Millions of dollars worth of ex-Yellow tractors, trailers up for auction

The liquidation of Yellow Corp., once the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) and the nation’s 13^th-largest trucking company when it ceased operations last August, has continued to prove that Yellow’s assets were valuable even without operating as a functioning trucking company.

The bankruptcy estate of Yellow is expected to reap hundreds of millions of dollars for sale of some surprisingly new—and others with hundreds of thousands of miles—tractors and trailers.

Ritchie Bros. along with Nations Capital, LLC (“Nations”) are managing the sale of Yellow Corp.'s rolling stock assets.

The auctioneers said Yellow’s former inventory consists of “large quantities” of van and reefer trailers, flatbed trucks, truck tractors, van trucks, dollies, forklifts, storage containers, pickups, utility trucks, cab and chassis and mobile offices.

The equipment is located across the United States and Canada at over 300 terminal locations and Ritchie Brothers global facilities.

Yellow’s fleet was comprised of approximately 12,700 tractors, including approximately 11,700 owned tractors and approximately 1,000 leased tractors. In addition, it operated approximately 42,000 trailers, including approximately 34,800 owned trailers and 7,200 leased trailers.

Yellow’s network included 308 strategically located terminals, including 169 owned facilities with approximately 10,000 doors and 140 leased facilities with approximately 9,100 doors. In addition, it operated six warehouses managed by Yellow’s logistics solution provider, Yellow Logistics.

The equipment auction followed a very lucrative sale of former Yellow terminals to LTL rivals such as Saia, Estes, FedEx Freight and others. Those rivals spent more than $2 billion in acquiring various ex-Yellow terminals to flesh out their respective networks.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Jan. 12 approved the sale of 23 terminal leases owned by Yellow to six bidders for an aggregate $82.89 million. That followed sale of 128 freight terminals owned by Yellow for a combined $1.88 billion.

Yellow used proceeds from that sale to repay $700 million in principle—and more than $151 million in interest—to erase its debt to the federal government. The Treasury Department also received 29.6% of Yellow’s stock, totaling 15.9 million shares, in return for the $700 million loan. Treasury’s equity stake is worth about $72 million, Yellow said.

Yellow’s equipment auction began March 12 in Fort Worth, Texas. It was to continue in Las Vegas on March 15. Throughout March and April, Yellow’s auctioneers have scheduled various events around the country where Yellow’s former assets were located.

An example of what is up for sale can be gleaned from Ritchie Brothers website, http://www.rbauction.com. 

Typical of what is up for auction is a 2022 Peterbilt 579 4x2 Day Cab Truck Tractor with 34,126 miles. As of March 13, the second day of the Fort Worth auction, it had received 17 bids with a high offer of $19,500.

The truck is powered by a Paccar MX-13 6-cylinder 12.9 liter diesel 405 horsepower engine that had been operated 1,979 hours. Trucking executives contacted said a similar 2024 model Paccar tractor would sell for well over $125,000.

In addition to tractors and trailers—a 1967 model Fruehauf trailer and a 2001 Fruehauf 28-foot pup trailer were among items listed—there were forklifts, dolleys, chassis. and other necessary trucking company equipment listed on the RB Auction web site.