Yellow Roadway Corp., the biggest U.S. trucking company, is changing its name to YRC Worldwide Inc. after two years of international growth and acquisitions in Asia.
The company's stock symbol will change today to YRCW from YELL, the company, based in Overland Park, Kan., said in a statement Tuesday. Yellow's fastest-growing business is its Meridian IQ unit, which arranges freight shipments in Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
"The breadth and depth of our enterprise is greater than the name Yellow Roadway conveys," chief executive officer William Zollars said in the statement. The company now operates in 70 countries.
Yellow Roadway expects to buy a Chinese trucking company and begin operating it under the YRC name later this year or early next year, Zollars said Tuesday in an interview. The company entered a joint venture with Shanghai Jin Jiang International Investment Ltd. in 2005 to increase sales in China, the world's seventh-largest economy.
Yellow Roadway is also waiting for final approval from the Chinese government for a venture that will serve U.S. retailers and manufacturers with operations in China, Zollars said.
The biggest carrier in the Chinese market has fewer than 200 trucks, Zollars said. If Yellow buys a Chinese trucking company later this year or early next year, it will focus on "starting small, offering a high-quality service to customers and growing from there," he said.
Yellow Roadway bought regional trucker USF Corp. last year to expand its overnight delivery business in the U.S. It bought rival Roadway Corp. in December 2003 to become the country's largest trucking company. Yellow's two biggest units had 16,600 trucks last year, according to government filings.