Business of Shipping

The best keeps getting better. YRC, Yellow Transportation & Roadway, continues to improve the award-winning tools on my.yrc.com, based on your input and changing needs. Our latest online enhancements include updates to the rate quote tool. We’ve made it easier than ever for customers who have LTL pricing to get a freight quote online, even if they don’t have expedited pricing.

How does it work? Simple.

Login to the secure my.yrc.com, and obtain your specific rates by clicking on “Your Tools” and then selecting “Rate Quote.”

We’ll use your LTL base pricing as a starting point, and determine the quote based on the level of precision and speed needed. You’ll just need to provide basic information on the shipment and click “Request Quote.” Rates provided will include standard, guaranteed and several expedited options.

In addition to simplifying the expedited pricing process, we’ve added features to the rate quote tool, rate quote file folder and pickup tools to make transportation management more efficient. New options include the addition of CTN (carton) as a piece-type selection on the rate quote tool; new filter and sort capabilities for rate quote file folder inquiries; and the ability to search quotes by service type for booked quotes.

Whether you’re preparing your first exhibit shipment or your 101, there’s peace of mind in working with experts. YRC delivers confidence with the proven expertise of our national trade show team.

YRC brings you:

• On-site assistance at most major shows in North America
• Round-the-clock availability for expedited and guaranteed services
• Our unique Sealed Exhibit™ protection for tamper-proof shipping
• Experienced help with move-in and move-out
• Real-time shipment tracking

Ensure exhibit success. Specify Yellow Transportation as your transportation provider.

YRC is the only provider in the industry to offer an inbound guarantee at no additional charge.

As a longtime Yellow Transportation employee, Jeanette Sanders was pleased this past year when YRC Worldwide proved the skeptics wrong, succeeding despite all the doubts. As a professional dockworker, she knows just how that feels.

Vic Terranella, president of Local 41 in Kansas City, was working at Roadway 23 years ago when Sanders walked onto the docks.

“When Jeanette came on, being a woman in a predominately male environment, there was a concern that she wouldn’t be able to pull her weight,” says Terranella. “She immediately proved that she could and she would. She earned respect from the guys real quickly. She proved the people who had doubts wrong.”

Last Friday, she proved her staying power. Sanders became the first woman dockworker for an LTL company to reach retirement as a member of Local 41.

Frank Zitnik, YRC regional service center manager in Kansas City, says Sanders’ longevity in this physically demanding profession stemmed from a day-to-day focus that delivered confidence.

“Jeanette was steady, consistent and dependable,” Zitnik says. “You knew you could count on her.”

Sanders says she was began the job well aware of the challenges and determined to succeed.

YRC Worldwide is helping companies achieve their sustainability objectives by reducing our CO2 emissions by a million tons per year. No simple task, but part of our commitment to protect and preserve the environment. In recognition of our Destination > Green initiatives, Inbound Logistics magazine selected YRC Worldwide as one of its 25 Green Supply Chain Partners.

Inbound Logistics created the list this year to recognize companies that are green innovators, and to provide an example to other shippers. They picked companies based on their ability to create value in the supply chain through sustainability and efficiency.

YRC Worldwide made a strong commitment to sustainability through a strategy of emission reduction and fuel efficiency that allows us to protect the environment while optimizing our resources. Several initiatives are under way that make our strategy a reality. Get a freight shipping quote.

Freezing temperatures couldn’t keep a team of 27 runners from hitting the pavement earlier this month at the Memphis Grizzlies House 5K in Memphis to raise money for pediatric cancer research and treatment.

Dubbed “Team Shae” in honor of the late Shae Pierce, grandson of YRC Worldwide retiree John Bloom, the group consisted of current YRCW employees and families, YRCW customers and Pierce family supporters. The group was led by YRCW President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Wicks, who was in town to meet with a group of Memphis area customers. Being an avid runner, Wicks appreciated the opportunity to stay on and participate in the race.

