Estes Eyes 14,000 Doors in 2026 After Buying Yellow Terminals
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Estes Express Lines is boosting its terminal capacity as it incorporates assets acquired from bankrupt motor carrier Yellow, President and Chief Operating Officer Webb Estes said.
The less-than-truckload carrier expects its terminal door count to top 14,000 by the first or second quarter of 2026, the executive told Transport Topics. The company added 704 doors in 2024, an increase of 6.1%, for a total of 12,162 doors. At the end of 2023, Estes had 11,458 doors.
The rapid portfolio increase was propelled by the acquisition of 52 Yellow terminals Estes paid $490.2 million to acquire, the executive said.
Among the centers acquired from Yellow’s bankruptcy administrators were a 216-door Cincinnati terminal; a 198-door facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.; a Tracy, Calif., terminal with 165 doors; and a terminal in Hagerstown, Md., with 150 doors.
In Hagerstown, Estes is increasing its door count to 150 from 120. At present, Estes is leasing a terminal in the western Maryland city also home to a Volvo Group powertrain plant. The move will take place in a couple of months’ time, Webb Estes said.
The company’s Chattanooga door count will increase to 198 from 39. The company’s Cincinnati door count is currently 44.
Scale is vital in the LTL space, so an expansive terminal network is crucial. However, they require a great deal of land — something not easy to find near metropolitan areas — and cost a lot to build. That’s why Estes and other top LTL players bid aggressively for Yellow’s assets.
Expectations that the newly acquired terminals would be able to reopen quicker were reassessed, with some assets requiring extra remodeling, Estes said.
Delays were also caused by some ex-Yellow terminals taking time to come on the market through the bankrupt LTL carrier’s administrators, who have carried out a staggered auction process, he said.
“We wanted more terminals, but they weren’t up for auction immediately,” Estes said. “We’re investing because it’s really hard to get new terminals.”
In July 2024, the executive told Transport Topics that Estes would increase its door count by 12% in 2024.
“Some of these things take longer than you want,” he said in the June 2025 interview. “12% took about 12 months rather than six months.” Now, the carrier has around 12,750 doors, he said.
I don’t know if people understand the value of doors or not. In our operations, all we are doing is moving freight in and out of trailers. What terminals allow us to do is to build more direct and smarter loads.
Webb Estes, Estes Express Lines president and chief operating officer
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Across 2023 and 2024, Estes also bought 6,700 used trailers from Yellow’s administrators. At the end of 2024, Estes had 43,133 trailers, up 11.8% compared with a year earlier.
In 2024, Estes added 1,219 tractors. At the end of 2024, Estes had 10,621 tractors, an increase of 5.9% year over year.
“We’re buying very, very few trailers this year,” Webb Estes told TT. Estes’ tractor purchases will also be limited in 2025, he said.
The fourth-generation company executive said caution was driven by the impact of tariffs, the volume of prior purchases and the ongoing freight market weakness.
However, terminal and door additions haven’t and won’t slow, he said.
“I don’t know if people understand the value of doors or not,” he said. “In our operations, all we are doing is moving freight in and out of trailers. What terminals allow us to do is to build more direct and smarter loads.”
He added, “In LTL, you want to move loads without putting it on a forklift. The addition of doors minimizes risks, loss of cargo and minimizes yard movement.”
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Estes picked up seven owned terminals and four leased properties in December for $142.5 million in the first of a series of private sales negotiated with Yellow’s administrators.
The Tracy facility is a 52.7-acre site, the Cincinnati service center is located on 42.9 acres, and the Hagerstown terminal has 39.2 acres.
“The thing that gets missed in all of this is that yard space is equally important. The reality is that trailer parking is really important. Acres allow you to do pool distribution and flex your equipment. Having extra yard space allows you to serve your customers better,” he said. “We’ve been setting up the terminals to be as successful as we can be.”
Estes landed the second-largest number of facilities in the highly anticipated first auction of Yellow terminals, winning 24 terminals for a combined $248.72 million, after previously submitting two stalking horse bids for all of the terminals.
Estes was the biggest spender in the second round of bidding for terminals owned or leased by Yellow.
Yellow filed for bankruptcy in August 2023. At the time Yellow sought court protection, it was the No. 3-ranked LTL player, owning 169 terminals and the leasehold for a further 149.
Estes ranks No. 11 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 4 among LTL players.
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