ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

November 11, 2002 8:30 AM, EST

Yellow Corp.'s chief executive officer, William D. Zollars, told cable financial news channel CNBC in an interview Monday that he doesn't expect the new emissions-compliant engines to be a problem.

"We are using the new engines, they are working," Zollars said. "And I don't expect it to be a big problem."

Zollars said that the impact of the new engines didn’t hit the Overland Park, Kan.-based less-than-truckload carrier as hard as some other companies because Yellow does not turn its fleet over as quickly as some other firms.

Looking forward to the holiday season and the end of the fiscal year, Zollars was hopeful that a strong Christmas season would "jump start us into next year."

Zollars said that, mainly due to the closure of Consolidated Freightways at the end of the third quarter, Yellow has seen its business in the fourth quarter increase 15% and its fourth-quarter earnings jump nearly 100% from the third quarter.

"There's going to be plenty of inventory on the shelves at Christmas," Zollars told CNBC, describing the current freight transportation market.

Also, Zollars said that he expects Yellow's fourth-quarter earnings to be up four or five times year-over-year.

Yellow is ranked No. 6 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada.