Days after thousands of employees and truck drivers for Celadon Group Inc. received word that the carrier, one of North America’s largest, was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, many are still struggling to take in the news.
While rumors were swirling on social media that the carrier was in financial straits after FreightWaves broke the news on Dec. 6 that the company planned to file for bankruptcy, some former employees said there was little communication among company executives, employees and drivers about what to do when deactivated fuel cards left truckers stranded thousands of miles from home.
Celadon and its subsidiaries, which had more than 2,500 drivers and nearly 1,300 office employees, had been trying to recover from a financial scandal that rocked the carrier after former executives were indicted in an alleged securities and accounting fraud scheme that cost the truckload and logistics company’s shareholders more than $60 million.
A former corporate recruiter for Celadon said that just days before the company announced it would wind down business operations, he was instructed to keep hiring.
“I was told we were trying to turn things around,” recruiter Ernesto Gonzales told FreightWaves. “We were continuing to hire right up until the very end.”
Prior to Celadon’s bankruptcy announcement, Gonzales said, new employees were scheduled to start on Dec. 9, the day the carrier shut down.
He said some former employees plan to work in the company’s billing and collections departments through Dec. 13.
One of Gonzales’ former coworkers, who has been with Celadon for more than 15 years, was recently diagnosed with leukemia. A few days later, she received news that her insurance coverage was canceled after the company announced its bankruptcy.
Some families suffered a double blow on Dec. 9 because both parents worked for the carrier, according to Gonzales.
“Thousands of people didn’t get a severance package and that adds an extra sting,” he said. “The actions of a selfish few screwed over thousands.”
Indianapolis-based Celadon and its subsidiaries have been trying to dig out from the financial scandal that broke in May 2017. Celadon had to restate several years of financial results, going back to 2014, its stock tanked, and it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in April 2018. Celadon [OTC:CGIP] stock is now traded on the OTC “pink sheets” market.
Only days prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing, federal prosecutors indicted former Celadon Chief Operating Officer William Eric Meek, 39, and former Chief Financial Officer Bobby Lee Peavler, 40. The Indianapolis men were charged with nine counts each, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud and securities fraud; five counts of wire fraud; two counts of securities fraud; one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a public company’s accountants and to falsify books, records and accounts of a public company; and one count of making false statements to a public company’s accountants.
Peavler faces two additional counts of making false statements to a public company’s accountants.
Some drivers said they had approximately 20 minutes to clean out their trucks after the bankruptcy filing was announced.
Drivers told FreightWaves they tossed microwaves, bedding and other possessions after securing Greyhound tickets because they were limited to what they could take on the bus.
Less than six weeks after being hired to work for Celadon, Johnny Wayne Parady Jr. said he learned the company was ceasing operations.
“I had no clue the company was in financial trouble,” Parady told FreightWaves. “I have a 2-year-old child that I need to provide for. This is terrible timing, right before Christmas.”
Cameron Balch of Tulsa, Oklahoma, started working for the company Dec. 6, the same day he found out there were financial problems with the carrier. He and his fiancée, Andrea Smith, were planning to team drive for Celadon prior to the carrier’s collapse.
“I left my previous trucking company to take this job to be with my fiancée,” Balch told FreightWaves.
Just days before acquiring her company truck, Michelle Sloan, of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, said company officials stalled on conducting her road test before they deemed her “roadworthy.”
“Right now, I am going to go home and take my time before I figure out my next move,” Sloan told FreightWaves. “I have a 14-year-old and a 23-year-old, and I am just going to spend time with them.”
On the day the bankruptcy was filed, Sloan said, some Celadon recruiters received phone calls from new hires who were headed to bus stations or airports and found out their tickets were canceled or refunded.
“No one called these people back to tell them the company was closing,” Sloan said.
William Baxler, 63, of Macon, Georgia, had more than 46 years in the trucking industry prior to Celadon’s shutdown and is nearing retirement.
Baxler said he didn’t see the Celadon bankruptcy coming.
“They are a huge company. I thought they would survive this,” he told FreightWaves.
Jeffrey Baier
Very smart, only these people are hard working truck drivers and would need someone with the knowledge and leadership. I worked in a factory going through college and started a union drive because the company was taking it to their employees. They voted against the union. The company hired a 500 dollar an hour union buster, 1974 dollars. They too were good hard working ethical people.
Noble1
If we were to use “truck drivers” and the “industry” as an example , the problem in the “industry” is the mentality within it .
Truck drivers don’t need to rely on any particular “business/carrier” to create and collectively associate through a “Truck Driver Alliance” as a labourer would be through a typical labour union .
A TDA is a whole different concept . In fact unionized truck drivers would be more than welcome to join in . It would be naïve to even think they wouldn’t attempt to infiltrate the TDA . However, the TDA wouldn’t be influenced by primitive ideas .
In fact I firmly believe that structured “labour unions” as we know them need to transition into improvement . Their flaw is that their members are loyal to only one thing , MONEY ! And who ever can offer their members more MONEY through a better established structure will attract their loyalty .
People can be bought . WE all have a price . My price is ethics and evolution for the people . If you can show how a greater achievement can be obtained through ethics while demonstrating it with an increase in capital gains , your members will become ethical . You need to position them so they will reap gains without relying on an external dependence . Outsmarting your foes by wisely taking advantage of a system they created isn’t unethical . It’s being competitive . It’s “their” system . Eventually by gaining power you’ll attract the one’s who “control” the system .
