Freight Hauler Yellow Shuts Down Over Debt

Yellow, a nearly 100-year-old trucking business that moves freight around the country for big retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot, and other companies, is shutting down.

Photo Insert: Yellow is preparing a bankruptcy filing and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business.

A string of mergers left it burdened with debt and a dispute with Teamsters also threatened its operations, Liz Moyer reported for Barron’s Daily.

Yellow is preparing a bankruptcy filing and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business. It has nearly 30,000 workers, including about 22,000 Teamsters members. It would be the trucking industry’s biggest collapse in revenue and jobs.

Many customers made new freight arrangements in recent weeks, the Journal reported.

The collapse also comes days after about 340,000 union workers at United Parcel Service (UPS) struck a tentative five-year contract with the company, averting a devastating strike that could have disrupted global shipping.

Just three years ago, Yellow, then called YRC Worldwide, got a $700 million COVID-19 rescue loan from the Trump administration. That deal left the US Treasury with 30% of the stock, which it still has today, according to FactSet. Yellow shares are down nearly 72% this year.

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