While the August demise of less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. monopolized headlines in each mainstream and industry media in 2023 after the 99-year-old trucking firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — the biggest filing in U.S. trucking history — a lot of smaller trucking firms and brokerages also called it quits or sought bankruptcy protection after a brutal yr within the freight industry. Other FreightWaves stories focused on fraud investigations and the mysterious disappearance of an Iowa truck driver, who was last seen by his family on Nov. 20.
Matheson Trucking pronounces shutdown plans
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In December, U.S. Postal Service contractor Matheson Trucking and wholly owned subsidiaries Matheson Flight Extenders (MFE) and Matheson Postal Services (MPS) of Sacramento, California, announced plans to wind down operations on Jan. 31, 2024, after six a long time in business.
Amid an ongoing financial dispute with the Postal Service, the Matheson entities laid off nearly 3,500 staff over a five-month period, a source acquainted with the situation told FreightWaves.
MFE and MPS are wholly owned subsidiaries of Matheson Trucking. The family-owned entities, founded by Robert and Carole Matheson in 1962, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2022. MFE has been providing services to the Postal Service since December 1998. Read the story.
Surge Transportation files for bankruptcy protection
After two years of record growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacksonville, Florida-based Surge Transportation, a digital freight brokerage, sought a buyer and slashed its rates and workforce nearly a yr before it filed for bankruptcy protection in late July 2023.
While Surge had hoped to avoid bankruptcy, the corporate said it had no alternative but to file its Chapter 11 petition to realize “respiration room” to permit a brand new business model — which seeks to lift rates, in addition to reduce overhead expenses with fewer employees each within the U.S. and overseas — to “change into established without the specter of creditor collection actions or being cut off by motor carrier aspects.” Read the story.
Elite Transit Solutions ceases operations
Although Pittsburgh-based Elite Transit Solutions is now shuttered after its broker authority was involuntarily revoked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in late November, many trucking firms that hauled freight for the brokerage had not been paid since May and nobody’s answering the phones. While a lot of laid-off employees were eventually paid, carriers weren’t so lucky. Read the story.
Meadow Lark Agency, Meadow Lark Transport seek bankruptcy liquidation
Nearly 120 ex-employees were owed about $800,000 in unpaid wages while around 1,300 trucking firms were owed almost $2.7 million after 40-year-old Montana-based Meadow Lark Agency and its affiliate, Meadow Lark Transport, filed for bankruptcy liquidation in early November. Read the story.
Meadow Lark’s broker authority was involuntarily revoked on Aug. 15, and its contract carrier authority was canceled on Oct. 28.
Since May, motor carriers claimed that they had been fighting for months to receives a commission after hauling brokered loads for Meadow Lark.
On Oct. 12, FreightWaves reported that Meadow Lark Transport had abruptly shuttered operations. On the time, the corporate had 273 drivers and 337 power units, based on the FMCSA’s SAFER website. Meadow Lark’s broker authority was involuntarily revoked on Aug. 15, and its contract carrier authority was canceled on Oct. 28. Read the story.
Former Slync.io CEO Chris Kirchner indicted on fraud charges
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In May, former Slync.io CEO Chris Kirchner was indicted on federal charges that he defrauded investors out of at the least $25 million from the FreightTech startup he helped launch in 2017. Authorities allege he used the cash to fund a lavish lifestyle, including a $16 million private jet. Kirchner’s trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 22 within the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Value. Read the story.
Slync.io winds down operations
While logistics visibility platform provider Slync had hoped that recent management and a $24 million money infusion in February can be enough to save lots of the FreightTech company, the corporate is proceeding with another choice to a standard bankruptcy and plans to wind down operations and dump its technology.
The timing of Slync’s filing in October comes nearly three weeks after Kirchner filed suit against his former employer for legal fee advancement and indemnification in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Kirchner sought to have Slync pay his legal bills in his ongoing fraud case after his assets were frozen by the feds. Read the story.
Judge rules against TQL on additional time pay
In late September, a federal judge ruled that Total Quality Logistics — the second-largest freight brokerage within the U.S. — violated federal law and owes additional time pay to 1000’s of former employees who worked greater than 40 hours per week.
Judge Michael Barrett of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio issued his ruling almost 18 months after a 12-day bench trial resulted in early March 2022. He ordered TQL to pay additional time wages to the staff and an extra amount equal to the actual damages. Barrett also found Ken Oaks, chief executive and co-founder of TQL, personally liable. Read the story.
Iowa trucker still missing
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Iowa truck driver David Schultz, 53, of Wall Lake, Iowa, has been missing since early Nov. 21. Sarah Schultz told FreightWaves she last saw her husband around 7 p.m. on Nov. 20 when he dropped by the home to grab a change of garments before heading out to select up one other load of pigs.
What happened next stays a mystery as local, county and state law enforcement agencies are still trying to find answers — and Dave. Read the story.
Discover fraud story hits home with carriers, brokers
Owner-operators Toni and Chris Murphy of Recent Egypt, Recent Jersey, share their story of a tech-savvy fraudster who stole their trucking company’s identity, posted loads using their Department of Transportation number, collected payment for those loads, then disappeared, leaving the Murphys to cope with the fallout. Their story resonated with carriers and brokers, who shared similar tales of coping with identity fraud in 2023. Read the story.
Trucking co-owner sentenced in bank fraud scheme
In January, former trucking company co-owner Nolan DeWall, 39, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, was sentenced within the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa to a yr and a day in federal prison.
DeWall had pleaded guilty seven months earlier to at least one count of bank fraud for his role in orchestrating an elaborate $250,000 check kiting scheme. He also faced unrelated charges in state court that he allowed greater than 800 pigs to starve or freeze to death in his care in December 2021. Read the story.
Trucking fraudster sentenced
A previously convicted fraudster, Franklin Ray, 52, of Canton, Michigan, was sentenced to greater than 17 years in federal prison for his role in multiple fraud schemes, including bilking investors out of $40 million in a truck investment enterprise.
He was sentenced in late November within the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Recent York after pleading guilty in March to 4 counts of wire fraud, including one count while he was released on bail.
Ray admitted that over a 10-month period — June 2021 until April 2022 — he defrauded 275 investors in CSA Business Solutions LLC, headquartered in Imlay City, Michigan, telling them he had 4,704 trucks and 4,909 drivers when he only had two trucks and 4 drivers. He purportedly told investors that he used the $40 million to buy over 2,000 trucks. That wasn’t the case. Read the story.
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The post Bankruptcies, fraud and a missing trucker: Key trucking stories in 2023 appeared first on FreightWaves.