This gives our union leverage; it's time to use it: "Driving a truck has been immune to two of the biggest trends affecting U.S. jobs: globalization and automation. A worker in China can't drive a truck in Ohio, and machines can't drive cars."

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Trucking giant YRC Worldwide Inc. on Thursday reported a $6.2 million profit in the final months of 2014 as its national freight business turned in stronger operating results.

The fourth-quarter profit compared with a $400,000 profit in the same quarter a year earlier.

Click here to read more at The Kansas City Star.

Driver turnover remained at elevated levels for truckload fleets of all sizes, inching up one percentage point to 97% at larger carriers and remaining at 94% at smaller fleets, American Trucking Associations reported.

The numbers compared to the second quarter of last year showed sequential stability in both the truckload fleets with revenue of more than $30 million and those with revenue below that benchmark.

Click here to read more at Transport Topics.

YRC Freight is looking to increase its use of purchased transportation to increase its profitability, according to a leaked internal memo.

A Dec. 18, 2014, memo obtained by theKansas City Business Journal, details a change-of-operations request to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that would allow the company to increase its use of interline carriers — third-party transportation providers — in areas currently served by YRC Worldwide Inc.employees.

Click here to read more at Kansas City Business Journal.

ABF Logistics has purchased Smart Lines Transportation Group, a truckload brokerage firm based in Oklahoma City, for $5.17 million.

Smart Lines, which primarily serves the food, energy and industrial sectors, has 24 employees and generates about $18 million in annual revenue, ABF said.

ABF Logistics is the third-party logistics arm of ArcBest Corp. and a sister company to less-than-truckload carrier ABF Freight.

The acquisition, completed Jan. 2, expands ABF Logistics into the Oklahoma City market.

“The purchase of Smart Lines Transportation Group is an important step in our strategy to grow the emerging businesses at ArcBest and provide a variety of supply chain services to our customers in the way they expect,” ABF Logistics President Jim Ingram said in the Jan. 5 statement.

Greg Roush, Smart Lines’ founder and former president, is now branch director for the Oklahoma City location, which is officially operating under the ABF Logistics name.

ArcBest, based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, ranks No. 13 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

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January 5, 2015: The YRCW Board of Directors, including two nominated by James Hoffa, has handed the top two executives a $10 million bonus.

“What happened to ‘equality of sacrifice’” asked Frank Fullerton, a YRC road driver out of Local 728 Atlanta. “This is a slap in the face to every YRC employee and retiree, who has given up wages, pensions and vacations. And the IBT goes along – one more reason to dump Hoffa for a new leadership.”

The YRCW board terminated and then rehired CEO James Welch and Chief Financial Officer Jamie Pierson. This gimmick let them collect a severance package that included stock due to their “termination.” The board claimed they needed a more “traditional compensation package” going forward.  

Welch was awarded a severance package that included stock shares worth $6.2 million at current valuation and Pierson received stock worth about $4 million. The filing with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not report whether salaries were changed under the new agreement, but the “traditional compensation” surely means a fat raise. In 2013, Welch got $2,170.630 and Pierson got $1,999,223. YRC’s drivers, dock workers, clerks and mechanics would also like a “traditional compensation” package!

UPDATED January 5, 2015: YRCW has issued a response to media reports on the two execs which states in part that, “The CEO and CFO did not receive any severance pay in association with the cancellation of their employment agreements; they simply entered into severance agreements that would dictate terms in the event a termination happened at some point in the future.” So it appears those severance payments are delayed.

YRC Worldwide Inc. has terminated its employment agreements with CEO James Welch and CFO Jamie Pierson. However, the Overland Park-based company's top executives aren't going anywhere.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Friday, the less-than-truckload carrier (Nasdaq: YRCW) announced that the company's board approved termination of Welch and Pierson's current employment agreements to grant them a new, more competitive package in 2015.

Click here to read more at the Kansas City Business Journal.

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Monthly Transport Trader. Our Transport Trader report is a monthly review of transport stock performance. We show transport performance vs. the S&P 500 and other sectors, sub-sector performance (e.g. rail vs. truck), comparable stock performance (e.g. FDX vs. UPS), and individual stock performance vs. the market and peer group.

Transports Give a Little Back in December, with Some Signs of Mean Reversion. Our WR Transport index fell 0.7% in Dec. and slightly underperformed the S&P 500 for the first time in 4 months. TL stocks continued to outperform as the clearest winners from lower fuel (i.e. stronger consumer and net fuel savings), while LTL and Express stocks lagged the most. Asset-light stocks (UACL, RRTS and FWRD) outperformed last month after lagging earlier in the year, but LSTR was the worst transport stock in Dec. after strong gains earlier in the year.