That’s where it gets interesting . They don’t want the “system” to change . But if a different concept were shared which would render them even more powerful if the system as they have established it were improved , then why would they not accept a change ? By not accepting they would be limiting themselves . It’s a little like catering to “greed” . Greed has no limits .
It’s that simple .
Every action engenders a reaction . You just need to act in accordance with the reaction you want to attract and or engender . A little like playing chess . Your “foe” actually becomes your “pawn” or puppet , and you its puppet master . Like what “they” are doing to us . We will simply do it ethically by using their “system” wisely .
In my humble opinion ………..
Dan The Driver
How can anyone say that they never saw it coming is beyond me. The whole scandal was written about when it went down a couple of years back. When you work for a publicly traded company that gets delisted from the stock exchange, you need to be putting together an exit strategy. And as far as anyone who hired on with a company such as this after it was delisted, just didn’t do their research. Let this be a lesson for us all. Don’t move into a house of cards.
Steven J
Well as one that trades, I would bet 70% or more drivers don’t know what delisting or trading on pink sheets means. We can’t put this on the drivers. Hardworking folks just trying to pay their own bills. Regardless of culpability they are still the victims in all this criminal activity
Noble1
Correct .
We need to keep in mind that drivers tend to work quite a few hours in a day and per week . They are in their own world moving ours . Most don’t have time to educate themselves or keep up with what is going on in the world , much less even sleep . They’re to busy providing to everyone else’s needs .
And trading is extremely demanding . Staying on top of the markets and the hypocrisy it involves is not a given . To some it’s second nature and fun . To others it’s a foreign language .
And besides , there is so much to learn and understand in this world , nobody can possibly know everything that is going on . That’s why through an “association” it’s easier to keep members informed . Informed in what is important to them and affects . You certainly don’t want to fill their minds with too much info and make them dizzy . You need members in a team filling different positions .
They need to be part of a group that they know is looking out for their best interest just as they are for their comrade . Speaking of which , reawakening the trucker camaraderie that once was is key .
Truckers have access to information that is beyond belief . They often have first dibs on many situations . They are in an industry and know what’s moving and not and when . As a group that sort of info can be very profitable .
So in conclusion : Without blaming drivers per se , it is their division and lack of camaraderie and communication among one another and the lack of a unified structure which lead to and leads to blinding many .
In my humble opinion ………..
Noble1
Let’s step back for a second .
Just imagine for a second if truck drivers were united through a new age “Truck Driver Alliance” and such a thing occurred as did with Celadon . And this new age TDA was well set up .
The TDA would have known beforehand that such an occurrence concerning Celadon was highly likely , it was just a question of time before it became a reality. So the TDA would have been prepared to help and support each and every driver in such a case rather than leave them stranded . The plan would not have included preventing Celadon’s bankruptcy per se . In fact the TDA would have been “Short” Celadon’s stock . The plan would have been to let destiny run its course and obtain them for pennies on the dollar while awaiting the opportune moment to do so .
Either way the plan would have been to obtain and render the company privately owned by the TDA . Now all you truck drivers would collectively own Celadon and its subsidiaries through the Truck Driver Alliance . You would have become the “Carrier” .
This is a public thread , so I won’t elaborate on how the TDA would have played its cards . However, the TDA and it’s members would be smiling from ear to ear while awaiting to swallow the next “victim” .
In my humble opinion …………..
E Connelly
So sorry to hear of this.
Dollars to donuts the two crooks were democommies
JH
This has nothing to do with politics. People lost their jobs due to working for a company with unscrupulous people.
Why do they have to be Democrats. There are crooks on both political sides.
Prayers and thoughts to the drivers.
Dennis
To Al Celadon drivers. My name is Dennis force I drive for Knight . Please give them a call they will take care of u guys and laddies. They r a really good company to work for. The phone number is 888-668-0829. Ask for Jordan or Bethany. Tell them that Dennis force referred u to them. They will make sure you and ur family will have a good Christmas. Sighn on bonus is 1500.00. thanks and God bless.
Jerry w carter
My name is Jerry Wayne Carter. I am the GM at J Par Trucking in Roanoke AL. We are a small regional carrier of about 50 trucks, give us a call at 334-863-7253. If we have any openings for any of you we will do our best to help you. I’m so sorry this happened to you at Christmas, God bless you and Merry Christmas.
P S Ask for Katie she is a sweetheart and she’s our safety manager.
Gary
This almost always happens when idiots and criminals on all levels of management run the company. I was with Celadon Canadian company Hyndman for over 2 years and from beginning i sow a lot of nonsense decisions. My complains were always ignored or criticized as harassment of my supervisors! I would like to see harsh sentences for criminals who ruined Celadon and none of middle level managers working in trucking industry any more. There are too stupid to work on this level in trucking industry!
Frustrated Hyndman driver
Gordon Music
Always near the holidays,best wishes and lazerspot hiring tell them gordon sent you
Rory
Is it true that there were drivers heading south to the Mexican border where there were people waiting with cash in hand to take delivery of the trucks and loads?
Though I would be sure that this is illegal….where you back someone into the corner, and l make them so extremely desperate, what choices are left? They have obligations at home as well.
Truckguy
Is it true that drivers turned over their trucks and loads to unknown people offering them cash? Probably not.