After nearly 100 years in operation, trucking giant Yellow Corp. is shutting down operations, sending notices to customers and workers alike. The end of the road comes after attempts to avert a strike by some 22,000 Teamsters-represented workers, as well as exploring opportunities to divest its third-party logistics company, Yellow Logistics Inc.
Yellow was one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers with some 30,000 employees across the nation. The shutdown follows years of financial struggles and seeing customers leave in droves. According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022, with that number falling to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments last year. As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion, of which $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.
The Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow’s “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.” As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.
The company’s financial difficulties had also been compounded by heated exchanges between Yellow and the Teamsters. After Yellow sued the union in June, alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans, the Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” and accused the company of decades of mismanagement. Now, after nearly a century in operation, Yellow Corp. is shutting down operations, with employees laid off yesterday as the company makes its last moves.
