Bankruptcy court OKs Yellow liquidation plan for trucks, trailers

The liquidation of one of the grand old names of trucking continues, and the industry is watching to see how much the auctioneer will make from the largest sale of rolling stock in the history of the trucking industry.

A bankruptcy court in Delaware has approved plans by the administrators of bankrupt less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier Yellow Corp. to use auctioneers to sell the company’s rolling stock. Yellow filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 6 and ceased operations as the nation’s 13^th-largest overall trucking company and third-largest LTL operator.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, IronPlanet Canada Ltd., and Nations Capital, described in court documents as restructuring agents, will run planning and marketing for the sale of power units and trailers owned by Yellow.

Yellow owned around 12,700 tractors and 42,000 trailers when it went out of business. The rolling stock is of varying age and quality, officials said. The newest stock includes 2,000 tractors purchased with $400 million from a $700 million loan provided by the Department of the Treasury in 2020. It is unclear how much, if any of that money, will be returned to the U.S. government.

However, much of the rest of Yellow’s fleet was older than the industry average, according to sources, and could need more work.

Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware Judge Craig Goldblatt has approved the process—which included amounts of commissions earned by the third parties in the sale.

Court documents show if Yellow’s rolling stock garners less than $475 million, the commission will be 9.25%. If the sale brings in between $475 million and $600 million, it will rise to 10%. Between $600 million to $800 million, the commission is 12.5. Anything above $800 million will net the auction houses a 15.5% fee.

Yellow also has a Nov. 9 deadline for receiving bids for its 169 company-owned terminals and other non-trucking assets. An auction for that sale is scheduled for Nov. 28.

Estes Express Lines, the nation’s fifth-largest LTL carrier, won a “stalking horse” bid of $1.525 billion for the terminals. That edged out Old Dominion Freight Line’s bid of $1.5 billion.

In a related development, Reuters is reporting that Jack Cooper Transport, a female-owned, Teamster-affiliated car-hauling company with 4,000 trucks based in Baltimore, is attempting to make a long-shot bid to buy Yellow Corp. out of bankruptcy.

The Reuters report said that Jack Cooper’s bid hinges on several factors. The federal government’s $700 million loans currently come due in September 2024. Jack Cooper's bid effort hinges largely on whether the U.S. Treasury would be willing to extend the payback period to 2026. That would allow Jack Cooper to offer more favorable terms for Yellow, because it would not have to pay the loan back right away.

It’s unclear whether the government is at all interested in getting involved, despite its 30% stake in Yellow.