Consolidated Freightways and Yellow Corp. both announced the second quarter earnings Friday reflecting the trucking industry's struggle with a slow economy and high costs.

At CF, Vancouver, Wash., revenue was up 1% compared to last year, at $590.4 million. An operating loss of $31.7 million compares to operating income of $2.1 million for the same period last year.
CF's second quarter after-tax loss was $35 million, compared to slightly better than break-even net income last year.
"Like many businesses, our results are negatively affected by the continuing downturn in the U.S. economy," said CEO Pat Blake. "The slowdown has particularly hurt business sectors where CF is strongest, including computer technology, tradeshow and cross border traffic. However, as our overall revenue and tonnage comparisons make clear, we made notable progress this quarter in regaining market share, at market prices. The economic downturn is making a return to profitability in the second half very difficult. However, we believe our revenue, yield improvement and cost reduction strategic initiatives position us very well to improve our results," Blake said.
Parent of several trucking operations, Yellow Corp., Overland Park, Kansas also on Friday announced that second quarter 2001 consolidated operating revenue was $824.8 million, compared with $904.2 million in the 2000 second quarter. Consolidated operating income, before unusual items and other adjustments, was $19.9 million, compared with $29.5 million in the 2000 second period.
"We operated profitably in a tough economic environment, thanks to a continued focus on cost management that enabled us to offset approximately 90% of our revenue decline," said Bill Zollars, Yellow Chairman, President and CEO.
Yellow Freight System, the company's largest subsidiary, reported second quarter operating income before unusual items of $15.4 million, down from $26.6 million before unusual items and fuel hedge benefits in the 2000 second quarter. When including the pretax net gain from the sale of the company's New York property and other unusual items, second quarter 2000 operating income was $43.3 million.
Revenue for the second quarter was $628.6 million, versus $696.7 million in the 2000 second quarter.
Yellow’s regional subsidiary Saia Motor Freight Line saw second quarter revenue of $123 million and operating income of $5.1 million, excluding one-time integration costs of $1.4 million. In comparison, in the 2000 second quarter, revenue was $122.1 million, and operating income was $3.7 million.
Meanwhile, Jevic reported second quarter revenue of $72.6 million and operating income of $1.6 million, compared with 2000 second quarter revenue of $76.7 million and operating income of $2.7 million.