Yellow Transportation
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Corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas
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| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: YRCW |
| Industry | Transportation |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Founder | G.C. "Cleve" Harrell, A.J. Harrell |
| Headquarters | Overland Park, Kansas, USA |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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James L. Welch (CEO) Downtown Glenn Brown |
| Revenue |
 $ 4.869 billion (2011)
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$ -138 million (2011)
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$ -354 million (2011)
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| Total assets |
 $ 2.486 billion (2011)
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| Total equity |
$ -359 million (2011)
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Number of employees
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32,000 (2011) |
| Subsidiaries | YRC Freight YRC Reimer Holland Reddaway New Penn |
| Website | YRCW.com |
YRC Worldwide Inc. is an American holding company of freight shipping brands YRC Freight, YRC Reimer, New Penn, USF Holland and USF Reddaway. YRC Worldwide has a comprehensive network in North America, and offers shipping of industrial, commercial and retail goods. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.
In 1906, Grover Cleveland “Cleve” Harrell (1884-1942) started what was to become the Yellow Cab Company with a horse-drawn hack and a team of horses in Oklahoma City. After a year, he bought a Model T Ford. People were willing to pay more to ride in an automobile. After World War I, he bought two more cars and hired a relief driver. In 1918, Harrell painted one of his cars yellow. Although ridiculed by other cab drivers, he was hauling more passengers than anyone else, so he painted all his cars yellow and business boomed. Harrell trademarked the name Yellow Cab in Oklahoma. Later, John Hertz copied the Yellow Cab in Chicago and obtained the national trademark for the use of the name.
Harrell’s older brother, A.J. Harrell (1883-1972), had followed him to Oklahoma City and had been successful in the operation of a horse and mule business during World War I. Cleve needed extra capital for expansion, so he formed a partnership with A.J. The company’s offices were moved to 113 S. Santa Fe, and their younger brother, Marvin Harrell, and their father, Jake Harrell, were added to the payroll. The partnership started a cross-country bus line connecting Oklahoma City and Tulsa, which was later sold to Pickwick Bus Company of Tulsa. Cleve established the Capital Hill Bus Lines for the southern part of Oklahoma City, which he successfully operated for several months before selling it to the Oklahoma Street Railway Company.
When oil was discovered in the Oklahoma City area, mules were needed for work in digging slush pits, so the Harrell brothers bought mules and, in 1929, established the Yellow Transit Freight Lines to serve small manufacturers for whom freight was slow and express rates were prohibitive. By 1933, with the New Deal and the NRA, most businesses came under government regulation in an attempt to increase employment. Cleve, together with taxicab operators from other parts of the country, met in Washington D.C. to formulate a regulatory code, which didn’t succeed. Cleve then devised his own code and got government confirmation.
About this time, the Harrell brothers dissolved the partnership. Cleve took the taxicabs in the trade-out, as well as the Yellow Cab Dynamic Gasoline Company. He sold the taxicab business in 1940 to Eddie Fuller, who operated the Y and Y Cab Co., and maintained ownership of the gasoline company until his death on December 3, 1942. A.J. took control of the freight lines, which he operated for many years. The company remained small until 1952, when an ownership group led by George E. Powell Sr. bought the freight company. During this time, Yellow helped pioneer the concept of consolidating small freight shipments into trailer loads.
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Wikipedia