Summary
Financially troubled YRC Worldwide is closing its 202-door Richfield, Ohio, breakbulk terminal, one of the largest in its system. The move is part of YRCW's downsizing, and affects about 1,000 Teamsters at three Ohio terminals. About 400 of those 1,000 Teamsters already are laid off.
Analysis
Trucking terminals are a lot like what Richard Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, once said of slum neighborhoods.
"You seen one," Agnew gracelessly said, "you seen 'em all."
Trucking terminals are a lot like that. Basically they are big, huge, cement and steel barns that are used as much as 24 hours a day, ideally as busily as possible. There are no style points for truck terminals.
That is, with the exception of the 202-door facility presently operated by YRC Worldwide in Richfield, Ohio. Hands down, this is the "Cadillac" of trucking terminals.
But come to think of it, Cadillac isn't what a Cadillac used to be, either.
I visited the Richfield facility back in the 1990s when it was opened by Preston Trucking Co., a Preston, Md.-based unionized company. It was the linchpin of Preston's "super regional" LTL service devised by then-President President Leo Suggs. He later moved onto greener pastures at Overnite Transportation (now UPS Freight) and now is president and CEO of Greatwide Logistics, the Dallas-based asset-light provider of logistics services.
It was Leo's idea--correctly, as it turned out--that shippers valued speed over anything else (except cheap rates). To do that, Preston was one of the first LTL carriers to start shaving days off its scheduled transit times to take advantage of the fast-growing regional LTL market place back in the 1990s.
Building a modern, breakbulk facility such as the one Preston opened in Richfield was key to that plan. The day I visited on a routine press tour, the place was so spotless one could have eaten lunch off the terminal floor.
But that wasn't the only allure of the place. Convenient to three Interstates, the Richfield facility could not have be better located. Moreover, within a 250-mile radius was access to about one-third of the U.S. population for next-day service. It was large, clean, well-lit and strategically a gem.
Of course, none of this helped Preston, a Teamster-covered carrier, survive. It closed about six years after the Richfield terminal opened. Later, YRC (Yellow used to be the parent company of Preston) bought it, realizing the strategic location of the place.
Alas, none of that apparently matters now. With YRC revenue and tonnage down by about 40 percent--it also has lost in excess of $2 billion in the last 10 quarters--YRC doesn't need as many breakbulks in its network. It plans to move its road and dock operations to the former Roadway terminal in Copley, Ohio.
The change reduces YRC's footprint in Northeastern Ohio from three to two terminals. It also ends almost 10 years of what the Teamsters call a "one-roof agreement" that protected a lot of Teamster jobs at Yellow. It involves technical language in the National Master Freight Agreement covering Locals 24 and 407 in Ohio.
The Teamsters are rightfully worried about seniority issues, work rule changes, bidding procedures and other issues under the NMFA. A December hearing between the company and the union has been called to address those issues.
How quickly the Richfield barn gets sold--and to whom--will tell me a lot about the future of LTL transport. If a UPS Freight or a FedEx Freight scoops up this gem--and I would have to think somebody would, for a nice price--then I would be fairly optimistic about the return of some normalcy to the LTL market place. If this terminal lingers on the market place for long, that is not a good sign to me.
After all, there is only one Cadillac of trucking terminals. This one is it. It is 202 doors of pure beauty, in the eye of this beholder.
