USF replaces Red Star in return to Syracuse

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Sep 24, 2004 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE - USF has re-entered the Northeastern trucking market four months after deciding to shut down its 72-year-old Red Star line due to labor troubles. The Cbicago-based trucking company closed down the USF Red Star division two days after a May 21 work stoppage by the Teamsters Union in Philadelphia.

USF operates five regional trucking lines across the nation. Its Red Star subsidiary formerly served the Northeast. USF has moved its Midwestern line, known as USF Holland, into terminals formerly operated by USF Red Star.

USF specializes in less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping, which consolidates smaller shipments for delivery. The company recently opened seven other former Red Star terminals under the Holland line. The re-branded terminals include one in Albany, four in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland, and one in Virginia. USF operates more than 225 terminals nationwide.

USF Holland's Syracuse terminal is the former Red Star terminal at 6618 Boss Road in Mattydale.

The company shut the facility when Red Star closed down, says James J. Hyland, vice president for corporate communications at USE He declined to say how many employees lost their jobs when the terminal closed nor whether any of the former staff had been rehired.

The May 23, 2004 shutdown of the Red Star truck line put 2,000 people out of work, according to USF. Richard DiStasio, the company's chief executive officer, blamed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for forcing the company to close USF Red Star.

"We have lost customers and revenues," DiStasio said in a statement on the day of the closure. "We know many of those customers are gone forever."

The reopened USF Holland terminal in Syracuse employs 14 and serves as the base for 26 trucks. The 18,850-square-foot truck terminal has 36 loading docks and is set on a 3.5-acre lot.

Publicly traded USF Corp. employs more than 20,000 and generates annual revenues of $2.9 billion.

USF traces its roots to Australia's TNT Ltd., a trucking company founded in 1946 that entered the United States market in the 1960s. Under its North American identity, TNT Freightways, the company entered the Canadian market in the 1970s and purchased several regional lines during the 1980s. TNT purchased Red Star in 1987. Parent company TNT Ltd. made TNT Frieightways an independent company in 1992. TNT Freightways changed its name to US Freightways in 1996 and subsequently to USF Corp. in 2003.