Estes Eyes 12% Terminal Door Total Increase in 2024

Terminal Manager Claude McLaughlin cuts the ribbon to open Estes Express Lines' Florence, S.C., terminal in April. (Estes Express Lines)

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Estes Express Lines expects the number of terminal doors in the less-than-truckload carrier’s portfolio to jump more than 12% in 2024 to a total exceeding 12,750.

The fastest part of the expansion will take place in the second half of the year as part of a long-term push to grow Richmond, Va.-based Estes’ operations, President and Chief Operating Officer Webb Estes said.

Estes ranks No. 11 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 4 among LTL players. In 2023, Estes ranked No. 14 on the for-hire TT100 and No. 5 in the LTL sector.

Estes opened 10 terminals in the first half of 2024, Webb Estes said in an exclusive interview with TT, after playing a major role in the dispersal of the assets of erstwhile LTL rival Yellow Corp.

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Estes 

By the end of the year, Estes expects its terminals to have a total of 12,754 doors, an increase of 1,430 doors or 12.63% year over year, the executive said. Through Week 29 of 2024, Estes added 452 doors to terminal operations, he said.

In 2023, Estes added 413 doors while in 2022 the company increased the capacity of its facilities by 5.68% or 586 doors, he said.

“The second half of 2024 will see more growth opportunities for us,” Estes said. “We’re definitely investing significantly to make sure we have the capacity to do so. We are debt free, and we want to service customers well. When times are slow, we want to grow.”

The freight sector has plateaued after a downturn in activity following the COVID-19 pandemic-inspired “freight mecca” of 2021 and 2022, he said.

“Where we are is difficult to tell. How the next six months plays out is also difficult to tell,” he added.

Estes began positioning itself for when freight rates start to turn higher by investing in Yellow terminals and trailers.

Yellow filed for bankruptcy in August 2023. At the time Yellow sought court protection, it was the No. 3-ranked LTL player, owning 169 terminals and the leasehold for a further 149. Yellow owned around 12,700 tractors and 42,000 trailers at the end of the second quarter of 2023, according to company documents.

Estes landed the second-largest number of facilities in the highly anticipated first auction of owned terminals, securing 24 sites for a combined $248.72 million, after previously submitting stalking horse bids for all of the terminals.

Before Yellow’s administrators auctioned off the facilities individually, the value of all 169 owned terminals had been appraised at $1.1 billion. Estes’ final stalking horse bid for the assets was $1.525 billion.

A stalking horse bid is an initial offer on the assets of a bankrupt company that sets a bar that means others cannot make lower bids.

Estes was the biggest spender in the second round of bidding for terminals owned or leased by Yellow. Estes won five leased terminals for a combined $35.35 million. The terminals are located in Sun Valley, Calif.; Tacoma, Wash.; Sparks, Nev.; St. Cloud, Minn.; and Wichita, Kan.

For many players, the parceling out of the Yellow assets was a unique business opportunity, but Webb Estes does not see it that way for the privately owned carrier whose future he is now the fourth generation of the Estes family to pilot — his father, Rob Estes, remains CEO and chairman.

“The Yellow bankruptcy was not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Estes,” said Webb Estes. “We’re always finding new ways to grow.”

Still, one of those ways was by buying 6,800 of the Yellow trailers being auctioned off by Ritchie Bros. The company sought extra liftgate trailers in particular, he said.

Estes now has about 40,000 trailers, he said, adding that the company bought more used trailers than tractors because there’s a lot less maintenance involved.

“It’s probably going to make Estes less profitable for the next six months, but Estes is going to own the trailers for 16 or 17 years. Ultimately, it is going to allow Estes to offer customers better service and that’s never a bad thing in my book,” he said.

The company bought 135 tractors through the Yellow auction, but Estes is buying more than 1,100 new tractors this year. The company is buying more new tractors than used rolling stock because it wants to tailor the cabs to individual drivers’ needs, Webb Estes said.