All Quiet at Yellow Trucking in Twin Falls

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People lost jobs in Twin Falls this week.  I don’t have any idea how many people Yellow Trucking employed locally, but it was substantial.  The office is dark now and there are trailers parked orderly in the lot off Washington Street.  For nearly a decade I drove past the location during the wee hours of the morning.  On my way to work.  The lot was usually a beehive of activity.  Yellow was the nation’s third-largest carrier and was known for its orange color.  That always brought a laugh from the kids when they would see the trucks on the roads.

Yellow was also unique among the big carriers.  It could carry loads for multiple customers in one trailer, giving the firm some great flexibility.

Driving a truck is a good line of work.  Two of my uncles were truck drivers and one specialized in long haul.  When I was a little boy, he once showed me his paycheck and I was awed by how much he made.  Some summers I would go on the road with him and I liked the lifestyle and the various places we would visit.  There’s something special about waking up in the sleeper on a hot Virginia morning and going for pancakes across a parking lot.  Then racing in an old Brockway against another driver over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Much of the freedom is now gone with GPS and governors, but if you don’t mind living along America’s highways and time away from families, you can be well rewarded.

There’s a shortage of drivers in America.  I’m hopeful the 30-thousand people left behind by Yellow find something new soon.