Executives at XPO said on a Q2 earnings call Friday that Yellow's shuttering is allowing its own pricing to accelerate.

The LTL competitor implemented a general rate increase for its transactional retail business, and has moved up its target for contract renewals, incoming CFO Kyle Wismans said.

"Others with annual contracts will take time to realize, but our customers understand: When you take 10% of capacity out of the market, it's going to cost more to move freight," Wismans said.

For Q2, the company experienced YoY growth in tonnage of 4% as well as an increase in shipments per day of 9%, according to an earnings report. Chief Strategy Officer Ali Faghri said on the call that positive upticks continued in July, with tonnage up 4.2% YoY and shipment count up 8.8%.

While the YoY increase continued in early July, that change accelerated toward the end of the month. "At the end of July, we saw roughly about a high single-digit increase in our shipment count versus the beginning of the month, so call it somewhere in that 3,000 shipments per day increase," he said.

CEO Mario Harik said the reason behind those results involved not just Yellow's disruption but its investment in capacity over the last year and a half. The company has added more doors and markets, increased its headcount where it's needed and modified its culture through incentivized compensation changes.

Harik said it's still too early to tell what the impact on pricing is going to be, but XPO expects tailwinds in the quarters and years ahead.

"When you look at LTLs, pricing has always been very disciplined, given that dynamic of shortage of capacity versus demand and growth," he said.

Schneider National executives during the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, said the carrier does not expect a surge in its freight volume with Yellow leaving the market, and is not interested in pursuing that business.

“We don’t anticipate a great deal of benefit that comes to the truckload side of the segment,” President and CEO Mark Rourke told analysts during the call. “There’s plenty of capability within the LTL providers there.”

EVP and CFO Stephen Bruffett said those pursuing Yellow’s customers are “indicative of the type of business that’s on carriers that are less well capitalized and you know, some of what we’re seeing in terms of carrier exits in the truckload market.”

Forward Air Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Schmitt said Yellow’s departure from the LTL segment is providing the industry with a needed lift.

“I do believe the bottom is behind us,” Schmitt told analysts during his company’s Q2 earnings call. “Not only because of the Yellow impact, but certainly also bolstered by the Yellow impact.”

Schmitt told analysts during the call that Forward Air’s Q2 freight volume was projected to be down 7% YoY going into July. However, its LTL volumes rose in the weeks before Yellow’s shutdown and bankruptcy as customers sought alternative transport options.

As July progressed, Forward Air saw gradual weekly gains in freight volume, ranging from 4% to 5%, Schmitt said.

The CEO also credited organic sales growth for the improvement.

“But very clearly, over the last several days going into the last week of July, we do see some of our core business partners and customers — who also were Yellow customers for long lanes for some of the more sensitive freight — switching that business over to us,” Schmitt said.

Shippers using Yellow are shifting elsewhere, and that's benefiting competitors in the space, TFI International's CEO, president and chairman of the board noted Tuesday.

The shakeup has removed the weakest player from the industry, and TFI-owned TForce Freight’s daily shipments have increased from 23,000 to 26,000 so far, CEO Alain Bédard said Tuesday on a Q2 earnings call.

"I think Yellow was doing 40,000 shipments a day, maybe not last week, but normally, two, three months ago. So this is really a huge benefit for the industry," Bédard said.

Because Yellow offered cheaper pricing compared to the average in the market, the LTL's shuttering will help the industry overall, he said.

TFI plans to take a more constrained approach regarding acquiring assets from Yellow. Bédard suggested a strategic acquisition, such as one in Florida where Yellow owns a terminal and TFI rents, could make sense.

"For sure, we'll have some [discussions] with those guys," he said. "But to say that anything big will come out … on the real estate side or employees or equipment? I don't think so."

Chairman, President and CEO Judy McReynolds told analysts during the company’s earnings call Friday that it must be mindful of opportunities created through issues happening with competitors. 

“It's always interesting to us to see the opportunities that arise in certain situations,” McReynolds said during the call. 

But the company also is being cautious about taking on new business.

McReynolds noted the importance of evaluating a business to make sure it aligns with your company rather than moving forward with something and regretting it.

Steven Leonard, chief commercial officer and president of asset-light logistics, said Yellow’s situation hasn’t translated to noticeable volume change.

“We are not seeing a drastic change in demand. There are pockets of customers in certain industries that are maybe seeing more demand than others, but in general, nothing game changing from a demand perspective,” Leonard told analysts. 

Still, the company is getting calls from Yellow customers.

“They’re coming to us looking for solutions,” Leonard said during the call. “We've had some good examples where customers are coming to us looking for capacity. We're able to optimize that business, use all of our relationships, and that's really playing out well for our customers.”

Shippers seeking alternative transport options ahead of Yellow’s shutdown Sunday continued to trickle throughout the LTL segment last week. 

Saia EVP and CFO Doug Col told analysts during the company’s Q2 earnings call Friday the carrier's volume increased due to Yellow’s situation as well as through its own efforts to secure new customers through the 22 new terminals it opened during the past three years.

“The current environment in terms of the competitive landscape … certainly fuels this pickup we’ve seen,” Col said during the call. “We've got some internal Saia focus opportunities this year that we think we’re starting to materialize in terms of new customers and some different verticals, and we think we're starting to get a foothold.”

CEO and President Fritz Holzgrefe acknowledged that opportunity for his company comes with industry consolidation.

“If one of the providers exits, certainly the freight gets distributed around to others,” Holzgrefe said during the call, adding now is a chance to show a new customer your capabilities “and sell it and own that business and keep that business.” 

