YRC posts bigger loss on charges, freight drops

By Nick Carey

CHICAGO (Reuters) - No. 1 U.S. trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc (YRCW.O) on Thursday reported a worse-than-expected quarterly loss due to the impact of recession on freight and a series of charges, sending its shares down more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company reported a first-quarter loss of $257.4 million or $4.34 per share, compared with $46.4 million or 82 cents per share a year earlier.

Excluding charges, YRC said its loss amounted to $2.63 per share.

Analysts had on average expected a loss for the quarter of $1.77 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company said revenue in the quarter fell to $1.50 billion from $2.23 billion a year earlier. Tonnage at the company's national trucking unit was down 29 percent.

Chief Executive Bill Zollars told Reuters after the results came out that about a third of the drop in revenue was due to "nervous customers" diverting freight during the quarter because of uncertainty over the struggling truck company's future.

"Almost without exception that business is on its way back or will be shortly," Zollars said.

He added that hopeful statements from across corporate America that the worst of the recession may have passed seemed reasonable.