The bidding starts at …

Yellow Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. Only a couple of months later, the stage was being set for the company’s assets to be auctioned.

A court order issued on Oct. 27 permitted Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers to begin the process of selling off trucks and trailers owned by Yellow. The order includes more than 900 pages of inventory.

According to the order, Ritchie Bros. has exclusive rights to sell Yellow’s rolling stock. If gross proceeds are less than $475 million, the auctioneer will receive a 9.25% fee. That fee increases to 10% for proceeds up to $600 million, 12.5% for proceeds more than $600 million up to $800 million and 15.5% for proceeds exceeding $800 million.

There also were reports on Oct. 31 that car carrier Jack Cooper Transport wanted to buy Yellow’s assets and resurrect the company. Despite the report coming on Halloween, the odds seemed slim for Yellow to return from the dead.

According to a Reuters report, Yellow owns about 11,700 tractors and 34,800 trailers, not including other leased vehicles.

“It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business,” Yellow Chief Executive Officer Darren Hawkins said in a news release. “Today, it is not common for someone to work at one company for 20, 30 or even 40 years, yet many at Yellow did. For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers.”

The bankruptcy filing sent shockwaves throughout the industry. In its August employment situation report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the trucking industry had lost nearly 37,000 jobs, the largest decline since the pandemic first struck in April 2020, when the industry lost 84,500 jobs. The large drop is likely the result of mass layoffs by Yellow.

Before the bankruptcy, the less-than-truckload carrier had attempted to launch a program called One Yellow. It called for raising employees’ pay and creating more jobs while providing stability for all stakeholders, according to the company.

Yellow vs. Teamsters

Yellow’s bankruptcy was preceded by a dispute with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Hawkins has blamed the Teamsters for Yellow’s downfall. In July, the company filed a lawsuit against the Teamsters seeking $137 million for blocking the integration of regional carriers New Penn and Holland into Yellow’s national network. That integration was part of the One Yellow plan.

“While (Teamsters) leaders may believe they won a battle against Yellow, it’s our employees and their families who have lost,” Hawkins said in a statement. “We tried everything to work with (Teamsters) leadership and did all we could to save employees’ jobs.”

However, the Teamsters fired back, attributing Yellow’s downfall to mismanagement.

“When mismanaged companies like Yellow cry about needing more flexibility to modernize, they’re telling you they want to take advantage of workers,” Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said in a statement. “They want to pay workers less, kill their pensions and stop paying their benefits. They want to force workers to perform labor they weren’t hired to do. All things Yellow is outright guilty of. Yellow benefited from historically low labor costs compared to other freight leaders, yet they still managed to drive the company into the ground. Workers do not own that death. Yellow management must.”

In September, the Teamsters urged the Senate to investigate the Yellow bankruptcy.

“More disturbing details of corruption, greed and graft continue to emerge at Yellow. We call upon Sen. (Bernie) Sanders and Sen. (Dick) Durbin to begin hearings,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “Yellow approved millions in executive bonuses in June at the same exact time that they were voluntarily choosing not to pay millions in worker health care and pension benefits. Workers in this country need real protections against corporations who game the system. We need real reform now that puts workers first in this process.” LL