Falcon Transport Abruptly Shuts Down

Falcon transport shuts down.

Falcon transport sent a message to all employees to immediately cese any work they are doing and they are not expected to return to work.

A very ****ty thing to do, I've been following it since it was announced. A lot of drivers and some companies are offering to help those left on the road find a way to get home and offering employment.

A very ****ty thing to do, I've been following it since it was announced. A lot of drivers and some companies are offering to help those left on the road find a way to get home and offering employment.

That is good to hear, when I was working for a limo company before I got my CDL a guy started the same week as me was left stranded by his company. He said the company had 5 or 6 trucks and he was really low on fuel went to make his fuel stop and his fuel card didnt work. Called the company multiple times with no answer finally like a day later the owner called him and said they went out of business. Asked to pay out of his pocket for fuel to finish his delivery and to drive back to Chicago as he might have a buyer for the truck and trailer. He refused and to pay for the fuel as it would take a couple hundred dollars and left the truck at a truck stop in Oklahoma or Nebraska I forgot which.

It is unclear whether Falcon complied with the federal requirements under the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act, which says companies employing more than 100 must give 60-day notice to its workers.

Obviously they did not - since this came as a complete surprise to the workers. And it's not likely that this federal requirement is going to result in any benefit to the guys that got stranded.

Without getting off onto a political tangent, this will likely be "laid at the feet of" WH trade policy, where the GM plant closing had to do with a car model that was being phased out because it wasn't selling. If Falcon had a huge dependence on the parts supply for the plant (which the article kind of inferred), it's inability to pivot onto other freight lanes contributed to it's demise.

From what I'm seeing on the interwebs, they were mainly doing hotshot loads for the auto plants. Proving that the lack of diversity in freight, makes a company subject to rapid downturns in business. Trucker whining aside, shift slowdowns and plant closures made things so difficult, they had no choice but to pull the plug.

I hope all the stranded drivers get home safely. From the looks of things, no one is going to see a final paycheck.

Rick

I completely agree with what Rick observed. He gave my thoughts completely. Here's a venture capital company,invested in a freight business, but they hadn't bothered to garner more diverse opportunities for freight. They had it good somewhere and they didn't take steps to preserve their business in case the goose stopped laying those golden eggs. This is a tricky business. You've got to be prepared for the unexpected. You've got to have some diversity. We hear owner operators claiming the virtues of niche markets, and I understand the value of them, but they also can bite hard when they fall apart. Here's a case of over dependance on a single customer or category of freight without having a backup plan in place - it's disastrous for everyone involved, especially the drivers.

Falcon was purchased in a leveraged buyout by CounterPoint Capital Partners,a California-based Private Equity group. According to Pitchbook, Falcon was bought in a leveraged buy-out for $27 million in September 2017, with an additional $33 million in debt-financing, for a total of $60M.

If you are not familiar with the term "Leveraged Buyout", it rarely ends well for anyone but a small group of unscrupulous investors, that bleed the Company of cash until it collapses. (All by design by the way) I feel bad for the people that lost their jobs. Unfortunately, this is not the first, or last time it will happen.

In a situation like this what is the drivers responsibility? I understand they said to stop working, but is the driver required to deliver that load? Make it to the (former) terminal? Park it anywhere they want? I'd still be worried about equipment abandonment or quit under dispatch being on my DAC. I Hope I never have to deal with such a mess.

In a situation like this what is the drivers responsibility? I understand they said to stop working, but is the driver required to deliver that load? Make it to the (former) terminal? Park it anywhere they want? I'd still be worried about equipment abandonment or quit under dispatch being on my DAC. I Hope I never have to deal with such a mess.

I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem since they told everyone to stop what their doing, and their fuel cards was turned off already so those who was low on fuel would have to buy their own to make it anywhere.

According to some of their drivers their fuel cards were turned off already, as the announcement was made.

I just talked to Falcon Transport driver here in Little Rock, AR. And he said the company is in Ohio and not the same company as the one he drives for. They have a green emblem on their trucks and trailer's.

Bad situation for all concerned. Mostly drivers.

Raptor

This is a sad and unfortunate situation for the drivers and all the other company employees that lost their jobs. It is a shame that a company would just simply send out a message telling everyone to just stop the work they are doing and not return to work. I mean at least give your employees 2 weeks notice or something so they can make arrangements for a new job or something. Hopefully they all made it home ok and will find new positions with a new company.