"We're off to a good start in 2000," Bill Zollars, Yellow Corp. chairman, president and ceo said commenting on the LTL fleet's first quarter results.
The company had net income of $10.5 million, compared with net income of $4.8 million in the 1999 first quarter. Net income grew 119 percent and earnings per share were up 116 percent over the 1999 first quarter.
Consolidated revenue was $882.1 million, up 21 percent from $727.5 million in the 1999 first quarter. Consolidated operating income was $25.3 million, up 115 percent from $11.8 million in the prior year period. First quarter 1999 results do not include contributions from Jevic, which was acquired in July 1999.
Zollars said Yellow continued to benefit from accelerating revenue and tonnage trends that
began in the second half of 1999.
Yellow Freight System, the company's largest subsidiary, reported first quarter operating income of $21.7 million, up 142 percent from $9.0 million in the 1999 first quarter. Revenue was $680.4 million, up 11 percent from $612.8 million in the prior year's period. The 2000 first
quarter operating ratio was 96.8, compared with 98.5 a year earlier.
Yellow Freight benefited from a 5.5 percent general rate increase that was effective for the fall 1999 shipping season. The increase created a pricing benchmark for favorable corporate contract renewals throughout the fourth quarter of 1999 and first quarter of 2000, the company said. Yellow Freight also benefited from a fuel surcharge that substantially offset rapidly rising costs of diesel fuel throughout the 2000 first quarter.
During the 2000 first quarter, the four carriers comprising the Yellow Corporation Regional Carrier Group - Saia Motor Freight Line, Jevic Transportation, WestEx and Action Express - reported combined operating income of $7.5 million, up 61 percent from $4.7 million in the 1999 first quarter. Revenue for the regional group was $196.4 million, up 77 percent from $110.9 million.