A. Duie Pyle has seen an increase in shipments amid the disruption, especially in the past week and a half, CEO Pete Latta told Transport Dive in a phone interview Thursday.

“We have picked up shipments from existing customers where they may have been using Yellow, [including subsidiary] New Penn,” Latta said.

Shipment counts across the LTL sector were down between 3% and 14% compared to 2022 levels at the beginning of the year, and Yellow is estimated to hold about 9% market share, Latta said. So, as freight shifts to other companies, it could theoretically bring the remaining carriers closer to their 2022 shipment levels. 

“It essentially returns the industry to where it was this time last year,” Latta said. “There’s slack capacity to handle Yellow [going bankrupt] without there being a major disruption in the marketplace.”

Estes Express Lines is handling more shipments as it assists shippers directly affected by Yellow’s troubling finances, the company told Transport Dive in an email Thursday.

The privately-owned, Richmond-based carrier is carefully monitoring the situation, “and we recognize and sympathize with the impact that this is having on so many shippers, employees and the industry as a whole,” Estes said in the emailed statement.

“Right now, we’re doing all we can to support a higher volume, service our customers and take care of our employees,” Estes said. “[We] will do all we can to help others to minimize any disruptions to the nation’s supply chain.”

Logistics service provider Hub Group is benefitting from shippers seeking other transport options from troubled LTL carrier Yellow.

During Hub Group's Q2 earnings call Thursday, EVP and COO Brian Alexander said freight from Yellow customers is shipping on its network. 

“We’ve already seen some of that spill over into our solutions both transactionally as well as through our consolidation network,” Alexander told analysts. “So, that’s well under way.” 

President and CEO Phil Yeager also credited the company’s recent heightened freight volume to Yellow’s situation.

“[We] have seen an increase in our pipeline for our managed transportation solution,” Yeager said during the call. “In particular, where we manage over a billion dollars of LTL.”

Yellow’s problems have kept Covenant Logistics Group busy in recent weeks, executives said during its Q2 earnings call on Wednesday.

President and COO Paul Bunn told analysts its expedited truckload division has fielded calls from Yellow customers seeking “incremental capacity.” The freight boost translated to a 5% revenue growth in Covenant’s expedited segment during the quarter, he said. 

“I mean it's definitely going to be a positive on expedited in the third quarter,” Bunn said during the call. “There was really none of that in the second quarter. So it should be a positive for expedited in the third quarter and likely into the fourth.”

Ryder System sees opportunities if Yellow goes bankrupt, projecting that other companies in the space could utilize its rental equipment to meet needs if a disruption occurs.

"That would certainly be a benefit for our rental [offering] and, to a certain extent, used trucks if owner-operators jump in and are doing some of that business," CEO Robert Sanchez said Wednesday on a Q2 earnings call.

The transportation company has the equipment to meet needs, Sanchez said.

Old Dominion Freight Line isn’t planning another general rate increase this year after January’s, CEO Marty Freeman said on a Q2 earnings call Wednesday, but the premium-service LTL provider won’t lower prices either to chase freight being diverted from Yellow.

Old Dominion executives were careful not to talk about the beleaguered competitor directly. But CFO Adam Satterfield told investors other carriers have overextended themselves and lost customers to Old Dominion in the past due to service issues after scrambling to capture freight.

That might be happening already: Old Dominion has begun to see a freight pickup in late July.

“It's the way history has played out for us when we get to the end of the cycle,” Satterfield said. “We start winning business from different carriers. With that said, I think there may be direct trade opportunities but indirect trade opportunities, as well, that may come out of [it] if there is an industry event. And I think that's still an ‘if.’”

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings noted changes are already occurring in LTL volumes, and it's prepared to handle more if needed.

Customers have already turned to Knight-Swift, which might be due to uncertainty in the market, President and CEO Dave Jackson said when asked about Yellow during a Q2 earnings call Thursday.

"If there were to be a disruption as a result of Yellow, … that could be felt in all types of transportation, including in the truckload world," Jackson said, adding there's space in Knight-Swift's LTL network "to absorb increased volume, even to the degree of double digits."

Jackson also said the company sees opportunities to pick up assets if Yellow falters, where it falls in line with the firm's LTL vision to grow organically and make strategic acquisitions.

“I would say that any opportunity to pick up properties along the way, you know, we would have great interest in that,” Jackson said, mentioning Central Freight Lines’ bankruptcy and liquidation as another opportunity for Knight-Swift.

He suggested if there were a nationwide network that offloaded facilities, there might be some larger facilities that the carrier is not quite ready for.

C.H. Robinson has begun providing alternative shipping plans to clients in the event of a Yellow strike, the brokerage said in a Freight Markets Insights report Thursday.

“The situation is fluid and C.H. Robinson is in close contact with Yellow leadership in order to keep our customers informed,” the company said. “We are proactively working with customers to provide contingency plans and reporting and analytics on alternate carrier routing and potential cost implications.”

J.B. Hunt CEO John Roberts during the company’s earnings call Tuesday would not comment directly about Yellow’s situation when pressed by analysts but offered insight on the LTL segment.

“[Based] upon the change in certain stock prices [Tuesday], I guess we wish we were perceived to have some sort of benefit from whatever may be happening in the LTL industry,” he said.

Uber Freight put a pause on sending shipments to Yellow as of Tuesday night “to mitigate the impact on our customers and their logistics,” the company said in a statement.

“We are really hoping they can resolve this and if they do we will bring [freight] back,” Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron told The Wall Street Journal. “Until that point, we need to do what’s in the best interest we think of our shippers and protect against any future disruptions.”