Surface Transportation
Saia, Estes and XPO have purchased nearly 100 terminals from Yellow since 2022. Jon Tetzlaff / Shutterstock. com
“ We’ re slowing capital investment... and making sure we’ re in a position to take advantage of the opportunities that will inevitably be there for us,” Holzgrefe said.
Knight-Swift, which leaped into the LTL market in 2021 with the purchase of AAA Cooper Transportation and purchased more than 25 terminals from Yellow, opened one new service center in the third quarter and replaced two smaller sites with larger facilities.
“ We still feel very encouraged that we’ ll see growth in our existing network that we have without opening many properties here in the near term,” CEO Adam Miller told analysts.
ODFL is holding some planned terminals and capacity“ in reserve,” said Satterfield.
“ We just think it’ s more appropriate to hold them out versus increasing the number of service centers in operation, which increases line-haul expense, weakens your density even further and puts more pressure on the costs,” he told analysts.
abstain from the rush to buy terminals from bankrupt Yellow in 2023 and 2024.
“ I think we’ ve opened six service centers going back to the end of 2022, so we definitely have built up some capacity,” Satterfield said.
In contrast, Saia has opened 39 terminals since 2022 and 17 in the past year, most of them purchased from Yellow. Estes Express Lines bought 37 owned and leased terminals from Yellow, and XPO acquired 28 Yellow terminals.
Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings, R + L Carriers, ArcBest’ s ABF Freight System, Central Transport, Pitt Ohio, A. Duie Pyle and Roadrunner all joined the real estate rush.
That rush has now slowed to a trickle. Yellow had four carrier subsidiaries with 308 terminals at the end of 2022. Through partnerships with Ducera and CBRE, Yellow reached out to approximately 650 potential buyers and entered nondisclosure agreements with 400 of them, according to court filings.
As of October, the company had just eight facilities left, according to bankruptcy court filings, including a 426-door facility in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
ArcBest purchased an 18-door Montgomery, Alabama, terminal from Yellow in October for $ 375,000, and three other facilities were acquired by real estate developers.
Slowing down
Yellow’ s bankruptcy was the opportunity of a generation for competitors that had plenty of cash but were hemmed in when it came to property needed to expand.
“ Our nationwide footprint allows us to build deeper relationships with customers, and we’ re seeing the benefit of the investments made in our network,” Saia President and CEO Frederick Holzgrefe said during an Oct. 30 earnings call.
Saia’ s new terminals have contributed a proportionally greater share of freight than its existing properties and likely helped Saia limit its year-over-year decline in daily shipment volume to 1.9 % in the third quarter.
And its expansion isn’ t done, CFO Matthew Batteh said during the call.“ We still have opportunities and dots we need to put on the map,” he said. But Saia sees slow growth ahead, and that will temper its expectations for expansion.
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“ Things aren’ t getting better, but they’ re not getting worse.”
But Satterfield also believes there is less LTL capacity available today, even with excess capacity running as high as 30 % in ODFL’ s network.
“ I think what we know was a capacity-constrained environment in 2022 will be even more capacity constrained when we do eventually get into the upcycle,” he said.
Harik said XPO’ s customers also expect demand to improve next year. A drop in the federal funds rate, for example, could stimulate industrial demand and corporate investment.
“ We have all these tailwinds,” he said.
email: bill. cassidy @ spglobal. com
US LTL pricing continues rise despite weaker volumes
US long-haul less-than-truckload( LTL) producer price index( PPI)
280
270
260 200 250
240
230 L Jan 2024 Jul Jan 2025 Apr, 2025 Jul
LTL PPI
Notes: US BLS producer price indices are based on selling prices for trucking services
Source: S & P Global
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December 1, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 41
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