Stephanie Sandoval
Shipping company Yellow is closing down, putting thousands out of work
Yellow Corp., one of the largest freight companies in the U.S., said it was closing operations and filing for bankruptcy on Monday.
LEARN MOREPosted: 6:25 p.m. EDT Aug 7, 2023
A near century-old trucking company is now left dealing with its debts.
Yellow Corp., the third largest small-freight trucking company in the nation officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday.
The bankruptcy filing comes after Yellow stopped trucking operations last week, leaving 30,000 workers without jobs.
Many of them, like Greg Muncy, have been working for the company for more than 30 years.
"I mean I shouldn’t even be here right now. I should be at home with my wife, drawing my full pension and maybe working a couple of days at the golf course and playing golf free. That’s what I expected out of this when I hired in," said Greg Muncy, a Yellow employee.
The company is hoping to reach an agreement with creditors, like Amazon.com and Home Depot, that will allow it to pay certain wages and benefits.
The filing comes after the Nashville-based company received $700 million from the federal government to stay afloat during the pandemic.
A congressional investigation last month found the Treasury and Defense Departments made missteps in granting the company the loan.
According to reports, top Trump administration officials may have awarded money to Yellow over the objections of officials at the Department of Defense. But even before the loan, Yellow was struggling. As of late March, the trucking company was around $1.5 billion in debt. It also saw shipments fall by 13% in the first quarter compared to a year ago.
In a statement Sunday, Yellow accused the Teamsters union, which represents 22,000 of its 30,000 employees, of driving the company out of business.
The union has denied those claims, blaming mismanagement for Yellow's downfall.
