Union and Company both were handing out flyer's I remember: BEST CONTRACT EVER they said. It was about a month or less later the company sent Hoffa a letter stating their financial strain and needed to talk. Do Ya Think that was done by Design??????
The concessions we took adding it all up,would be like the employee's paid for the Roadway purchase the way I seen it. Very well Orchestrated, I thought then. If us,or the IBT refused there was no-way any lender would have came forward for sure. The IBT. sat down with ABF at one time asking them to buy YRC,and the only hang-up ABF had about it was they did not want to assume the pension liability YRC owed. Other wise they would have.
Like yourself,we are all frustrated. All we have left is Hope and still be the best we can be to help for now. Hopefully Mr. Welch's future changes will improve everything going FWD.
The FACTS remain: The very 1st. one is this I AM NO FAN OF BILL Z.
BUT !!!!
He did orchestrate many covenants,financial revolver's and a lot of SPIN and hooked lined and sinkered so to say the lender's and in fact the IBT. And did go through a few Financial Officers in doing so. He made promises that could not be financially feasible back to them. His work load was a lot to accomplish this. He did not run the everyday operation of the co. as most would think. That's why he has the rest of the ladder under him.
Since Mr.Welch has took control he has in fact did improve things in all our companies,and YES I wish he could go faster. We are only a service that's all we have to offer. We need to be efficient and streamlined and get try to get that lost customer base back. It's going to harder now than ever because of the companies I wrote above. Welch and the new Board of Dir. feel confident they can so far. The freight div. is the biggest sore spot. Hopefully things will turn for the better,if not were in trouble.
During his short interim he has met with all the lender's and had to re-negotiate what Zollars has done telling them that there is no-way these amounts can be met. He has also gained confidence from them that will help this company move forward,as well as some credit boost.
Hollands last OR was 93.5 considering everything going on around us that is NOT bad. Back in 1992 the OR for Holland was 90.4,NetProfitMargin5.9% ranking 8th. out of 50 carriers.
BOTTOM LINE FACT: All what Z did at least kept the door's open thus far. No matter right or wrong and how you slice it.
Just an old tidbit:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Transportation-Journal/16529030.html
Table 4. The Fifty Largest LTL Carriers of 1992; Net Profit Margin and
Operating Ratio; Ranked by 1992 Net Profit Margin
R Company and 1992 Rank NPM% OR
47 1 Pitt-Ohio Express 15.9 84.1
25 2 New Penn Mtr Exp 15.0 79.2
23 3 Estes Express Lines 9.5 85.3
18 4 AAA Cooper Trans 9.2 87.4
20 5 Southeastern Frt Lns 9.2 91.5
33 6 Roberts Express 7.6 88.3
4 7 Overnite Transportation 6.9 90.9
9 8 TNT Holland Mtr Exp 5.9 90.4
36 9 TNT Reddaway's Trk Ln 5.7 88.6
6 10 Con-Way Trans Service 5.0 90.7
17 11 Averitt Express 4.9 91.1
15 12 American Freightways 4.8 90.5
19 13 Old Dominion Frt Ln 4.3 91.6
26 14 A-P-A Transport 4.0 94.5
43 15 Wilson Trucking 3.9 95.0
29 16 Saia Motor Freight Ln 3.6 89.1
44 17 Motor Cargo 3.4 93.1
14 18 Viking Freight System 3.3 94.4
46 19 Southwestern Mtr Trans 3.2 95.6
16 20 Central Freight Lines 3.1 94.6
48 21 Lynden Transport 2.8 94.2
2 22 Roadway Express 2.7 95.8
38 23 Crouse Cartage 2.6 95.7
39 24 New England Mtr Frt 2.6 96.9
10 25 Watkins Motor Lines 2.4 92.8
