by Ray Smith, Exhibit City News
Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Yellow trucking company will close two transportation centers in Ohio as it faces a Teamsters’ strike that could doom one of the country’s major freight carriers. It would be a mighty blow to companies in the trade show industry that depend on Yellow to haul exhibit materials across the country. The American Kennel Club, which uses YRC to ship information booths at dog shows from its North Carolina operations, has been advised that Yellow is closing terminals in West Chester, Ohio, and Akron, Ohio. Yellow closed its Milwaukee terminal in May.
“Yellow Corp. has begun the process of consolidating terminals in its Western network. The company seeks to consolidate 20 YRC Freight and Reddaway facilities and close nine,” a company memo reads. The Wall Street Journal reported that Yellow is preparing to file for bankruptcy by July 31. Yellow is laden with $1.3 billion in debt, losing customers amid the strike threat, resulting in an 80 percent drop in freight volume.
A subsidiary of Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC Freight, Yellow is a leading transporter of industrial, commercial, and retail goods, specializing in less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments. It maintains a fleet of about 8,400 tractors and 34,500 trailers, and its 22,000 drivers are rated among the safest in the industry. YRC changed its corporate name to Yellow in May 2022, consolidating various subsidiaries into super-regional carriers under the Yellow banner.
Joe Martillaro, managing director of Superior Logistics transportation company in Bartlett, Ill., expresses little concern over the potential loss of a major LTL carrier. “We do not interline with common carriers for show freight,” he says. “In general, that model of terminal hopping is not a good fit for time-critical show freight.” The most important thing for exhibitors and exhibit design firms is to establish and cultivate relationships with specialized carriers whose sole focus is trade show transportation, Martillaro notes.
”Many carriers claim to handle show freight, but few actually focus on this niche business as their core competency,” he says. Paula Spector, an event planner for the American Kennel Club in New York, says AKC uses Yellow to ship its information booth to various dog events around the United States, including the AKC National Championship at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. The AKC can continue direct shipments with Yellow, which means full loads of trailers and box trucks. “But we don’t always have enough stuff going somewhere for full loads,” Spector says. “We do for our Orlando event, but not for other events we send staff with the AKC information booth and materials to.”
