Less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. reported in a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that recently named President Darrel Harris assumed the chief operating officer role effective Friday.
Harris joined Yellow (NASDAQ: YELL) a year ago to head the company’s strategic initiatives and was quickly promoted to president when former COO T.J. O’Connor departed.
The 46-year-old has logged 25 years in the transportation industry, serving as CEO of transportation and logistics provider Xpress Global Systems prior to joining Yellow. He has also held sales and operations positions at carriers CRST International, Vitran and FedEx Freight (NYSE: FDX).
Harris arrived at the Overland Park, Kansas-based company to oversee its enterprise transformation. Now he’s overseeing a companywide restructuring dubbed “One Yellow.”
Under the plan, Yellow is consolidating the operations of its four previously siloed LTL carriers and its logistics company onto the same technology platform. The prior holding company setup allowed each carrier to operate independently but often added redundancy in pickup and deliveries at customer facilities. That arrangement is blamed for leaving revenue and cost synergies on the table, which is part of what has plagued the company’s past financial results.
The overhaul also includes utilizing a $700 million pandemic-relief loan, which was used to pay off deferred health, welfare and pension obligations to its largely union workforce, and upgrade its aging fleet. This year’s capital expenditures budget allocates $480 million to $530 million in equipment and technology investments. The new tractors and trailers are expected to save Yellow millions in fuel and maintenance expenses.
Once completed, Yellow will be a super-regional carrier with one customer portal and all of its operations conducted on a single platform.
The transformation, along with a robust freight market, have bled through to results. During the third quarter, Yellow posted its first profit, excluding real estate gains, and its best operating ratio since 2018.
Earlier this month, the company added Javier Evans to its board. Evans has more than four decades in human resources, currently serving as EVP and chief business operations and services officer at Sterling National Bank (NYSE: STL).
Harris’ new role comes with a 9% base pay bump to $600,000 annually and an equity grant of 30,000 shares. He remains eligible for the company’s executive compensation program.
