A Trucking Giant Is Bankrupt, and Finger-Pointing Begins

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Yellow, one of the largest trucking companies in the United States, is now in bankruptcy, three years after it got a $700 million federal loan meant to help it weather the pandemic’s upheaval. So why are rivals of the 99-year-old freight hauler doing just fine? Yellow, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, had for years been an industry laggard. Analysts say that most trucking companies are strong enough to keep operating — even after a steep fall in business following the pandemic boom in purchases of goods — and that freight is unlikely to be much disrupted by Yellow’s demise. Investors are even betting on the industry’s future, sending many trucking stocks sharply higher in recent weeks. “I don’t look at Yellow’s failure as much of a canary in the coal mine for the broader market,” said Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR, a forecasting firm that focuses on the freight industry. The trucking industry has a variety of tiers. FedEx and UPS handle mostly retail packages. Walmart, Amazon and Target have big private fleets. For-hire truckload companies, hauling goods from a single shipper over long distances, include big enterprises and others with only one to five trucks, a segment that mushroomed in response to demand early in the pandemic.