YRC, America's largest Common Carrier Trucker, Files for Bankruptcy

It was on another summer Sunday evening, some 52 years ago, that Penn Central, at the time America's largest railroad, filed for receivership. The same scenario is playing out tonight for YRC, parent company of Yellow Freight System -- until recently, one of the nation's most successful, and admired motor freight carriers.

The similarities are uncanny, for YRC is likewise the product of an unsuccessful "mixed marriage"; The Penn Central's progenitors followed completely divergent strategies with regard to both marketing and operations, and the same can be said of the disciplined, corporate structure of the original Yellow Freight System, as opposed to the "black coffee" atmosphere of the somewhat larger and (at the time) equally successful Roadway Express it had absorbed.

Intercity trucking is a tenuous, multifaceted, and sometimes clandestine business, further complicated by the necessity of its relationship to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. A lot of ink is going to be spilled as this story unfolds.

We should also note, Mr. 2nd Trick, that at first, newssources reported that there were sufficient assets in the Estate to satisfy all creditor claims. However, subsequently it was learned that required contributions to the Teamster's Central States Pension Fund had not been sufficiently made resulting in a Priority Claim that now has a projection the General Creditors, which includes a $6.3M claim from Uncle Warren's 1:1 Lionel set, will come up short.