For US AR members.

DO NOT authorize shipment, or send payment for shipment, by your customs broker, or otherwise, of any trophies overland by Yellow Freight.

Yellow Freight is poised to file for bankruptcy protection later today.

I am sure that overland shipping prices will only go up, as options are now narrowed considerably.

Thanks for the heads up!

This is a sad chapter for the trucking industry. Yellow Freight is nearly 100 years old and now they’re filing BK. News reports are that the Teamsters Union blocked them from restructuring debt, which ultimately led to this filing. I wonder how the Teamsters justify their hard line stance to their members, many of whom may find themselves without a job.

Liquidation or restructuring? If restructuring your shipments are OK.

From what I read this morning in our local news they are shuttering the business...

quote:

Originally posted by Scott Powell:
From what I read this morning in our local news they are shuttering the business...

Yes. That appears to be what is happening.

If they're shuttering the business it must be a Chapter 7 Liquidation. Chapter 11 is an attempt at reorganization, although a majority of them eventually end up in Chapter 7. Sad news for the trucking industry and the general public.

I took a friend to my place this weekend. He was discussing some of his friends who had worked for Yellow Freight for over 30 years. From what he was saying, it sounds like a total liquidation.

This will be ugly.

IIRC, the teamsters made sizeable concessions both on pay and pensions when this became untenable some years ago? It was done under the premise that it would help them recover and everything would be brought back with time. Things continued to deteriorate and now the Teamsters called the note. Not a fan of the unions but there is plenty of blame to go around on this one.

I used to have a company and we used non union carriers for our LTL business.

For a period of about six months, anytime the non-union carrier pulled up to our docks, a teamster car or two would pull up, teamsters would get out and strike our business. The majority of teamsters picketing were Yellow, Roadway or CF.

It never hurt my feelings when CF went out of business. I won't loose any sleep with the Yellow/Roadway group going down the tubes either.

A google search showed Yellow is the sixth largest carrier in the US. That means there are plenty of alternatives. The rock that sank their ship was the 2020 Covid era loan from the US government for $700 million. They’ve only paid back a third of it and the balance is due September 2024. Market forces at work….

Concerning what is near and dear to all of us, namely, shipping costs, Yellow Freight's were the lowest in the market. For that reason, I have used them for trophy shipments many times over the years.

But there is no doubt that their low rates were a significant part of their money problems. Low margins only work with large market share.

Yellow's customers were bailing on them in droves because of the union problems.

I have trophies sitting in Houston right now. They were a day away from being put on a Yellow Freight truck. Like so many others who were paying attention, my customs broker pulled the business from Yellow just yesterday. I am glad they were on top of things and that is the reason I started this thread.

I have a quote for shipping that my broker got from Yellow months ago. My broker is now shopping the shipment with alternative carriers.

I can't wait to see the alternative carriers' prices.

Under no circumstances use Estes

About 3 years ago I got a long delayed shipment of trophies and Estes basically destroyed the crate and told me tough luck.

When they close I will be standing across the road with a big sign that says “LEARN TO CODE”.

Yellow did this to themselves. I have done work on their facilities and my contract rearms since about 2018 have been 100% paid in advance. Once the check clears we will begin work.

Replacement shipper, ABF, charged me a full third more than Yellow would have charged.

Ouch.

Blame plaintiff's lawyers. Trucking businesses are relentlessly attacked by these blood-sucking leaches who try to accuse them of every sort of evil and scare juries that they are all about to be killed by an 18 wheeler. The verdicts are ridiculous, as are the costs to us all. It's a racket.