On the eve of reaching 100 years in business a well-known trucking company is no longer serving a range of customers across the country.

What You Need To Know

  • Yellow Corporation ended its operations

  • The trucking company announced the shutdown Monday

  • At least 30,000 employees are now out of work

The Yellow Corporation, a trucking company in business for 99 years, ended all operations as of noon Sunday. Apologies to customers and employees for the end of deliveries were taped to the YRC Freight facility, a subsidiary of the longtime hauler. At least 30,000 employees are out of a job.

Years of money issues plagued the once-valued leader in the trucking industry. The federal government supplied Yellow Corp. with $700 million in pandemic-related loans. However, the company owed the federal government as much as $729 million at the last check in March.

The Teamsters, a well-established labor union in America representing thousands of now laid-off Yellow drivers, was notified the company intends to not close its operations but will also 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,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry.”

What the impact will look like in North Carolina remains to be seen. The less-than-truckload freight carrier, known throughout the field as LTL, quit fulfilling customer orders last week.

An N.C. State expert on supply chains said this is on the company — not the workers — for failing to manage its finances properly. Robert Handfield said despite the company's financial woes, there may be other opportunities for truckers based sheerly on demand.

“It also shows that there is a really big role for the people who drive these trucks, maintain the trucks, load the trucks,” Handfield said. “They’re essential to our economy, and so let’s treat them with respect, let’s be good to them and let’s make sure they’re paid appropriately for their work.”

The company has not responded to multiple attempts by Spectrum News 1 asking for a list of affected customers. At last check there have been no bankruptcy filings posted on the Securities and Exchanges Commission website.