Overland Park trucking giant YRC Worldwide Inc. is bringing “freight” back to its long-haul trucking business.
Starting today, YRC Inc. will go by YRC Freight as part of an effort to return to the basics of long-haul trucking.
“It’s connecting who we are and what we do with the name,” YRC Freight President Jeff Rogers said.
The heir of the familiar Yellow Freight and operator of Roadway Express since 2003 has been running America’s roads as simply YRC.
The rebranding follows last year’s difficult financial restructuring and coincides with operational changes the company plans to make in April. Those changes will relocate dozens of jobs within YRC Freight and change some of the jobs in Kansas City.
Rogers said customers will soon see “YRC Freight” on the uniforms of drivers who pick up and deliver their shipments to YRC Freight’s terminals.
The big tractors will begin to brandish the new name and logo as they’re updated during regular maintenance and refurbishing sessions. Trailers will, too, but that will take longer.
With thousands of pieces of big equipment, the new name will take years to show up on everything that is YRC Freight, Rogers said.
Its planned operational changes will take less time.
The company sent notice of the changes to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters this week. A spokesman for the union said it would not comment on the notice.
Rogers said the changes were aimed at handling freight less often and focusing more on long-haul deliveries of 500 miles or more. YRC Freight will reduce efforts to deliver freight relatively shorter distances the same or next day.
The 102-page document provided the Teamsters showed a relatively small number of net job cuts but a substantial change in where more than 200 jobs would be based.