There go's Another freight company

Not a good day when the man tells you, you don't have a job anymore, after you've been there 35 yrs.
Been there, done that.

 

Great article.
https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/artic...nd_10_related_subsidiaries_declare_bankruptcy

 

So this article left out FedEx,XPO, OD,Estes, UPS ? They don’t operate in the NE?

 

I wonder if they're gonna rethink the COOs for those two New Penn terminals. Gonna need the added capacity right? Sounds like there is a lot of freight coming out of the region.

 

Look for YRC to start a scab regional unit using old NEMF terminals and existing equipment. Just move all the freight from New Penn there using HNRY. Wouldn't surprise me if YRC undercut NEMF on pricing and possibly be in cahoots regarding the bankruptcy.

Remember the botched acquisition of ABF right before a contract? Just shows YRC is willing to work a deal around contract time.

Lol just a theory guys. Funny a major union carrier files for bankruptcy 2 months out from our contract. The article said the financial difficulty wasn't even really apparent.

 

NEMF’s exit leaves only a handful of Northeast regional LTL carriers with significant capacity – YRC unit New Penn, Pitt Ohio, A. Duie Pyle and Ward Trucking, among them.
I don’t know who gets the most freight in that market but it doesn’t sound that desirable to me.Kinda like Florida ,lots going in and not a lot going out.
It also said they were reliant on a couple of big box retailers and freight was slow.Maybe Amazon hurting some of that business on the ltl side.
Anyway it always sucks when people lose their jobs.

 

The NE has always been a highly competitive area F. Not doubting you, just these industry, “experts “ who write this crap trying to get readers and ratings.

 

Northeast US LTL trucker NEMF to shut down
William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Feb 11, 2019 5:27PM EST



NEMF took in more than $400 million in revenue in 2017, making it the second-largest regional LTL carrier in New England. Photo credit: NEMF.

Truck capacity is about to get tighter for less-than-truckload (LTL) shippers, especially in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, as New England Motor Freight (NEMF), one of the largest regional LTL carriers, is filing for bankruptcy. The New Jersey-based company announced plans for a Chapter 11 liquidation and shutdown Monday, a step that will throw the regional freight market into disarray.

For northeastern shippers, especially those operating out of New York and New Jersey, an increase in regional LTL pricing may be an immediate result, as capacity contracts.

NEMF is no small carrier. The company had more than $400 million in revenue in 2017, making it the second-largest LTL regional carrier in the region, after Pitt Ohio Express, according to SJ Consulting Group data. The company, based within the Port of Elizabeth, had more than 35 terminals in a network stretching from Bangor, Maine, to Chicago to Roanoke, Virginia.

“This is the largest LTL bankruptcy since Consolidated Freightways went out of business in 2002,” Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group, said. The last major northeastern LTL shutdown was Jevic Transportation in 2008. NEMF had about 1,250 tractors and trucks, and 1,470 employees, according to registration data filed with the Department of Transportation.

Larger group
NEMF is part of the larger Shevell Group of Companies, and the Chapter 11 filing involves 10 related businesses, including truckload carrier Eastern Freightways, Apex Logistics, and Carrier Industries, a warehousing and dedicated trucking business. The trucking company’s origins go back to 1918. Chairman and CEO Myron P. “Mike” Shevell acquired NEMF in 1977.

“We have worked hard to explore options for New England Motor Freight, but the macro-economic factors confronting this industry are significant,” Vincent Colistra, a senior managing director with Phoenix Management Services and chief restructuring officer for NEMF, said in a brief statement. Liquidation will “maximize the value of its assets,” he said.

He promised an "orderly wind down" of NEMF operations. NEMF instituted a 5.4 percent general rate increase Feb. 4, citing increased costs associated with regulatory mandates, insurance premiums, new equipment, and technology advancements.

A 'lesson for shippers'
Although its true trucking companies of all types, including LTL carriers, face a hard time recruiting sufficient drivers as well as rising costs, NEMF’s bankruptcy comes as many LTL carriers report higher revenues and improved profitability. NEMF and the Shevell Group are private companies, but many larger public LTL carriers reported a record year in 2018.

“We believe the backdrop going into 2019 is positive and the longer-term trend should remain steady,” Stephanie Fisher, chief financial officer (CFO) of YRC Worldwide, said in a Jan. 31 earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Other LTL carriers, including ABF Freight System, reported a “positive freight environment” in the fourth quarter and “balanced” market in early 2019.