“Every day, in big and small ways, the employees of YRC Worldwide demonstrate a remarkable spirit and truly genuine concern for people,” said Wicks. “While the first order of our business currently is “the business,’ Saturday’s charity race and efforts like it underscore the role that we play in our communities as well.”

Team Shae was organized by Judy Little, corporate account executive–Yellow Trucking. The Memphis Grizzlies House 5K was one of four races that day supporting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Collectively, Team Shae has raised more than $4,515 and donations continue to come in. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has raised more than $1,652,000 as a result of Marathon Weekend efforts.

“I’m so proud of our team and the fact that, together, we really can make a difference in the lives around us,” said Little. “Shae’s family is so appreciative of the support our YRC Worldwide team has shown in memory of their son and children everywhere dealing with pediatric cancer.” In 2000, Shae was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (a rare bone marrow cancer). He received a bone marrow transplant in early 2001, but developed complications a few months later and passed away on March 20, 2001 at age 4.

YRC filed Form S-4 with the SEC regarding the note exchange offer announced last week. The filing marks a critical juncture in the implementation of our self-help plan. It will remove significant debt of nearly $537 million from our books. It will improve liquidity by allowing access to $106 million in credit, and defer interest and fees of around $25 million per quarter under the terms of the new bank agreement we announced last week.

In exchange, note holders will receive shares in YRC Worldwide representing around 95% of the equity in our company. The offer does dilute current shareholder value–including the value for our employee-owners. However, removing the debt and improving liquidity opens the door for growth in value as we complete our financial turnaround and focus squarely on the future.

Diluting the value of current shares also leads to understandable fluctuations in our stock price. It’s important to remember that the stock price is not an indicator of our liquidity or our ability to serve you.

In addition, the SEC filing states that if we are unable to complete the exchange offers and address our near term liquidity needs as a result of ongoing discussions with our lenders, the Teamsters and the multi-employer pension funds that provide retirement benefits to our union employees, we would then expect to seek relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Keep in mind: That wording fulfills our obligation to disclose risks to our investors. We have confidence that our note holders understand the value of our company and will exchange their notes. Action in the bond markets supports our confidence: The trading value of these bonds increased after we announced our intention to launch the offer.

While our note exchange offer is open, there will be noise in the marketplace and ratings changes. Based on industry history, we went into this expecting temporary credit rating downgrades during the offer period. That action is typical and doesn’t impact our ability to continue providing uninterrupted, unparalleled service. It is basically a ratings formality - one that we expect to be followed by another ratings review once the exchange offer is successfully concluded.

YRC Worldwide Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest transportation service providers in the world, is the holding company for a portfolio of successful brands including YRC, YRC Reimer, YRC Logistics, New Penn, Holland, Reddaway and YRC Glen Moore. Building on the strength of its heritage brands, Yellow Transportation and Roadway, the enterprise provides global transportation services, transportation management solutions and logistics management. The portfolio of brands represents a comprehensive array of services for the shipment of industrial, commercial and retail goods domestically and internationally.

In freight transportation, one of the most important destinations isn’t on a map. It’s online. Transportation management tools can make a huge difference in your day-to-day operations, and your overall business success.

Knowing that, we used the integration of our information networks and web sites as an opportunity to take good applications and make them even better. Our two YRC sites–yrc.com and my.yrc.com–feature post-integration enhancements designed to simplify your success.

For example, we’ve replaced the routing tool on yrc.com with a popular new Routing/Service Calculator. With this tool, customers simply enter the origin and destination ZIP codes for a shipment, and quickly receive information on transit days. With our Confidence Delivered^TM approach in mind, we’ve made this calculator available to all customers–not just those shipping to large retailers.

If your business does involve retail shipments, it makes sense to take a moment and register for our password-protected site, my.yrc.com. On this site, the Service Day Calculator includes “Must Arrive By Date” and Window options–features that are a huge advantage when shipping to retailers and others with tight delivery timeframes.

