Trucking giant Yellow Corp. declares bankruptcy after years of financial struggles
NEW YORK — Trucking company Yellow Corp. has declared bankruptcy after years of financial struggles and growing debt, marking a significant shift for the U.S. transportation industry and shippers nationwide.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was filed Sunday, comes just three years after Yellow received $700 million in pandemic-era loans from the federal government. While a Chapter 11 filing is used to restructure debt while operations continue, Yellow, like other trucking companies in recent years, will liquidate and the U.S. will join other creditors unlikely to recover funds extended to the company.
Yellow fell into severe financial stress after a long stretch of poor management and strategic decisions dating back decades.
In 2019 two trucking companies, Celadon and New England Motor Freight, file for bankruptcy protection and liquidated.
Former Yellow customers and shippers may face higher prices as they take their business to competitors, including FedEx or ABF Freight, experts say — noting Yellow historically offered the cheapest price points in the industry.
“It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business,” CEO Darren Hawkins said in a news release late Sunday. “For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers.”
Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company had 30,000 employees across the country.
The Teamsters, which represented Yellow’s 22,000 unionized workers, said last week that the company gave legal notice for a bankruptcy filing and shut down operations in late July following layoffs of hundreds of nonunion employees.