12 26 NW Trans Service 2.3 95.2
11 27 Central Transport Inc 1.6 98.1
35 28 Transus Inc (GHX) 1.5 98.6
32 29 GI Trucking Co. 1.3 97.0
5 30 ABF Freight System 1.2 94.9
50 31 Fredrickson Mtr Exp 1.1 97.5
28 32 Central Cartage 1.1 98.3
30 33 Merchants Fast Mtr Lns 0.9 97.7
31 34 Hyman Freightways 0.8 97.9
1 35 Yellow Freight System 0.7 97.5
49 36 Ward Trucking 0.4 99.6
22 37 Churchill Truck Lines 0.3 100.0
40 38 TNT Bestway Trans 0.3 97.6
27 39 Advance Transportation 0.1 98.2
7 40 Carolina Freight Carriers -0.3 100.3
45 41 Standard Trucking -0.5 99.9
21 42 TNT Red Star -0.9 99.7
41 43 Willig Freight Lines -1.2 99.4
42 44 Fore Way Express -1.4 101.8
3 45 CF Motor Freight -1.7 98.6
8 46 Preston Trucking Co. -3.1 103.5
37 47 Be-Mac Transport -5.9 103.4
34 48 Spartan Express -6.1 106.7
13 49 St. Johnsbury Trking -6.5 102.3
24 50 ANR Freight System -9.4 111.5
R = Revenue rank in 1992.
The fifth largest family of LTL companies is owned by TNT Freightways Corp. The LTL holding company was created by the 1992 spinoff of Australian TNT Ltd.'s American operations.(17) Its collection of regional carriers (all of whom had TNT prefixed to their name after acquisition) consist of Holland Motor Express, Red Star Express, Reddaway's Truck Line, Bestway Transportation, Dugan Truck Line, and United Truck Lines. The four large carriers are ranked 9th, 21st, 36th, and 40th, respectively, in revenues. The TNT LTL family aggregated $731 million in 1992 revenue, making this newly fabricated creation nearly equal in size to Carolina Freight Corporation's LTL operations.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Transportation-Journal/16529030.html
Table 4. The Fifty Largest LTL Carriers of 1992; Net Profit Margin and
Operating Ratio; Ranked by 1992 Net Profit Margin
R Company and 1992 Rank NPM% OR
47 1 Pitt-Ohio Express 15.9 84.1
25 2 New Penn Mtr Exp 15.0 79.2
23 3 Estes Express Lines 9.5 85.3
18 4 AAA Cooper Trans 9.2 87.4
20 5 Southeastern Frt Lns 9.2 91.5
33 6 Roberts Express 7.6 88.3
4 7 Overnite Transportation 6.9 90.9
9 8 TNT Holland Mtr Exp 5.9 90.4
36 9 TNT Reddaway's Trk Ln 5.7 88.6
6 10 Con-Way Trans Service 5.0 90.7
17 11 Averitt Express 4.9 91.1
15 12 American Freightways 4.8 90.5
19 13 Old Dominion Frt Ln 4.3 91.6
26 14 A-P-A Transport 4.0 94.5
43 15 Wilson Trucking 3.9 95.0
29 16 Saia Motor Freight Ln 3.6 89.1
44 17 Motor Cargo 3.4 93.1
14 18 Viking Freight System 3.3 94.4
46 19 Southwestern Mtr Trans 3.2 95.6
16 20 Central Freight Lines 3.1 94.6
48 21 Lynden Transport 2.8 94.2
2 22 Roadway Express 2.7 95.8
38 23 Crouse Cartage 2.6 95.7
39 24 New England Mtr Frt 2.6 96.9
10 25 Watkins Motor Lines 2.4 92.8
12 26 NW Trans Service 2.3 95.2
11 27 Central Transport Inc 1.6 98.1
35 28 Transus Inc (GHX) 1.5 98.6
32 29 GI Trucking Co. 1.3 97.0
5 30 ABF Freight System 1.2 94.9
50 31 Fredrickson Mtr Exp 1.1 97.5
28 32 Central Cartage 1.1 98.3
30 33 Merchants Fast Mtr Lns 0.9 97.7
31 34 Hyman Freightways 0.8 97.9
1 35 Yellow Freight System 0.7 97.5
49 36 Ward Trucking 0.4 99.6
22 37 Churchill Truck Lines 0.3 100.0
40 38 TNT Bestway Trans 0.3 97.6
27 39 Advance Transportation 0.1 98.2
7 40 Carolina Freight Carriers -0.3 100.3
45 41 Standard Trucking -0.5 99.9
21 42 TNT Red Star -0.9 99.7
41 43 Willig Freight Lines -1.2 99.4
42 44 Fore Way Express -1.4 101.8
3 45 CF Motor Freight -1.7 98.6
8 46 Preston Trucking Co. -3.1 103.5
37 47 Be-Mac Transport -5.9 103.4
34 48 Spartan Express -6.1 106.7
13 49 St. Johnsbury Trking -6.5 102.3
24 50 ANR Freight System -9.4 111.5
R = Revenue rank in 1992.
