Teamsters Approve YRC Freight’s Plan to Streamline Network

The Teamsters union and YRC Freight have approved YRC’s plan to streamline its network operations by cutting some terminals and jobs, the two sides said.

The plan, which was first unveiled last month, would trim 29 terminals and cut about 236 jobs in an effort to save the company about $30 million in labor costs.

The plan “is a key component of YRC Freight’s strategy to continuously improve customer service by reducing the handling of shipments and excess time in transit,” the less-than-truckload carrier said in a statement released late Tuesday.

YRC said its network engineers will implement the enhancements over the next several weeks.

“Our network team identified opportunities for us to further align customer service and operating efficiencies,” said Jeff Rogers, president of YRC Freight. “New network densities, load factors and direct routing of shipments will make this network optimization the foundation of our continued performance improvement initiatives in 2013.”

The Teamsters said in a statement on its website that the proposed changes were “unique in scope and, because of current economic conditions . . . must be implemented expeditiously in order for [YRC] to remain competitive in the marketplace and have an opportunity to grow and provide additional Teamster work opportunities.”

YRC Freight is a unit of YRC Worldwide, which is ranked No. 4 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.