Yellow Terminals Sold for $1.9 Billion in Bankruptcy Auction

XPO, Estes Express Lines, and Saia were among less-than-truckload companies that purchased Yellow terminals during a recent court-supervised auction following the company’s bankruptcy. About 75% of Yellow’s properties will be sold, for nearly $1.9 billion.

Staff and News Reports・Editorial Staff

Read Staff and News's Posts

December 5, 2023

Yellow Terminals Sold for $1.9 Billion in Bankruptcy Auction — Many of the terminals owned by Yellow have been sold as part of a bankruptcy auction.
Photo: YRC/Yellow

2 min to read

Several less-than-truckload carriers bought truck terminals in a court-supervised action that liquidated 75% of Yellow’s properties, according to a filing Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Combined, the properties sold for slightly under $1.9 billion.

The bids still must be approved by the court. However the court has scheduled Dec. 12 hearing to approve those bids, reported U.S. News & World Report.

Yellow filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August while owing $1.3 billion to secured creditors that was due to be repaid in 2024. The outstanding debt included $729.2 million to the federal government for a CARES Act loan it received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yellow’s terminals were appraised at about $1.1 billion before the auction. About 90% of the terminals were sold to about a dozen less-than-truckload carriers, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Top Purchasers

Some of the companies that will be acquiring Yellow properties, once approved by the court, include:

XPO — The third-largest LTL will purchase 28 properties for a total of $870 million.
Estes Express Lines — The major LTL carrier entered the action with a bid of $1.5 billion for all of Yellow’s properties, but in the auction only secured 24 terminals for $249 million.
Saia — A Georgia-based LTL, will be paying $236 million for 17 of Yellow’s properties.

According to Yellow’s 2022 annual report, the company owned 166 transportation service facilities. About 130 of those have been sold through the recent auction. The same annual report noted Yellow, at that time, also owned 12,700 tractors and about 34,000 trailers.

Yellow Bankruptcy

The 99-year-old company stopped taking new shipment orders on a Friday, and ceased operations just three days later on Sunday, July. 30.

More Fleet Management

Fleet Management•by Jack Roberts•March 17, 2026

ATA’s Spear Warns Fuel Prices, Trade Policy, and Global Conflict Could Stall Trucking Recovery

Speaking at the TMC Annual Meeting in Nashville, ATA President Chris Spear said trucking faces mounting pressure from rising fuel prices, geopolitical instability, and uncertainty around trade policy.

Safety & Compliance•by Deborah Lockridge•March 17, 2026

New Entrants, Chameleon Carriers, and Safety: Is It Too Easy to Start a Trucking Company?

More than 100,000 new trucking companies enter the industry each year, but regulators manage to audit only a fraction of them. That churn creates opportunities for inexperienced startups — and for “chameleon carriers” that shut down after safety violations and reappear under new identities. Read more from Deborah Lockridge in this commentary.