On Sunday, US trucking company Yellow filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, following a series of mergers which left the company with a massive debt burden as well as fraught contract negotiations with the Teamsters Union.

Filed in a Delaware court, the bankruptcy filing lists more than 100,000 creditors and assets and liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion.

In a statement, Yellow’s CEO, Darren Hawkins, said, “It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business.”

Previously known as YRC Worldwide, Yellow was among the biggest US trucking firms, dominating the “less than truckload” (LTL) segment, which would load trucks with cargo from multiple customers, expanding its customer base to those with smaller, or more specialized shipping needs.

It serviced customers as varied as large retailers like Walmart and Home Depot, to manufacturers, and Uber Freight. Some customers had ceased shipping with the company recently off fears that if the company went bankrupt, their shipments could have been lost or stranded.

Last month, the Teamsters Union had announced that it had been told that the company would be shutting down.

The union and the company had been locked in rancorous negotiations due to an attempt by the company to boost efficiency through an internal restructuring.

The company had just recently avoided a strike by 22,000 workers who were represented by the Teamsters.

Prior to the resolution of the strike threat, the company had taken the union to court in Kansas, looking to block a strike, and noting the union’s refusal to negotiate was driving the company to the “brink of extinction.”

The company had been hard hit of late by a collapse in ecommerce shipments following the highs of the pandemic, and the industry-wide reduction in freight volumes over the past year.

Yellow’s purchase of Roadway in 2003 and USF in 2005 left the company saddled with $1.5 billion in debt as of last year, according to data from Refinitiv.

The administration of President Donald Trump had attempted to save the long-troubled and poorly run company through a $700 million loan which was issued to the company in 2020 under a pandemic relief program. However with the company now in bankruptcy, taxpayers may be saddled with the cost of the loan.