The fifth largest family of LTL companies is owned by TNT Freightways Corp. The LTL holding company was created by the 1992 spinoff of Australian TNT Ltd.'s American operations.(17) Its collection of regional carriers (all of whom had TNT prefixed to their name after acquisition) consist of Holland Motor Express, Red Star Express, Reddaway's Truck Line, Bestway Transportation, Dugan Truck Line, and United Truck Lines. The four large carriers are ranked 9th, 21st, 36th, and 40th, respectively, in revenues. The TNT LTL family aggregated $731 million in 1992 revenue, making this newly fabricated creation nearly equal in size to Carolina Freight Corporation's LTL operations.
Last edited by a moderator:
Yellow who, Just a couple things I want to mention about Holland and some facts and thoughts.
I do remember some kind of Change of Operation that had Holland included in it. Maybe somewhere in the time frame of before 2009 may be was in 08 then. Anyway's Kansas City really screwed up. I don't remember details of the Coo. but I did find out that K.C. notified Holland leadership and told them to go back and do what you do best. And simply cancel that coo that pertained to you.
Don't really know about your above post though.
I may ruffle some Holland feather's here, but this is
what I do know. Back in 2008 and very possible sooner & later than that. There was pallet freight being diverted over to Holland from YRC freight div. At least in Ill. A good friend of mine's brother is a driver there with quite a few year's under his belt. As you can remember 2008 the economy was not good. I would imagine Ill. was not the only state either. Though it may not have been enough to stop everyone there from being laid-off, it had to help in some degree and Holland's bottom line till things got a little better. YRC had no intent on closing them. As far as your ref: closing them,white paper agreement's and such you do not need to mention because all of us here in Chicago were under that, so I know what you mean.
Back in the early 80's, Holland was the king of regional's,the Cadillac Company. Nobody could touch'em.Some of their major account's were the Detroit automaker's if I recall. But when car sales dived in the later year's it did put a big hurt into Holland.
Now how about some old factual event's that took place in my legacy co. But we can even put Roadway in here as well as example. And Hanalad just put up a recent post talking about double-breasting,however mine below is of the same nature,but would be Union and make us really wonder if the Union would have allowed this BELOW and What would it be like today ?????????
Back in 1992 or 93 I think it was, G..Powell III wanted to get into the regional market as he saw great opportunities
for that serv. Back then the business environment was: the 2 tier wage scale was being used all over. I even believe new-hire pilot's in some major airlines had it. There was this Japanese business concept if I remember took off about rolling inventories. So companies didn't have to warehouse so much and pay taxes on it and just in time. Ron Carey was the Pres. of the IBT& ex. UPS employee. Now it's been a long time so my timelines may be off. Powell expressed that interest to Carey and posted a video for all the employee's to view giving his reason's and how it would benefit us,the company and the Union going forward. In it he said, that this would create thousands of new hire's. He needed some work rule changes and the starting pay for new hire's would be lower but within four years would be up to full scale. I can't remember the start amount an hour. His reasoning seemed to be appropriate considering the present business climate at that time. As he did not stress much about the work rule changes at that time, we did find out he wanted a cdl qualified dockhand that could jump in a truck and run the freight to the next state over to meet cust. service times. Most employee's at the time were saying no-way,some shrugged either way. Myself, being younger and a radical guy like yourself (LOL! just kidding). I was leaning on the no-way side as well. But the biggest thing that I did like what Mr. Powell, said was: We will move this freight with OUR trucks (meaning the swamp Holly orange one's). All new hire's will be Teamster's. There would be NO separate non union entity at all. Hanging around some of the old timer's back then, and whenever they spoke I would always' listen. As this is how we younger guy's learned thing's. Some felt mixed about it, other's no because they didn't want to be up on the dock loading a trailer. But, these issues were still not even brought to the Union yet so really none of us knew just how it would play out yet.
