Yellow Corp was the largest US trucker — debt from acquisitions broke it in 2023

Yellow Corporation was founded in 1929 as Yellow Transit Freight Lines and grew to become one of the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping companies in the United States. At its peak it reported $9.9 billion in annual revenue (2006), employed 30,000 people, and operated a national network of terminals under brands including YRC Freight, Holland, Reddaway, and New Penn.

The company's strategy was growth by acquisition: it bought Roadway Corp for $1.05 billion in 2003 and USF Corp for $1.5 billion in 2005. These acquisitions loaded the company with debt and required integrating multiple separate unionised carriers into a single efficient network — a task Yellow never accomplished. Losses mounted: $974 million in 2008, $622 million in 2009. In 2009 the company narrowly averted bankruptcy by exchanging $470 million in bonds for 94% of its shares, but it never recovered — it had only three profitable quarters in the next 14 years.

In July 2020, as pandemic lockdowns strained the company further, Yellow received a $700 million emergency loan from the US Treasury under the CARES Act, with the government taking a 29.6% equity stake. The loan bought time but not a turnaround. By early 2023, Yellow carried $1.3 billion in total debt, $729 million of it owed to the federal government, with repayment due in Q4 2024. In June 2023 the company missed a $50 million pension payment, triggering a strike threat from the Teamsters. Customers fled immediately — freight volume dropped nearly 80%.

Yellow ceased all operations on 30 July 2023 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on 6 August 2023, with 30,000 employees losing their jobs and the federal government left with $729 million in unpaid loans. The company's 128 owned terminals were auctioned for $1.9 billion in November 2023, bought by Saia ($235.7 million), XPO ($870 million for 28 terminals), and others. The stock was delisted from Nasdaq on 16 August 2023.