CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — After nearly 100 years in operation, it’s the end of the road for one of our country’s largest trucking companies.
Yellow Corp. ceased operations Sunday at noon, leaving its 30,000 workers across the U.S. jobless.
That includes those at the Carlisle and Camp Hill terminals, where a sign on-site confirmed the news.
Chris Thropp, president of SAGE Truck Driving Schools, says the closure was anticipated.
“Their freight had started to slow down, they’ve had union problems, and I think all their freight had transitioned to other trucking companies at this point," said Thropp.
Yellow racked up a lot of debt after receiving a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the federal government, creating financial troubles amid ongoing negotiations with its unionized workers.
“They’re probably all good drivers, experienced drivers but I think they will most likely be moving to other unionized carriers like ABF [Freight] and Old Dominion [Freight Line]," explained Thropp.
Early Monday, the Teamsters’ Union was given legal notice the company had shut down, with plans to file for bankruptcy.
“Today’s news is unfortunate but not surprising. Yellow has historically proven that it could not manage itself despite billions of dollars in worker concessions and hundreds of millions in bailout funding from the federal government. This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.
Thropp believes the closure is a “one-off” event and is not reflective of what’s happening across the trucking industry.
“I do think it’s possible people are going to look at the Yellow shutdown and say ‘Well there really aren’t jobs’ but there’s a huge demand," said Thropp. "They’re 80,000 short today, by 2030 they expect it to be 160,000 short.”
But beyond drivers, there are still a large number of workers now looking for a new job.
“That’s troubling," Thropp continued. "I think out of the 30,000 people, I think the majority are drivers but there are other people who are going to have to find employment.”
FOX43 reached out to Yellow and the Teamsters Union for further comment. Neither returned our request, as of late Monday afternoon.
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