Mr.Powell did not specifically say, I have Holland in my cross hairs on his scope. But showing their revenue's and all the number and dollar's about Regional Frt. for comparison. You knew he wanted to go head to head with them. When Saia was acquired he did expand that company into more states. Saia was doing well for Yellow in general. They were more concentrated to the South. He was looking at all of the Midwest and probably east. Well if I remember correctly, this never even got off the ground. IBT. Carey said NO. In the rumor mill back then and you know as well as I, with truck driver's how that can be!! Word was going around that UPS was concerned that it may in fact hurt them a little bit depending on what weight Yellow was going to go with with this new serv. Another rumor, Carey's somewhat loyalty to UPS and mgmt. These two rumor's I do remember,if more I do not recall.
IMO: No matter my co. or your's because both are the largest,geographic's terminals and can discount more easily than the smaller co's. We would have literally wiped Holland off the map. Like an exterminator. I know Holland was Union all along, but I am just say-in.
Looking back at it now, and in regard's of the event's of the last 8 to 10 year's. FACT, we have had utility driver's (classification). Similar possibly to what Mr.Powell envisioned and maybe to a lesser or more degree?
Both our companies have bought non-union co's,Regional & Truckload (ex:Glenmore) and set-up holding companies for them. FACT
Our legacy names are not on them trucks.
Our companies achieved Mr.Powell's goal anyway's. And it did create thousand's of new job's,as he said. But a lot of them now are NON-UNION. FACT
(HYPOTHECTIALLY speaking as WE will never know)
If this did have Carey's blessings and it took off well for Yellow, would this been a trend setter for other companies like Roadway,CF & ABF to follow ?
With some co-operation,and convincing of the IBT. to mgmt. (if in fact the above was working out very well) would that have dampened the effect of Double Breasting,which would have led to thousand's of more Union job's,pension and due's money ?
Would this actually save money to the bigger co's. So they would not have to spend the cash outlay for initial start-up and many more properties ? And quite poss.the Union getting that just little more at contract time for the worker's?
Would this not made the big four even bigger,there-by possibly slowing down the opening of newer union smaller companie's that only lasted long enough to create more of an orphanage problem to the Pension Funds ?
***Chicago People-remember 47th.Street the amount of companies that closed up.***
And if it was successful and a trend setter, would it give the bigger companies and the IBT. even more a bigger voice in the halls of Congress? UPS's is fairly quite large.
I do remember some kind of Change of Operation that had Holland included in it. Maybe somewhere in the time frame of before 2009 may be was in 08 then. Anyway's Kansas City really screwed up. I don't remember details of the Coo. but I did find out that K.C. notified Holland leadership and told them to go back and do what you do best. And simply cancel that coo that pertained to you.
Don't really know about your above post though.
I may ruffle some Holland feather's here, but this is
what I do know. Back in 2008 and very possible sooner & later than that. There was pallet freight being diverted over to Holland from YRC freight div. At least in Ill. A good friend of mine's brother is a driver there with quite a few year's under his belt. As you can remember 2008 the economy was not good. I would imagine Ill. was not the only state either. Though it may not have been enough to stop everyone there from being laid-off, it had to help in some degree and Holland's bottom line till things got a little better. YRC had no intent on closing them. As far as your ref: closing them,white paper agreement's and such you do not need to mention because all of us here in Chicago were under that, so I know what you mean.
