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YRC Worldwide Inc. has missed a key deadline in its restructuring process and again is in danger of having to file for bankruptcy protection.

In its annual report, filed late Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Overland Park-based company (Nasdaq: YRCW) said a “milestone failure” had occurred last week and that its lenders could declare the company to be in default on its credit agreements.

“The required lenders have not indicated that they intend to declare an event of default under the credit agreement, and we are continuing to work with the parties,” YRC wrote in the filing. “We cannot provide any assurance that the required lenders will not declare an event of default under the credit agreement. If the required lenders declare an event of default under the credit agreement, we anticipate that we would seek protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.”

YRC has been in and out of danger of filing for bankruptcy for the past two years as heavy debt and a recession-fueled drop in freight caused significant losses at the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carrier. It negotiated three rounds of concessions with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which represents about 25,000 YRC employees, including wage cuts and the agreement to waive monthly contributions to employee pensions starting in mid-2009.

Through Dec. 31, YRC has deferred more than $139 million in payments.

Last month, YRC worked out an agreement “in principle” with its lenders and the Teamsters’ negotiating arm to restructure its finances, including the influx of new capital and transforming some of its debt into stock shares. http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2011/...ing-agreement.html

As part of the agreement, YRC was required by March 10 to get nonbinding agreement to the terms of the proposed restructuring deal by a majority of the multi-employer pension funds that have not received regular contributions from YRC since 2009.

In the filing, the company said it believed the milestone failure occurred when the pension funds stated that they would seek “a significant increase” in interest rates on the deferred pension payments as part of their nonbinding agreement and the other parties refused to accept those conditions.

If the lenders did declare that the company was in default, that could force YRC to immediately repay hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.