Knight-Swift, A. Duie Pyle, TFI Buy Ex-Yellow Terminals
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Three carriers bought a total of seven former Yellow Corp. terminals in private deals from the bankrupt less-than-truckload carrier’s administrators as each sought to bolster its LTL operations, according to court filings.
Yellow’s administrators concluded deals with Knight-Swift Transportation, A. Duie Pyle and TFI International for leased terminals outside of the ongoing auction of the remaining real estate of what was the third-largest LTL player before its 2023 demise.
Knight-Swift paid $9.9 million for the Downey, Santa Maria and San Diego, Calif., and Roanoke, Va., facilities, while Pyle paid $4.5 million for terminals in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Charleston, W.Va. TFI paid $700,000 for a terminal in Fayetteville, N.C.
Court approval of the deals was sought Feb. 11.
A total of 47 owned terminals and 65 leased properties with more than 3,100 and 4,000 doors, respectively, were set to be on offer in the third auction of facilities, but Knight-Swift, Pyle and TFI join Estes Express Lines, an affiliate of R+L Carriers and Central Transport International in jumping the queue.
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Estes and Ramar Land Corp. purchased 12 terminals for a combined $192.5 million in stand-alone deals in December.
Richmond, Va.-based Estes will pay $142.5 million for seven owned properties and the four leased terminals with a combined 939 doors.
Estes moved up a spot to No. 4 on Transport Topics’ 2024 list of the largest LTL carriers as a result of picking up ex-Yellow terminals. It is No. 11 on TT’s Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
Ramar Land Corp. will pay $50 million for one owned terminal, a 304-door, 51.2-acre Maybrook, N.Y., facility. The Maybrook facility was the second-largest owned property available.
R+L Carriers ranks No. 17 on the for-hire TT100 and No. 5 on the LTL list, up from No. 8 a year earlier.
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Ramar also agreed to purchase an ex-Yellow terminal in Jackson, Miss., in late January for $12 million, according to a separate court filing that also shows Central Transport bought three terminals for $54.5 million. Warren, Mich.-based Central Transport ranks No. 35 on the TT for-hire Top 100 and No. 10 in the LTL arena.
Size matters in the top-heavy LTL space as terminals are required for a successful business. In addition, terminals require a great amount of land and cost a lot of money to build, and the land is very hard to come by near major metropolitan areas.
So, the past 18 months saw a high proportion of Estes and R+L’s peers in the LTL top 10 and beyond seek to consolidate their standing in the sector and perhaps obtain a more favorable position ahead of an expected freight sector turnaround by purchasing the pick of the ex-Yellow assets.
Knight-Swift ranks No. 7 on the TT for-hire Top 100 and is top of the TT truckload carrier rankings, but has been growing out its LTL business since buying AAA Cooper for $1.35 billion in 2021.
In the first auction of Yellow assets at the end of 2023, Knight-Swift bought 13 Yellow terminals for a combined $51.3 million.
The company’s LTL division posted a 20.2% year-over-year increase in revenue to $ 278.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 from $232.1 million a year earlier. Shipments per day by the unit increased 13.3% year over year. Knight-Swift acquired California-based LTL carrier Dependable Highway Express in July 2024.
“While current freight market conditions have been choppy, we are encouraged by customer sentiment, seasonal spot rate progression, the continued erosion of capacity, and early bid season activity — all of which point to a more balanced market than we have seen in roughly three years,” Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller said in a statement accompanying the results.
Pyle, meanwhile, plans to open four LTL terminals in the first quarter of 2024, all of which were acquired previously from Yellow’s administrators. The four terminals are in Camp Hill and Erie, Pa., Bridgeport, W.Va., and Rochester, N.Y.
“Camp Hill was too good an opportunity not to take a shot at,” Pyle LTL Solutions Chief Operating Officer John Luciani told Transport Topics in January. “We were fortunate we were the only bidder.”
TFI’s acquisition of the North Carolina terminal is part of an expansion strategy underway since the company purchased what became TForce Freight from UPS Inc. in 2021 for $800 million. TFI currently ranks No. 8 on TT’s list of the top LTL carriers.
Montreal-based TFI bought two LTL-focused carriers in 2024 and an even bigger deal may be on the way in 2025. TFI bought truckload and LTL carrier Keystone Western for an undisclosed sum in November. Keystone Western specializes in dry van, flatbed and heavy haul carriage. In March 2024, TFI bought LTL specialist Hercules Forwarding for an undisclosed sum.
TFI won two terminals in the first auction of Yellow assets. The two previous rounds of auctions raised $1.88 billion and $82.89 million through the sale of 128 and 23 of Yellow’s owned and leased terminals, respectively.