Back in the early 80's, Holland was the king of regional's,the Cadillac Company. Nobody could touch'em.Some of their major account's were the Detroit automaker's if I recall. But when car sales dived in the later year's it did put a big hurt into Holland.
Now how about some old factual event's that took place in my legacy co. But we can even put Roadway in here as well as example. And Hanalad just put up a recent post talking about double-breasting,however mine below is of the same nature,but would be Union and make us really wonder if the Union would have allowed this BELOW and What would it be like today ?????????
Back in 1992 or 93 I think it was, G..Powell III wanted to get into the regional market as he saw great opportunities
for that serv. Back then the business environment was: the 2 tier wage scale was being used all over. I even believe new-hire pilot's in some major airlines had it. There was this Japanese business concept if I remember took off about rolling inventories. So companies didn't have to warehouse so much and pay taxes on it and just in time. Ron Carey was the Pres. of the IBT& ex. UPS employee. Now it's been a long time so my timelines may be off. Powell expressed that interest to Carey and posted a video for all the employee's to view giving his reason's and how it would benefit us,the company and the Union going forward. In it he said, that this would create thousands of new hire's. He needed some work rule changes and the starting pay for new hire's would be lower but within four years would be up to full scale. I can't remember the start amount an hour. His reasoning seemed to be appropriate considering the present business climate at that time. As he did not stress much about the work rule changes at that time, we did find out he wanted a cdl qualified dockhand that could jump in a truck and run the freight to the next state over to meet cust. service times. Most employee's at the time were saying no-way,some shrugged either way. Myself, being younger and a radical guy like yourself (LOL! just kidding). I was leaning on the no-way side as well. But the biggest thing that I did like what Mr. Powell, said was: We will move this freight with OUR trucks (meaning the swamp Holly orange one's). All new hire's will be Teamster's. There would be NO separate non union entity at all. Hanging around some of the old timer's back then, and whenever they spoke I would always' listen. As this is how we younger guy's learned thing's. Some felt mixed about it, other's no because they didn't want to be up on the dock loading a trailer. But, these issues were still not even brought to the Union yet so really none of us knew just how it would play out yet.
Mr.Powell did not specifically say, I have Holland in my cross hairs on his scope. But showing their revenue's and all the number and dollar's about Regional Frt. for comparison. You knew he wanted to go head to head with them. When Saia was acquired he did expand that company into more states. Saia was doing well for Yellow in general. They were more concentrated to the South. He was looking at all of the Midwest and probably east. Well if I remember correctly, this never even got off the ground. IBT. Carey said NO. In the rumor mill back then and you know as well as I, with truck driver's how that can be!! Word was going around that UPS was concerned that it may in fact hurt them a little bit depending on what weight Yellow was going to go with with this new serv. Another rumor, Carey's somewhat loyalty to UPS and mgmt. These two rumor's I do remember,if more I do not recall.
IMO: No matter my co. or your's because both are the largest,geographic's terminals and can discount more easily than the smaller co's. We would have literally wiped Holland off the map. Like an exterminator. I know Holland was Union all along, but I am just say-in.
Looking back at it now, and in regard's of the event's of the last 8 to 10 year's. FACT, we have had utility driver's (classification). Similar possibly to what Mr.Powell envisioned and maybe to a lesser or more degree?
Both our companies have bought non-union co's,Regional & Truckload (ex:Glenmore) and set-up holding companies for them. FACT
Our legacy names are not on them trucks.
Our companies achieved Mr.Powell's goal anyway's. And it did create thousand's of new job's,as he said. But a lot of them now are NON-UNION. FACT
(HYPOTHECTIALLY speaking as WE will never know)
If this did have Carey's blessings and it took off well for Yellow, would this been a trend setter for other companies like Roadway,CF & ABF to follow ?
