Arrow Trucking abruptly closed today, sending home its workers this morning. Its truckers were in a difficult spot, where the Arrow gas cards stopped working; the workers were instructed to take any Freightliners and Kenworths they had to the nearest dealer and get a bus ride home via Frieghtliner’s Daimler parent; drivers with Navistar trucks had to call in for instructions. Why the truckers have to call Daimler for a ride home is interesting in itself.
YRC was complaining about a lack of liquidity, but Arrow had the near ultimate of liquidity problems when their paychecks started to bounce.
It is increasingly common for firms to go right up to the end before letting workers know things are going to close. I recall one Don Pablo’s restaurant closure in Lexington where the store closed as normal on Sunday night and had workers show up on Monday morning to have a note on the door telling them where to pick up their final paycheck; that is often done to keep workers from bailing out on the firm if they tell them they have a few weeks before closing. However, that doesn’t leave people stranded thousands of miles away from home on Christmas week.
Arrow, with 4000 vehicles, is the largest trucking closure this year. Many small firms have went under in the last few years, but this is one of the larger casualties. This is a good case of how not to close down a firm, something YRC can take a lesson from if and when they have to go Chapter 7 early next year.
