Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
YRC Worldwide Inc.'s first-quarter results, released on Friday, have sparked a sharp division of opinion between the company, which claims the numbers indicate positive sequential and year-over-year momentum, and analysts who believe the less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier's financial situation remains dire.
The Overland, Park, Kan.-based company reported a first-quarter net loss of $102 million, compared with a net loss of $274 million in the year-earlier period. YRC posted operating revenue of $1.1 billion and an operating loss of $68 million in 2011's first quarter. By way of comparison, in the 2010 first quarter, YRC reported operating revenue of $987 million and an operating loss of $233 million. The 2011 results were adversely affected by extreme winter weather and included $8 million of "professional fee expenses" related to the company's restructuring efforts, YRC said in a statement.
YRC National Transportation, the amalgam of the old Yellow Transportation and Roadway Express, reported a 7.9-percent increase in average daily tonnage over the 2010 period, and a 3.3-percent increase in revenue per shipment. The company's YRC Regional unit reported a 16.2-percent tonnage increase year over year, and a 7.7-percent gain in revenue per shipment.
A glass half full ...
William D. Zollars, YRC's chairman, president, and CEO, said the company was pleased with the overall quarterly results in light of the severe winter weather and the seasonally weak period. In a conference call Friday with analysts, Zollars said volumes have continued to trend upward into the second quarter, both on a sequential and year-over-year basis, as demand improves. Rates on contract renewals are up about 3 percent year to date, Zollars said.
"In all of our channels, we are seeing pricing improvement on the contractual side and on our GRIs," Zollars said, referring to the general rate increases usually announced once a year and which are imposed on non-contract customers.
Revenue per hundredweight, a closely watched metric of profitability, rose only about 1.8 percent year over year for both YRC's regional and national units. Zollars acknowledged that traffic from large corporate accounts, which are usually resistant to rate increases, is growing at a faster rate than traffic from so-called local accounts, which are traditionally more profitable. He added, however, that many accounts that YRC captured from rivals already had low-yielding traffic because their previous carriers had cut their rates. YRC, by contrast, has remained relatively constant in its pricing strategy, he said.
"Yields are a complicated subject," Zollars observed.
... or a glass half empty?
David G. Ross, an analyst for the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co., wasn't buying the company's explanations. In a research note released today, Ross said that YRC is "stuck over a barrel" by its big corporate accounts that refuse to give it compensatory pricing.
"These accounts also know that if they pull their volume, YRC can't cut costs fast enough and will likely fail, so we don't believe YRC has the leverage to make money on them," Ross wrote.
The analyst said YRC has three choices: raise rates on these accounts, watch the freight disappear and go out of business, or keep rates stable and be stuck with unprofitable freight that will further hamper its efforts to survive on what Ross called an "unsustainable long-term business model."
Another analyst, Jon A. Langenfeld of the investment firm Robert W. Baird & Co., said the quarterly results reflect YRC's "price aggression" in an effort to rebuild freight density.
Langenfeld hinted that the "leniency" shown by YRC's lenders in supporting its restructuring efforts have emboldened the carrier to cut prices without worrying about profitability, at least in the short term.
Langenfeld said YRC's actions remain the greatest obstacles to pricing improvement and greater profitability among LTL carriers. While noting that "industry pricing fundamentals have firmed" in the first quarter, Langenfeld added that "industry profitability [is] still well below adequate levels, and improved pricing remains the primary vehicle to improving margins."
CEO to step down in July
During the analyst call, Zollars reaffirmed his plans to retire in late July, when the company is scheduled to complete its financial restructuring.
"I'm going to be here through the restructuring process" but will step down upon its completion, Zollars said.
Zollars had announced his impending retirement last year, and the Teamsters Union has conditioned any concessions from its 25,000 unionized members on assurances that Zollars would step down. It was originally believed Zollars would retire at the end of 2010, but he has stayed on into 2011 as the company's restructuring efforts continue.
As part of the restructuring, the company announced in late April that it will receive an infusion of $100 million in new capital and will be able to cancel a large portion of debt in return for the issuance of new equity—a move that will virtually wipe out all existing shareholders.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.