With some co-operation,and convincing of the IBT. to mgmt. (if in fact the above was working out very well) would that have dampened the effect of Double Breasting,which would have led to thousand's of more Union job's,pension and due's money ?
Would this actually save money to the bigger co's. So they would not have to spend the cash outlay for initial start-up and many more properties ? And quite poss.the Union getting that just little more at contract time for the worker's?
Would this not made the big four even bigger,there-by possibly slowing down the opening of newer union smaller companie's that only lasted long enough to create more of an orphanage problem to the Pension Funds ?
***Chicago People-remember 47th.Street the amount of companies that closed up.***
And if it was successful and a trend setter, would it give the bigger companies and the IBT. even more a bigger voice in the halls of Congress? UPS's is fairly quite large.
Last edited by a moderator:
Michael HickinsEditor.The 2003 merger which combined two major trucking firms, Yellow and Roadway, should have created a monster of the highway. Instead, as is often the case with large deals, the $1.05 billion merger turned into a monster headache that took years to finalize, partly because of a difficult combination of IT systems and staff. That headache continued on Friday as the company asked its creditors to help it stave off bankruptcy by amending the terms of a 2011 loan agreement. The company also skirted a bankruptcy filing in 2009.
In fact, YRC didn’t seriously get down to merging the IT systems of the two companies until 2009, allowing the two company IT staffs to work in parallel. Yellow was the leading trucking company in the niche that combines shipments of less than a full load; Roadway was No.2. George Kather, the CIO of YRC Worldwide, says new leadership in place since July 2011 forced the IT teams to merge, and worked to sweep away the remaining vestiges of cultural clashes, including conflicts over which applications, such as billing or freight management, were best. The company replaced its board of directors and CEO in July, with 30-year trucking industry veteran James Welch replacing William Zollars as CEO. Now, “there’s no more tolerance for any parochialism about the past,” says Kather, who has been CIO since 2007. Defensiveness among members of formerly separate IT staffs “is completely squelched now.”
Cultural issues were clearly a huge hurdle, but YRC also had to improve its overall performance – it posted a net loss of $409 million on revenues of $4.9 billion, at the end of 2011.
YRC WorldwideAccording to Kather, the company has used new technology to turn around a pair of key financial metrics: on-time delivery and paid claims for damages to shipments. Melissa Tomlen, the company’s vice president of quality assurance, says YRC reduced average paid claims per shipment to $2.96, from more than $4 last year. “Our goal is to get it down to $2.25,” said Tomlen.
The company has also improved on-time delivery to between 94% and 95%, compared with the mid-80% range six months ago, thanks to new custom-built load planning applications. ”We’ve moved our metrics significantly by focusing on freight fundamentals,” says Kather.
The company specializes in trips of between 500 and 3,500 miles, with multiple stops along the way. Kather says the metrics improved when the company finally created a single, one-standard network and provided employees at warehouse loading docks with the right information to load trucks in the most rational manner possible. “We’ve made it easier for our workers to do their jobs right,” he said. The company completed its redesign of the network in early April.
New reporting tools have also changed the way data is reported, giving executives “greater granularity” of data. In the past, says Kather, it was difficult to identify poor performing regions and terminals because the numbers were rolled up to a divisional level. Now, executives can identify problem areas down to the truck or driver level. “We’re getting good focus on the fundamentals of the business.”
The company uses commercially available software for broad applications such as human resources. But most of the operational applications are custom-built, which is why picking one over the other became such a point of pride between the two teams. Thirty percent of the company’s applications were built by the company’s developers.
Kather said the company lost its way by trying to identify the best tool for each process. But in hindsight he realizes that “there is no best. You’re very seldom going to get a split wider than 60/40. The question is matching the technology to the key drivers [of the company] and not trying to analyze it to death.”
From the very beginning, says Kather, the company should have just picked one system — either Yellow or Roadway’s. That would have forced a data migration from one application stack to the other, but the company would have only had to do that a single time, rather than mixing and matching so-called best-of-breed systems and making sure there were interfaces so the applications could share data.
