William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | May 03, 2012 1:33PM EDT
Troubled trucking giant YRC Worldwide narrowed its first quarter operating loss from a year ago while expanding revenue on an year-over-year increase in tonnage.
YRC Worldwide lost $48.8 million in the first quarter, including an $8.4 million loss on asset disposals, compared with a $68.4 million loss in the year-ago quarter.
The less-than-truckload operator’s consolidated revenue rose 6.4 percent to $1.194 billion. Last year, YRC increased revenue 12.3 percent to $4.9 billion.
The holding company’s liquidity under its $400 million loan agreement increased 46 percent from a year ago to $240.7 million, its best liquidity level since 2009.
YRC is struggling to recover from nearly $3 billion in losses from 2006 through 2011. The company’s most troubled unit is long-haul LTL carrier YRC Freight.
YRC Freight lost $56.1 million in the quarter, an increase from a $51.7 million loss a year ago. Revenue, however, increased 8.1 percent to $789.1 million.
The national LTL carrier’s total tonnage was up 4.3 percent from a year ago and shipments rose 3.6 percent. Yield, including fuel surcharges was up 3.3 percent.
YRC Freight completed a change of operations in the quarter that restructured its network to reduce freight handling and speed longer haul shipments.
YRC’s regional LTL carriers — Holland, New Penn and Reddaway — combined had an $11.4 million profit, compared with a $1.2 million loss in the year-ago quarter.
The group, which has been building profit on strong regional demand over the past year, increased revenue 9.8 percent from a year ago to $402 million.
The regional carriers reported an annual profit of $32.9 million in 2011 and a $3.1 million profit in 2010. Last year they increased revenue 14.8 percent to $1.6 billion.
The regional carriers increased yield 4.5 percent year-over-year as total tonnage rose 5.2 percent and shipments 3.5 percent from the year-ago quarter.
Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @wbcassidy_joc.
