Breaking News: Another motor carrier abruptly ceases operations amid freight recession (with video)

Photo: Terrill Transportation

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.

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Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 18 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to chawes@firecrown.com or @cage_writer on X, formerly Twitter.