September 6, 2011
This week, I had the pleasure of attending the EAA Fly In, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. If you're not familiar with the Fly In it is the largest air show in the country, annually attracting thousands of planes. I've been attending the Fly In for over 25 years and it remains one of my favorite events of the year.
My favorite part of the Fly In is the World Class Air Show at the end of each afternoon. As you witness planes doing things that you never thought they were capable of doing (like coming to what appears to be a dead stop a couple of thousand feet off the ground), or witnessing people doing things you'd never think of doing (such as walking on the wings of a plane while it's flying), you hear lots of, "WOWS!"
This year marked the 10th Anniversary of the U.S. Military's Heritage flight show. What a cool event. They had four planes from different eras flying in formation in order to give the crowd a visualization of how aviation has changed over the years. As they flew over the crowd, you could see the past versus the present. I couldn't help but ask, "Who were the people who saw the future of aviation back in the forties, who were the pioneers that had the vision to change what we know today as the aviation industry?"
For those of you who are wondering what the Oshkosh Fly In has to do with an interview with Bill Zollars, let me simply tell you that I believe Bill is one of those rare visionary executives who is a pioneer and has been instrumental in changing the LTL sector of the transportation industry.
When Bill joined Yellow, there was speculation about which LTL carriers would be the winners and losers in the future. It is not an understatement to say that there were mixed opinions about whether Yellow would be one of the winners. In the nineties, the market saw Yellow Freightways as a national LTL carrier.
Today, with companies such as Yellow, Roadway, US Freightways and Meridian IQ, YRC Worldwide has emerged as one of the leaders and winners in the supply chain marketplace, servicing companies throughout the world.
We covered a lot of ground during this interview. I trust you'll find this discussion to be very informative, especially Bill's comments about the future of the transportation industry, as well as factors affecting the carriers' pricing in the future.
Mike Regan
TranzAct Technologies
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