“We're starting off the year in a good spot, and we feel optimistic,” Adam Satterfield, CFO at Old Dominion Freight Line, told Wall Street analysts in a Feb. 7 fourth-quarter earnings call. “A lot of that optimism is based on macroeconomic trends that we see as well as the customer demand trends that we continue to get reports from our sales team on.”

So what happened at NEMF and the Shevell Group? Details may emerge in bankruptcy court, but Jindel suspects the carrier may have lost a major customer. “This is a lesson for every carrier not to let a customer become such a dominant part of the business that you can’t survive without them,” he said. He did not say who he thought that customer may have been.

He also said the NEMF and Shevell Group bankruptcy is a “lesson for shippers that if they are too aggressive and drive pricing down, they may lose capacity.”

NEMF’s trailers will not be easy to replace or fill. There’s not a lot of excess capacity in the LTL market, Jindel said, especially in the Northeast. The big beneficiaries are likely to be regional carriers Pitt Ohio, A. Duie Pyle, New Penn, and Ward Transport, but even those carriers combined would be hard-pressed to absorb NEMF’s business, Jindel said.

“UPS Freight is likely to be a bigger beneficiary than others,” he said, as that national LTL carrier still has unfilled capacity in its network resulting from its self-imposed shutdown before a union contract vote last autumn. “They’ve recovered most of that business, but they still have space,” Jindel said. The problem for all LTL carriers will be finding NEMF freight that fits their networks.

Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @willbcassidy.

https://www.joc.com/trucking-logist...t-us-ltl-trucker-nemf-shut-down_20190211.html

 

Looks like there may be some late model Freight shakers on the market soon.................

 

I don’t know why New Penn is included in the article when it discusses companies that have available capacity,
We can’t move the freight we have now. If all the drivers come to work there’s not enough tractors, management has told us over and over they are on lists with every rental company waiting for equipment to become available.

 

Sorry bro, sounds like you guys are being thrown under the bus.One would think if they couldn’t rent the equipment they needed to run their business they would buy it.How big is Yrc footprint in New Penn territories?

 

Just slap a YRC sticker on it, they will fit right in with the color code for the tractors..

 

Bye Bye and the Driver's can walk into any other trucking company and have a job same day ,with the driver shortage !!

 

Wong, I'm not beating the drum for YRC, and I hate to disappoint you, but as many people as YRC employees,
yes, some will get a job equal to YRC, but most will not.
When PIE closed, I never knew a single driver who ran out of Charlotte said he bettered himself.
I think Big Blue will back that up!

 

I got something that pays well possibly lined up but home time and insurance will not be as good. Gotta take the good with the bad.

 

Agree, but point is that they can go get a job any where with the driver shortage !!

 

Maybe so, but lets hope that doesn't become a reality.

 

Not as simple and easy going as you make it seem for the shock and stress these people and their families are going through, The good for them, now they can go on to the Amazingly Fruitful Golden Ripe Greener Pastures out there At the Drop of A Dime is easy to say when you're working but its not this Happy Go Lucky situation when it becomes A reality
50 to 60 plus years old Starting Over At the bottom of a seniority roster from having 20 25 30 plus years in for most first of all giving up grandfathered health and job situations (more significant than you think)
Going from maybe 5 6 to 7 weeks off vacation and sick with personal time to having to work a full year to get 1 week and thats depending on how long it takes to get full time
Going through a 2 to 4 year progression to get to the top rate once finally going through the casual temporary part time and probationary periods
The funky position of having to come to the realization of them and all their coworkers being unemployed RIGHT NOW after having Steady Employment for decades and realizing the shitty You Need Me Now attitudes of the supposedly "happy to hire any driver" companies they are all at once going to be applying to
Sure one or a few disgruntled employees who hate their current job may blend in here or there but 2 to 4 thousands at one time is a different situation
They have more on their plate right now than this smooth glide on to the greener pasture that SOME make it seem like

 

Perfectly said. Being one of the drivers caught up in this mess figuring out the next move is not straightforward. Every job has its compromises. Wether it be pay, home time, insurance or being bottom guy all over again. Being younger than a bunch of the other drivers I worked with gives me some time to recoup but unfortunately my kids will be adults before I accumulate any real time off now.