Spin-offs hurt Yellow

Transportation firm Yellow Corp. said it would have had strong earnings for both the fourth quarter of 2002 and the year, but its profits were wiped out by the cost of spinning off a former subsidiary. Yellow president & CEO Bill Zollars said increased tonnage and revenue from its LTL operations helped boost its profits, but the carrier ended up posting a net loss of $93.9 million for the year because it spun off Jevic Transportation and SCS Transportation into a separate company. For the fourth quarter, Overland Park, KS-based Yellow posted operating income of $24.5 million on operating revenue of $717 million, up from income of $6.3 million on operating revenue of $600 million in the same period of 2001. For the year, Yellow said operating revenues increased to $46.9 million on operating revenues of $2.62 billion, compared to $38.2 million in operating income on revenues of $2.51 billion. Zollars added that LTL revenue per day was up 18.3% in the fourth quarter of 2002, primarily reflecting a 13% increase in LTL tonnage per day and a 4.6% improvement in LTL revenue per hundred weight, excluding the benefits of a 3.4% fuel surcharge.