In June 1997, Caliber sold the assets that had formerly comprised Central to an investment group led by former Central leadership backed by trucking magnate and Swift Transportation co-founder Jerry Moyes. These areas had been primarily served by the former Coles and Spartan subsidiaries. The cuts were expected to include 4,000 jobs and 83 terminals in the eastern, southern, and central US. Ĭaliber reported Viking had seen losses of around US$127 million after having been unable to bring Viking to profitability since merging its smaller, regional carriers into a nationwide offering. Despite positive performances from RPS, Roberts, and Caliber Logistics in Q1 1997, Caliber announced in March it would be selling or closing a large portion of the eastern operations of Viking leaving it as a west coast-focused carrier. Viking announced a wage freeze in July 1996 and in December said it would be eliminating 30 terminals and 1,500 jobs in a bid to reduce costs. But, Caliber continued to experience significant losses. In December it announced it would be consolidating its remaining trucking companies, Viking (with subsidiary Spartan), Central, and Cole's into a nationwide carrier named Viking Freight Inc. Caliber said it had lost US$103 million on the venture. In November it shut down RGA and sold the assets to Burlington Air Express. Ĭaliber immediately began an effort to reorganize in an attempt to decrease costs. In November 1995, Roadway Services announced it was changing its name to Caliber System, effective in January 1996 and would move its stock listing from the Nasdaq to the NYSE under the new symbol "CBB." It also rebranded Roadway Logistics and Roadway Technology to Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, respectively. RGA operated for less than two years before it was shut down and its assets were sold to Burlington Air Express. In 2003 Roadway was acquired by Yellow Freight to form Yellow Roadway Corporation. As an independent company, Roadway Express grew substantially achieving profits of US$21.8 million in its first year. As a result, RSI announced in August 1995 that it would spin off Roadway Express as a separate, publicly traded company. At the time, Roadway Express contributed over 40% of the parent company's US$5 billion annual revenue but was less profitable than the other trucking units. The strike at Roadway Express highlighted the division's profitability imbalance when compared to RSI's non-union carriers. In the end, the strike lasted 24 days and, according to the RSI, resulted in losses of US$68 million for the quarter at Roadway Express. The strike was the result of a breakdown in negotiations between the Teamsters and Trucking Management Inc., a negotiating group which represented 23 large trucking companies including Roadway Express, Consolidated Freightways, and Yellow Freight. While RSI's smaller regional carriers were all non-union, Roadway Express was unionized and in April 1994 it was impacted by a nationwide strike of the Teamsters Union. At the time, RSI was the third-largest motor freight carrier in the US. At the same time Roadway Express continued its expansion with services to Europe in 1991 and a number of Pacific Rim ports soon after. In 1990, Viking subsidiary VFS Transportation was closed and Spartan was absorbed into Viking, operating as a subsidiary. In the late 1980s and early 1990s RSI experienced both expansion and contraction as it acquired the largest western US regional carrier, Viking Freight, but closed the unprofitable Nationwide Carriers in 1989. By 1988, RPS covered 70% of the US from 130 terminals. RPS was intended to out-compete the package delivery services of UPS by structuring itself for lower costs. With both truckload and LTL services available via its subsidiaries, in 1985 RSI founded a package delivery service, Roadway Package System (RPS) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.