Posted on 12/23/2009 7:54:41 AM PST by BobMcCartyWrites
Arrow Trucking Company suspended operations yesterday, leaving hundreds of drivers across the country out of work three days before Christmas.
The decision by officials at the 61-year-old company, once considered one of the country's largest and most financially-sound flatbed motor carriers, came as a shock to many.
"The drivers had no clue this was going to happen," wrote Dan Little, president of Owner-Operators United, on his truck drivers organization web site. "The only word they had was the company had planned to do some restructuring."
Unfortunately, according to Little, employees of the Broken Arrow, Okla.-based firm with approximately 1,400 trucks and 2,600 trailers operating across the country found out the hard way: Drivers had their fuel cards shut off and were told to take their trucks and trailers to the nearest terminal or dealership.
When the trucks are turned into the prospective dealership by the driver, then that dealership calls Greyhound and purchases a bus ticket for that driver to go home, according to Little. It's the driver's responsibility to get from the dealership to the bus terminal though.
Content on the company's web site, still up as of this morning, betrays the turmoil within the company, still touting a "solid foundation," claiming to offer a "wide range of service capabilities" and "providing quality experience for our drivers."
According to a Tulsa television station report, several tow trucks were seen parked outside the gates at the Arrow trucking terminal early Tuesday morning. Later in the day, the only trucks leaving the lot were those driven by repossession people.
FYI: According to a Christian Science Monitor report yesterday, a whopping 3,065 trucking companies with five or more drivers went under in 2008. This year, the industry has lost 1,255 firms through the third quarter. When FMCSA 2010, a new set of federal regulations and safety guidelines goes into effect next year, industry insiders expect even more trucking firms to go under. When that happens, more goods will be handled by fewer carriers and costs will likely increase sharply.
Developing...
Very bad news. The trucking industry is always the first to be hit by a downturn in the economy.
Obamanomics
Whenever I stop at a Love’s or Flying J, I say a silent prayer for the truckers. Sucks because they give up a lot of family time and freedom to support families to begin with. Scary to be without a job at christmas esp. with kids :(
Screw that if i had the bucks for fuel i would drive it home and tell them they can pick it up there
Sounds to me like they’re afraid of the weather (among other things).
There are billboards all over the Houston area looking for drivers; either employess or O/O.
People voted for this. As long as they have a ball game on and reality TV then the sheep or serfs are happy. Poor drivers. This is not Teamster scum right?
But, but, but I thought things were getting better - green shoots and all...
My heart and prayers go out to every one of those drivers. I’ve seen and passed many Arrow Trucking flatbeds on the road. Tough way to lose a job, especially at Christmas.
I am glad I pull for a private hauler - they would have to close down a major production plant for me to lose my driving job. Not saying it can’t happen, but it would be a major undertaking. Thanking God for the blessing of steady work...
As far as I am aware Arrow was not a union shop.
OBAMANATION - Land of the once Free!
I’ve heard of drivers draining the oil out of the engine, setting the engine idle up, and telling the company to come and get it. Most companies don’t make it in time to keep the engine from binding up.
So Joe Trucker is out in the middle of nowhere, may or may not have somehow heard what is going on at the office. His fuel card is now shut off, he’s supposed to drive the truck for free to a drop off spot, he’s hoping that he will get a bus ticket home and maybe somehow get a ride to a bus terminal... Right before Christmas.
I think Arrow knew what was coming down the pike and had an opportunity to handle this better. Won’t be surprised to see Arrow trucks abandoned along the highway.
You are absolutely correct.
They made the same mistake that those in real estate made, who thought house prices could only keep going up. They took on massive debt assuming “consumerism” would continue to increase. They also didn’t account for punitive taxation and increased fuel costs.
The short of it is that shipment futures across the board suck because no one is buying. The number of cargo ships that were ordered several years ago and that have been canceled is astounding.
But hey, they’ll tell us that shipment and sales are a “lagging indicator” in this recession, and the market will rally.
Flatbed drivers have the worst of it, since they are often called on to figure out new and interesting ways to strap down all kinds of oddly-shaped things. Unlike box drivers and tankers, they likely have to oversee loading in an outdoor yard somewhere, instead of pulling up to a loading dock. Losing an already-difficult job this close to a major holiday has to suck bigtime. I hope that, in the spirit of the season, truckstops will, upon presentation of an Arrow employee card, offer generous discounts on the toys and other gifts they make available to OTR drivers for their families (at otherwise inflated prices, usually), so these guys can salvage something of a holiday for their kids who see them all too infrequently.
There's a lot of excess capacity in the freight transportation industry these days, and a day of reckoning is approaching for many companies in this sector. For a company like Arrow, the day of reckoning has arrived.
25 years ago, one big fall, no mas.
This is just the beginning.
Don't forget that everything in this country moves by truck, and many, many truckers and trucking firms are going under.
No trucks doesn't just mean no iPods or Blu-ray players, it means no food, no toilet paper, no medicine.
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