Yellow Goes Rah-Rah Route to Rally Employees

Implications: How well is YRC Worldwide's new "Velocity Network" performing after this summer's rollout? Here's an internal memorandum to employees that explains it.

Analysis:   YRC Worldwide is using its internal intranet employee newsletter to rally its 55,000 or so Teamsters to stay motivated as it rolls out its new "Velocity Network" of next- and second-day transit lines.
  The idea is so that staid 80-year-old Teamster-covered YRC companies such as Yellow and Roadway can compete with the lower-cost, younger, non-union regional competition such as Estes Express, Con-way and the others that have been taking market share.
  "Failure is not an option," new Yellow Transportation President Phil Gaines says in this confidential employee newsletter.
  He says in the case of same-, next- and second-day service, "Customers are especially unforgiving when service commitments aren't met."
  Publicly, YRC Worldwide officials are bullish on the prospects for this new service. Internally, however, it's a different story.
  The first few nights and weeks of any new rollout is challenging. But this appears to strike directly at the heart of YRC's Teamster culture. Even though some union workers are being paid $1 an hour more for the new "utility worker" positions that are at the heart of this new system, it appears there have been some stumbles out of the gate as far as service requirements go.
  The fact that YRC chose to roll this out in the middle of what typically is its most crowded part of the freight season tells me that a) they didn't have much choice, b) there is still room for new freight in YRC's disparate systems and c) the future is now when it comes to fighting for every pound of regional freight.