But Transports Still Strongly Outperformed in 2014. Our Transport index was up 20% in ‘14, outperforming the S&P by more than 800bp and trailing only Utility and Health Care sector performance for the year. TL and LTL stocks were by far the best (8 of the top 9 stocks in our coverage were trucking stocks), followed by the Rails, Express carriers, Freight Forwarders and lastly the Truck OEM’s. Our best performing transport stocks were CVTI, KNX and SAIA, while our worst stocks were UTIW,RRTS and NAV.

Some Interesting Stats of the Year. Rail stocks outperformed the S&P 500 for the 14th straight year, led by UNP which has now overtaken UPS as the largest transport company (by market cap). FDX outperformed UPS for the 3rd straight year while Freight Forwarders underperformed the market for the 4th straight year. Trucking stocks outperformed for the 2nd straight year, and TL was the best performing transport sub-sector for the first time since ‘08.

A Look Ahead with Our Top Transport Stock Ideas for 2015: Rail and Truck capacity remain very tight, so pricing should be very strong this year and we believe Transport stocks can continue to outperform to begin the year. We believe TL remains best positioned entering the year, and our favorite TL stock is SWFT. While crude-by-rail has become a risk, we still expect CP to show the best EPS growth among the Rails this year, while FDX should benefit from lower costs and stronger Express vols in a lower fuel environment. WAB remains our favorite multi-year growth story, and our best special situations idea is UTIW as a potential turnaround or take-out story.

Questions and answers on the impact of the suspension of the HOS restart provision approved by Congress (as supplied by American Trucking Associations): 

On Dec. 13, Congress passed the fiscal year 2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill, providing funding for the vast majority of the federal government, including the Department of Transportation, for the current fiscal year. The President signed the bill into law Dec. 16. Officially titled the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, the bill is over 1,700 pages long and has a host of detailed spending and policy-related provisions affecting many industries. 

The most important trucking-related provision is language that provides relief from the two new restrictions of the hours-of-service restart rule. Specifically, the legislation suspends the requirement that all qualifying restarts contain two consecutive periods of time between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., and that it can only be used once every 168 hours (or seven days). In other words, the restart rule reverts back to the simple 34-hour restart in effect from 2003 to June 2013.

Below are some frequently asked questions to help understand the impact of this action.

1. What does the Congressional language actually say, and what does it mean?

The legislation says:

“Section 133 temporarily suspends enforcement of the hours-of-service regulation related to the restart provisions that went into effect on July 1, 2013 and directs the Secretary to conduct a study of the operational, safety, health and fatigue aspects of the restart provisions in effect before and after July 1, 2013. The Inspector General is directed to review the study plan and report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations whether it meets the requirements under this provision."

Essentially, this law eliminates, temporarily, the two new restrictions on the use of the 34-hour restart, namely the 1-5 a.m. provision and the 168-hour rule. Drivers will be permitted to restart their weekly hours by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty, regardless of whether or not it includes two periods of time between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. A driver can also utilize the restart more than one time per week if necessary.

2. When is the new 34-hour restart effective?

The 34-hour restart rule reverted to its pre-July 1, 2013 version on Dec. 16 when the President signed the bill into law. 

3. How long will this change last?

Because the language resides in an annual spending bill, its terms expire at the end of FY2015, which is Sept. 30, 2015.  It’s important to note that the legislation also directs the Department of Transportation to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of the 34-hour restart rules in place before July 1, 2013 with those that took effect after. During 2015, ATA will continue to pursue strategies in an effort to keep the simple 34-hour restart rule in place for a longer period of time.

4. Does the legislation include any other changes to the hours-of-service rules?

No, all other hours-of-service rules, including the 30-minute rest break provision, remain unchanged and must be complied with.

5. If our trucks have ELDs, will we be able to use the simple 34-hour restart immediately?

Carriers are encouraged to work with their ELD suppliers to determine what software updates are necessary to comply with this legislatively directed rule change. A short transition period may be necessary, and ATA encourages fleets to be patient as ELD suppliers will need some time to write and deploy the software updates.

6. Will enforcement officials know about this change?

Soon after the law is signed, ATA fully expects the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to issue enforcement memos describing the changes and their impact to law enforcement personnel. The enforcement memos/guidance will be distributed by ATA to its members as they become available. Motor carriers may experience minor disruptions at roadside as law enforcement adapt to the changes. If a driver experiences a problem at roadside, you should contact head of the commercial vehicle safety program in that state’s lead MCSAP agency.