Registered users on my.yrc.com are also enjoying the improvements to the Bill of Lading application, notably with the new Address Book. This application streamlines data entry, making it easy for customers to keep their own address book online –adding, modifying and deleting entries as needed. The ability to save this information makes future transactions faster.

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Business Inventories declined 1%, exceeding economists’ forecasts, to $1.33 trillion, the lowest level since March 2006.
Forces that affect LTL freight rates:
Retail sales, less autos, was up 1.1% in August (including autos it was up 2.7% - analysts had been expecting an increase of 2.0%). This, being stronger than analysts had expected, suggests to retailers that the fall season might be more active than they had anticipated - which could create a scramble to increase inventory.

Retailers’ inventories decreased 1% after a 1.2% drop the prior month. A Commerce Department report showed retail sales surged 2.7% in August, exceeding forecasts and the biggest gain since January 2006. Retail inventories account for almost 33 percent of all business inventories. Factory stockpiles fell 0.7% and inventories at wholesalers dropped 1.4% in July.

The ISM shows that manufacturer’s inventories and their customer’s inventories are far too low right now. Concerns linger over having too much inventory on hand after the Q3-Q4 Peak season - which has most manufacturers going into the peak season much “lighter” than normal. An unexpected bump in demand would create a scramble scenario to replenish inventories before the fall selling season is over.

Business sales rose 0.9%, resulting in an inventory to sales ratio of 1.38 in June compared to 1.26 in the year-ago period. The stretch of declines in business inventories is the longest since 2002. At these levels, it would take 1.36 months to deplete stockpiles at the current sales pace, the fewest since October 2008 and down from 1.38 months in June.

The price of oil has inched upward to trade just above $81 per barrel, despite a rise in oil supply inventories in the US driving up freight rate quotes and truck shipping rates

Typically, when oil supply increases–it brings with it a drop in oil prices. As the stockpile of oil in the U.S. climbs, we simply buy less. But this week’s report on oil stockpiles in the U.S. showed that the amount of oil being held in US coffers actually went up, and the price of oil actually did the reverse of what has typically been the case–it went up.

Several factors created the rise.

First, the rise in oil inventories was not as large as Wall Street had anticipated, and that led to speculation that perhaps demand was stronger than thought. But, supply still exceeded demand.

Second, worldwide optimism and the growth of the Chinese market have sent oil prices upward on the “promise” of future demand. China will add approximately 12 million new vehicles in 2009 and is expected to add just as many in 2010 under current scenarios.

Third, the U.S. dollar continues to return weak results against a group of global currencies. The U.S. dollar buys less oil–and since most oil is still traded in dollars–the price per barrel increases. This hotlinked article evaluates the linkage of the exchange rate of the Euro/Dollar and compares that with the historical price for oil. Based on its research, Dekabank believes that the real value for a barrel of oil should be around $88–based on the relationship between the Euro and Dollar. If the rate goes to $1.55, the price per barrel should be somewhere in the $94 per barrel range.

In an industry where safety is paramount, the sleep disorder Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is considered a significant concern. Undiagnosed and untreated, OSA causes daytime sleepiness and other health-related risks for commercial truck drivers.

“Our position is that this is a treatable medical condition that, once treated properly, puts a much more alert and safer driver on the highway,” explains Mark Respass, senior director of safety and compliance for Yellow Transportation, Glen Moore.

The first step is diagnosis. To improve diagnosis and treatment, up to 30 YRC Glen Moore drivers will take part in a ambulatory testing study. It’s focused on lowering costs associated with OSA diagnosis, and reducing lifestyle disruptions for drivers during testing.

Traditionally, OSA testing has been conducted in-lab, with participants monitored while sleeping. Ambulatory testing allows drivers to be tested in their sleeper berths and fits into their work schedules.

While Medicare covers the cost of ambulatory testing for OSA, most medical insurance companies do not. This study is expected to confirm that ambulatory testing costs significantly less than the traditional full in-lab study and is a very cost-effective means of testing commercial drivers.

Work Safely is one of the core values of Yellow Freight