john deere
TB Lurker
- Credits
- 173
I'm going to address the Holland part of the conversation. I worked linehaul at CF, Yellow, NW, and few other union carriers including Holland. IMHO, Holland was the best run of them all. Even though it had long ceased to be a family-owned business (the Coopers), I always felt part of a team. At least at my barn, both management and union worked together for the benefit of the customer. It was obvious to all that Holland realized that if you provide superior service to your customer, the profits will follow. That said, we were never the lowest cost carrier. We wanted the higher priced skid freight that could be moved quickly with little chance of damage. The old CF "high and tight" way of doing things, including breaking down skid freight for transport and then building it back before delivery was never done. If I recall correctly, our claims rate was less than 1/2 of one percent. The company always ran a very good operating ratio.
This is a company that went from family owned to TNT and then to USF. The trick was that each new management team looked at what worked and then kept it. I have no doubt that had the company never been purchased by Yellow, it would be operating right now with a great reputation and be in a firm financial condition.
The management at Yellow lost their way probably beginning with the decision to promote an idiot like Bill Zollars to the CEO position. From that point forward, it was a downhill slide. The debt load he put on the company with his purchases could not be met. He also paid way too much for the purchases. If Zollars wanted to expand Yellow, he should have done so by taking the money used for acquisitions and instead using it for internal expansion. That said, I still think Yellow would have failed. All trucking companies sell the same basic service, the movement of freight from point A to point B. The only difference is what you charge for the service and how well you take care of the customer. Yellow said screw the customer, and when they started losing freight volume, the answer was to start heavy discounting. They then made the fatal mistake of screwing the employees with reductions to pay and benefits. I knew for sure that the Yellow boat was sinking when I started to see posts where people bragged about forking freight and stealing time. Agreed, this was only a very small percentage of the Yellow employees, but it should have been a wakeup call to management that they needed to do damage control.
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This is a company that went from family owned to TNT and then to USF. The trick was that each new management team looked at what worked and then kept it. I have no doubt that had the company never been purchased by Yellow, it would be operating right now with a great reputation and be in a firm financial condition.
The management at Yellow lost their way probably beginning with the decision to promote an idiot like Bill Zollars to the CEO position. From that point forward, it was a downhill slide. The debt load he put on the company with his purchases could not be met. He also paid way too much for the purchases. If Zollars wanted to expand Yellow, he should have done so by taking the money used for acquisitions and instead using it for internal expansion. That said, I still think Yellow would have failed. All trucking companies sell the same basic service, the movement of freight from point A to point B. The only difference is what you charge for the service and how well you take care of the customer. Yellow said screw the customer, and when they started losing freight volume, the answer was to start heavy discounting. They then made the fatal mistake of screwing the employees with reductions to pay and benefits. I knew for sure that the Yellow boat was sinking when I started to see posts where people bragged about forking freight and stealing time. Agreed, this was only a very small percentage of the Yellow employees, but it should have been a wakeup call to management that they needed to do damage control.
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....At ''every'' meeting,which was often in the morning,Armand would bitch and moan about the Union,''can't compete'',''losing customers'',''non-union pricing killing us''...Tried some concessions through the years,combination dock/driver,road/city work,among other things...Armand Pohan wanted out of trucking,that was the bottom line,we were ''busy'' right up to the end...Real Estate and NY Waterways was his 'Future'...And to this day,still growing,still expanding,dedicating this new ''Ferry'' in honor of ''Arthur'' just last summer...Deregulation was the killer!!!!
