Another motor carrier has fallen victim to this year’s freight recession as Terrill Transportation Inc. of Livermore, California, abruptly ceased operations on July 30.
Manny Bhandal, president of Bhandal Bros. Inc., of Hollister, California, said three of his refrigerated trucks loaded with candy arrived at Terrill’s warehousing and storage company early on July 30 and were turned away.
“We did get an email from one of their receiving clerks, basically apologizing that they couldn’t receive our trucks because they were ceasing operations,” Bhandal told FreightWaves.
Bhandal said he was surprised by the news that the 25-year operation was shutting its doors, as his trucks made weekly deliveries there.
“This year has been very tough on a lot of companies,” he said.
Kevin Terrill, president of Terrill Transportation, did not respond to FreightWaves’ phone calls or email requests for comment about the closure.
After hearing about trucks being turned away at Terrill’s warehousing facility, the chief executive of a trucking company based out of the Northwest said he called Kevin Terrill, who confirmed the news his company was shuttering operations immediately.
“He [Kevin] said rate concessions on both the trucking and warehousing side, driver wages being up and the tough environment to do business in California were to blame for the closure,” the trucking company executive, who did not want to be named, told FreightWaves.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website, Terrill Trucking had 30 trucks and 36 company drivers. It also had 12 owner-operators.
This is the seventh major closure in 2019. The others were NEMF, Falcon, Williams Trucking of Dothan, Alabama, Indiana-based A.L.A., Starlite Trucking and LME.
This is a developing story.
BILL
HOW MANY MORE TO FAIL DUE TO THE BROKERS KEEPING 30% OFF THE TOP PLUS THE FSC WITH NO REMORSE AND THEN WANT TO CHARGE BAK IF YOUR LATE DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES YOU CANNOT CONTOL LIKE HOURS OF SERVICE, SHIPPER TAKING TO LONG TO LOAD YOU THIS NEEDS IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NOT LATER N O W
Chad
I watch the load boards. It’s not all about them keeping 30%. Some of these shippers say they want to move freight from a-b but I’ll only pay x… I do believe the brokers should tell those customers I won’t post freight that low. That would show me they at least take a little pride in their work.
Sick of Trump
Someone want to let the “The Don” know? He is blowing his big ass horn everyday about how great the economy is under his watch??
Steve
It would appear to Me that You would Educate Yourself a little better before Blaming the President, Maybe look at Your Governor and He tax structure. California is not only pushing Business out of the state, but also People.. call Hertz and ask the price of a moving truck from Texas to California, the price will make you take a deep breath, then make another call and ask the price from California to Texas and You will find it’s in half just to get their equipment the Hell out of there.. Wake Up and Get Educated ??
Tony chase
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/07/24/tql-expanding-its-headquarters-adding-600-new-jobs/1813114001/
Meanwhile TQL is expanding. I wonder why and from who.
As a company owner I never did business with them in 8 years cuz the 1st load we tried to do.
They held us overnight and canceled the next day with no layover.
My payback to them I click on the loads they show on http://www.Truckstop.com and when they call me it goes straight to VoiceMail.
Auto Block TQL for LIFE…
AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
Valerie
Not just California folks. This has a lot to do with the freight recession upon us that we are not acknowledging:
Arrow Trucking
Falcon Transport in Ohio
Williams Trucking in Alabama
ALA Trucking in Indiana
Lake Motors Express in Minnesotta
Timmerman Starlite Trucking Inc. in California
Terrill Transportation Inc. in California
Mike
Those are only carriers who report the shot down but there are many carriers that don’t report to news their closure/bankruptcy like us. We shout down a company with 28 trucks 38 drivers plus office employees on May 1st out of IL. Also the accouter who’s preparing the taxes said there are more companies and bigger than us in the same situation. So what’s in the news are just top of the iceberg!!!
Jim
Realignment of the trucking industry and businesses that no longer want to do business in California. They could perhaps setup in Nevada.
Dave Kalata
Agree in the since, why didn’t Terrill look to move its incorporation from CA to another state such as NV. Understand continuing to do business in CA no matter where you are incorporated is still an issue, but there would appear to be significant tax cost savings incorporating in another state, even if its just incorporating while the HQ remains in CA. Many Fortune 500’s incorporate in DE though their HQ is in NY, IL, FL, TX, etc.
