by Christi Mathis
CARBONDALE, Ill. — After nearly a century in business, the trucking company Yellow Corp. halted operations Sunday and announced plans to lay off all 30,000 of its workers, apparently intending to file bankruptcy, according to experts. This development will affect the economy and people in numerous ways, said Gregory D. DeYong, Southern Illinois University Carbondale associate professor of operations management, who specializes in supply chain issues and costs.
DeYong said Yellow is one of the largest LTL (less-than-truckload) carriers, and although its share has been slipping fast, it still handled about 20,000 shipments a week. This means some other method of delivering those shipments must be found, and deliveries may be late or costs may increase.
“We are all affected by it in another way because the federal government took a 30% ownership stake in Yellow in 2020 in exchange for COVID relief assistance,” DeYong said. “In essence, we all own a little bit of Yellow. The writing has been on the wall for a few days. Shippers started to pull shipments in anticipation of a potential strike. Once a carrier loses the confidence of its customers, financial survival is doubtful.”