Ex-Yellow CEO Joins Intermodal Chassis Pool Operator
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Darren Hawkins, who was at the helm of bankrupt less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. when the nearly 100-year-old company filed for court protection, is to join the North American Chassis Pool Cooperative.
Hawkins is to join the intermodal chassis supplier first as president before ascending to CEO on Jan. 1.
The executive replaces the only CEO in NACPC’s history until now, former American Trucking Associations Chairman Dave Manning. On stepping aside from a position held since December 2012, Manning will be chairman at NACPC.
“Darren is serving as president now and will add the CEO designation on Jan. 1, 2025. I will transition to chairman of the executive board allowing me to stay involved with this great company and take advantage of many personal interests outside of work,” Manning said.
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“I’ve known Darren for many years and am excited to have him guiding NACPC into the future. He is the perfect person to lead NACPC to achieve the ambitious growth goals established by our board,” he added.
Prior to joining NACPC, Hawkins was CEO for six years at LTL specialist Yellow. Hawkins rejoined Yellow in 2014 as senior vice president of sales and marketing after nearly four years at Con-way, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Con-way was bought by XPO Logistics for $3 billion in 2015 before being split up. The LTL assets were retained and truckload operations sold to TFI International.
Hawkins started his career in the transportation industry in 1991 at Yellow Transportation as it was then called.
“I’m honored to work with the NACPC team to continue providing a modern fleet of chassis to the U.S. intermodal container network with first-class service, expansion in our domestic services, and continued heavy investment in our international services to benefit U.S. motor carriers with chassis choice and competitive pricing,” Hawkins said.
Yellow ranked No.13 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 3 on the TT list of the largest less-than-truckload carriers before filing for court protection Aug. 7, 2023.
The company’s executive team, led by Hawkins, was attempting a cost-cutting turnaround of the debt-laden carrier through the “One Yellow” reorganization, but failed to win union support for the plan. Around 22,000 of the 30,000 Yellow employees were represented by the Teamsters union.
RELATED: Yellow Submits Final Chapter 11 Plan, Seeks Creditor Deal
Yellow’s reorganization came partly as a result of a downturn in the freight environment, a weakness that also has hit the intermodal market. “The market is extremely soft. Demand is down across the board,” Ben Evans, VP of sales and marketing at intermodal chassis manufacturer CIE Manufacturing, told TT in April. Hyundai Translead Director of Intermodal Savvas Constantinides added that leasing companies were using around 50% of their capacity at the time.
NACPC offers regional pools of intermodal chassis rather than drayage companies needing their own, manufacturing its own chassis after acquiring Pratt Industries Intermodal Chassis in December 2021.
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