Frustrated
This is a major carrier closure? California is a terrible place to do business. If less freight moves to and through it maybe their legislators will wake up and do something. Most likely they won’t. Plenty of illegals in Cali, let them deliver freight by hand. Beats a life of stealing and murder.
Allen
I feel your frustration in regards to illegals in CA. But your are wrong. Not all illegals steal and murder.
ConservativelySpeaking
Somebody’s been watching Trump State TV a little too much.
Your best workers you will find in 1st Generation immigrants, citizens, residents or illegals.
It’s the entitled native-born ‘Merican trailer trash that gives me headaches. Immigrants work hard and only expect reward for work.
Jesse Neavez
Where can I find data on how many carriers have closed their doors in the last 18 months in California vs. other states ?
sam
Also the biggest problems is these Shipper who are not willing to work directly with carriers, all they want to work is with brokers. We are small carrier and are calling shippers for direct freight , but these shippers are telling us that they would rather just work with the broker they are working with while bankruptcy small business in america.
Jennifer
I work for a shipper in Kansas, and we would rather work with mom and pop operations aver brokers any day of the week. Shippers who refuse to work with CC’s are lazy and don’t want to put in the work to build relationships with their transportation providers.
Tony Curvey
Agreed Jennifer. I own a trucking company in the Detroit metro area. We run about 20 semi’s and some smaller trucks. I have found in the 20 years we have been in business that this is “still” a people business despite all the technology that has been introduced. Furthermore, I believe that when the brick and mortar company comes to us, they get solutions based service. Going to a brokerage, where they have college kids throwing nerf footballs around the office, may work on many loads…but God forbid if you need someone in your corner to help you with a problem.
David Dietrich
Interesting perception on brokers. Not all brokers are created equal just like asset based carriers. You have some good ones and you have some bad ones. From a Schneider Brokerage perspective we have and continue to bring supply change initiatives that bring value to our customers and yes even with freshly graduated college associates. Majority of them are highly motived and they bring value to their customer base as well as to our carriers’. They bring new way of thinking…,of strategy and if you can harness this like we do at Schneider you create a highly effective culture that brings value across the board.
Bob
I work at a brokerage and can confirm that there are definitely some trucking companies that have great service and take pride in their work. However, I do spend the majority of my day babysitting drivers and trying to communicate load details/changes with unresponsive or combative dispatchers. If I weren’t playing middle man with some of these unorganized trucking companies the shippers would be left completely in the dark. That is not to say driving is easy or carriers aren’t doing most of the work, but it helps explain why the need for brokerages still exists.
I think attitudes like Tony’s are what keeps my job safe (or at least until automation figures it out). Every shipper would ship direct if it were cheaper and the service were better, Jennifer saying it’s because they’re lazy is a cop out. The ability to service loads and access to capacity are why shippers are willing to pay more to brokers. It’s silly to assume that shipper’s are just too dumb to figure it out, they are savvy folks.
The workforce has changed in the last 20 years, something tells me you would see every modern company as college kids throwing around footballs.” Everyone in my office has their work phone and laptop with them at all times to address customer issues (even though it’s very rare that I get answers from carriers/shippers after hours). Furthermore I report to people with decades of experience in both the transportation and brokerage industries.
An honest conversation would be a good place to start if transportation companies are serious about getting their market share back from brokers.
Vicky
Amen to that !! I work for a shipper I have really been hungry this year with loads. I refuse to beat down the carriers with these rates . So my boss has found someone who has cheap trucks and they are getting all the extra freight . ( to a large broker) I work with some brokerages but they are small and we have one on one and I can contact them anytime day or night and they can me as well. When there is a problem we are in it together until it is resolved. I love what I do but really fear what’s to come.
Michael Doyle
I work for a mid level 3PL and we focus on our clients overall needs and a great working relationship with our carriers as well. While I agree as noted above “tossing a football around the office by college kids” is not the way to trust your freight. At Diversified Transportation Services, http://www.dtsone.com we have 29 years of creating long lasting strong relationships with our clients, our carriers, and our operational teams. We are professionals and work very hard to provide technological advances in helping our clients meet their core goals. No companies goals are the same when it comes to managing a supply chain, at Diversified Transportation Services, you will see a huge difference as to how we take care of our clients. As with any business, there are good providers and ok providers…… Not all business entities are created equal..
Jimmy Wells
Another small carrier goes out of business. Meanwhile the megas are claiming upswings and record breaking revenue numbers. Are you paying attention or do you still have the wool over your eyes?