Yellow Corp. plans to consolidate terminals in Buffalo, N.Y., area

Yellow Corp. continues on its march toward One Yellow with the consolidation of three terminals in the Buffalo, N.Y., area to one.

The trucking company filed a WARN Act notice with the New York Department of Labor reporting that it plans to close its New Penn and Holland regional carrier locations on May 28. Those facilities are on Transit Road next to the New York Thruway exchange. Those operations will be combined with a larger Yellow distribution center on Milens Road in the nearby town of Tonawanda.

The WARN Act notice said about 120 employees at the two closing terminal sites will be affected. Yellow Corp. is working to transfer substantially all affected facility employees, according the notice to the state. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices are required by federal law to announce the closure of facilities by employers with 100 or more employees.

This is part of Phase Two of the company’s strategic overhaul announced in 2021 and dubbed One Yellow. The plan was to revamp its three legacy subsidiaries into one super-regional carrier through restructuring to operate under the Yellow name.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Yellow Corp. implemented the first phase of its network optimization plan in September 2022, integrating 89 YRC Freight and Reddaway terminals. The company now is working through Phase 2 of the One Yellow plan.

“Through our long-planned change of operations as part of our One Yellow enterprise transformation, we anticipate that our three Buffalo facilities will be consolidated into one,” Heather Nauert, spokesperson for Yellow Corp., told Land Line. “We anticipate that two smaller facilities will be consolidated into our larger Yellow regional distribution center. Those facilities include the New Penn and the Holland terminals. In 2022, we communicated this change to our local employees and continue to discuss with them opportunities available at the larger facility.”

The company expects many of the affected employees to be offered other opportunities with Yellow Corp.

“Buffalo will continue to be an important hub for Yellow,” Nauert said. “We have a strong Buffalo employee base that serves our customers well and we remain committed to ensuring excellent customer service in Buffalo and elsewhere both throughout and after the completion of our One Yellow enterprise transformation.”

Earlier Yellow Corp. coverage

Earlier this year, Yellow reported that its less-than-truckload freight tonnage was down but the company had cut debt.

Yellow in December paid off the remaining $42.8 million due for the deferral of certain payroll taxes under provisions of its Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act loan. In July 2020, Yellow Corp. received funds through the CARES Act, which provided money to help businesses affected by the pandemic.

The second phase of the One Yellow reorganization has run into some pushback from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Yellow said it is meeting with local union representatives to work out the details of Phase 2.

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