By Rachel Premack of FreightWavs
Yellow’s senior vice president of sales informed her staff on Wednesday that their last day would be Friday and the less-than-truckload carrier will file bankruptcy on Monday, according to three employees who attended the video call.
Yellow is the third-largest LTL company and employs some 30,000 workers, including around 22,000 Teamsters members. The trucking company had an operating revenue of $5.245 billion in 2022.
The sales employees were approved to tell customers of the bankruptcy plans and to take paid time off for the rest of the week.
In a meeting later Wednesday, according to a video of the meeting viewed by FreightWaves and two employees present, the senior vice president told employees to backtrack on the bankruptcy statement. She said to “correct” any customers that were previously told there would be a bankruptcy and to share the following statement:
“Yellow’s talks with the IBT are ongoing. As previously stated, and in keeping with fiduciary responsibility of the company’s executives, the company continues to prepare for a range of contingencies.”
A Yellow representative shared the same statement when FreightWaves reached out for comment to learn more about the message that the trucking company may file for bankruptcy on Monday.
Yellow’s vice president of technology services also told her team the above statement Wednesday afternoon, according to one Yellow employee. That employee said, previously in the day, their boss advised their team that a bankruptcy could happen at any time and to send out resumes.
