Yellow or Orange?

The name Yellow Transportation is familiar to many companies that have dealt with FTL or LTL shipping. Many others have seen a truck on the roadways that said Yellow but was quite noticeably orange in color. However, there is a specific motivation behind this choice (as opposed to it being the result of miscommunication or color blindness). All the way back in 1929, a study was performed by freight shipment and transportation magnate A.J. Harrell (the founder of the Yellow Cab and Transit Company) and Dupont to determine what color vehicles would be the most noticeable and visible when traversing U.S. highways. The color that earned that distinction had the rather evocative name “swamp holly berry”, a notably orange shade. That became the official color that set Yellow apart from other FTL and LTL freight carriers. Now known as YRC, the orange doesn’t seem quite so out of place.