And that’s finally what the company did — although it waited until last year to do so. It picked Roadway’s IT stack, says Kather, despite the fact that Yellow had better systems overall. But in the end, the decisive factor was a single application Roadway developed that speeds customs processes for shipments coming to and from Canada. Yellow could have rebuilt a similar system, but that would have taken time, and added to the company’s financial pressure, something management really couldn’t afford. “We went with speed rather than a slightly better technical stack,” he said.
YRC's Troubled Merger Reflected in IT - The CIO Report - WSJ
In fact, YRC didn’t seriously get down to merging the IT systems of the two companies until 2009, allowing the two company IT staffs to work in parallel. Yellow was the leading trucking company in the niche that combines shipments of less than a full load; Roadway was No.2. George Kather, the CIO of YRC Worldwide, says new leadership in place since July 2011 forced the IT teams to merge, and worked to sweep away the remaining vestiges of cultural clashes, including conflicts over which applications, such as billing or freight management, were best. The company replaced its board of directors and CEO in July, with 30-year trucking industry veteran James Welch replacing William Zollars as CEO. Now, “there’s no more tolerance for any parochialism about the past,” says Kather, who has been CIO since 2007. Defensiveness among members of formerly separate IT staffs “is completely squelched now.”
Cultural issues were clearly a huge hurdle, but YRC also had to improve its overall performance – it posted a net loss of $409 million on revenues of $4.9 billion, at the end of 2011.
YRC WorldwideAccording to Kather, the company has used new technology to turn around a pair of key financial metrics: on-time delivery and paid claims for damages to shipments. Melissa Tomlen, the company’s vice president of quality assurance, says YRC reduced average paid claims per shipment to $2.96, from more than $4 last year. “Our goal is to get it down to $2.25,” said Tomlen.
The company has also improved on-time delivery to between 94% and 95%, compared with the mid-80% range six months ago, thanks to new custom-built load planning applications. ”We’ve moved our metrics significantly by focusing on freight fundamentals,” says Kather.
The company specializes in trips of between 500 and 3,500 miles, with multiple stops along the way. Kather says the metrics improved when the company finally created a single, one-standard network and provided employees at warehouse loading docks with the right information to load trucks in the most rational manner possible. “We’ve made it easier for our workers to do their jobs right,” he said. The company completed its redesign of the network in early April.
New reporting tools have also changed the way data is reported, giving executives “greater granularity” of data. In the past, says Kather, it was difficult to identify poor performing regions and terminals because the numbers were rolled up to a divisional level. Now, executives can identify problem areas down to the truck or driver level. “We’re getting good focus on the fundamentals of the business.”
The company uses commercially available software for broad applications such as human resources. But most of the operational applications are custom-built, which is why picking one over the other became such a point of pride between the two teams. Thirty percent of the company’s applications were built by the company’s developers.
Kather said the company lost its way by trying to identify the best tool for each process. But in hindsight he realizes that “there is no best. You’re very seldom going to get a split wider than 60/40. The question is matching the technology to the key drivers [of the company] and not trying to analyze it to death.”
From the very beginning, says Kather, the company should have just picked one system — either Yellow or Roadway’s. That would have forced a data migration from one application stack to the other, but the company would have only had to do that a single time, rather than mixing and matching so-called best-of-breed systems and making sure there were interfaces so the applications could share data.
And that’s finally what the company did — although it waited until last year to do so. It picked Roadway’s IT stack, says Kather, despite the fact that Yellow had better systems overall. But in the end, the decisive factor was a single application Roadway developed that speeds customs processes for shipments coming to and from Canada. Yellow could have rebuilt a similar system, but that would have taken time, and added to the company’s financial pressure, something management really couldn’t afford. “We went with speed rather than a slightly better technical stack,” he said.
YRC's Troubled Merger Reflected in IT - The CIO Report - WSJ