Illinois-based Patriot Transport and its sister company, Expeditor Systems, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Igor Terletsky is listed as president of both Patriot Transport Inc. of Carol Stream and Expeditor Systems of Burr Ridge in the Chapter 11 petitions filed separately in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
No reason was given as to why the companies filed for bankruptcy protection, but both trucking seek to reorganize.
As of publication, John Hiltz, bankruptcy attorney for Patriot Transport and Expeditor Systems, had not responded to FreightWaves’ request for comment.
Patriot Transport
Founded in 2006, Patriot Transport lists its assets as between $1 million and $10 million and its liabilities as between $10 million and $50 million. The petition lists the number of creditors as up to 999 but states that funds will be available to unsecured creditors.
Among the company’s top creditors with the largest unsecured claims are the IRS of Philadelphia, owed over $692,000; Wesco Insurance Co. of Dallas, owed over $628,000; and Prologis 2 L.P. of Dallas, owed nearly $596,000.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website, Patriot Transport, which hauls general freight and paper products, has 35 power units and 35 drivers.
Patriot Transport’s trucks have been inspected 10 times, and three had been placed out of service in a 24-month period, resulting in a 30% out-of-service rate. This is higher than the industry’s national average of around 22.3%, according to FMCSA.
The trucking company’s drivers have been inspected 20 times, and none had been placed out of service, compared with the national average of around 6.7%.
In the past two years, the company’s trucks have been involved in one injury crash and five tow-aways.
Expeditor Systems
Expeditor Systems lists both its assets and liabilities as between $1 million and $10 million. The petition lists the number of creditors as up to 99 but states that funds will be available for distribution to unsecured creditors.
Among the company’s top creditors with the largest unsecured claims are RTS Financial Services of Dallas, owed nearly $163,000; Chase Ink of Wilmington, Delaware, owed around $136,000; and the IRS of Philadelphia, owed nearly $80,000.
Seventeen of the 20 largest unsecured creditors are trucking companies that are owed between $11,300 and $24,000 apiece, according to Expeditor Systems’ petition.
The FMCSA granted Expeditor Systems common carrier authority in August 2009. The trucking company hauls general freight and had 100 power units and the same number of drivers until it updated its MCS-150 form, reducing its number of power units to 50 and dropping its number of drivers to 55, three days after filing for bankruptcy.
Expeditor Systems’ trucks have been inspected 70 times, and 16 had been placed out of service in a 24-month period, resulting in a 22.9% out-of-service rate. This is slightly higher than the 22.3% national average.
The trucking company’s drivers have been inspected 185 times, and three had been placed out of service, resulting in a 1.6% out-of-service rate. This is significantly lower than the national average of about 6.7%.
In the past two years, FMCSA data shows Expeditor Systems’ trucks have been involved in eight injury crashes and four tow-aways.
Both Patriot Transport and Expeditor Systems’ Bodily Injury Property Damage coverage is slated to be canceled June 6, according to FMCSA.
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Chris
If you want to open a shady business with shady employment practices… the perfect place is shady Illinois.
The sanctuary city of Chicago has illegals waiting to be exploited as long as you pay taxes into the Illinois black hole for political gain.
Joe
All these companies want to file for some sort of protection. All outstanding debt, wow! Been in operation for 5 years + all bills paid ZERO DEBT, SETTLEMENTS AND DRIVERS PAID EVERYWEEK.
How bout giving me a look at your books, for a small fee of course (totally) negotiable and don’t close!
TCS53
These two companies epitomize everything that’s bad in the trucking industry. The shame of it all is that the ones that will suffer are the employees. They will just reorganize under another name.
Mark Stephens
Carriers Across the Nation are facing difficult challenges as most understand in this great recession, us recession but let us be clear that all of these carriers before filing for bankruptcy are fully aware of the downward slope they Traverse.
In hopes of the spot Market gaining I returned to pre-pandemic conditions these carriers are gasping for their last breath.
As indicated in my recent article, Supply Chain Pendulum Swing, the return to before covid conditions well not occur until spring 2025. (See article below)
Most assuredly this company had been fortunate to secure responsible drivers based on the data in the article, unfortunately the trucks and trailers do not face similar success which lie solely with the carrier.
The mistake most companies made in 2021 was expanding their Fleet because of the outstanding rates but any reasonable business person would have understood is only so much oil in the ground below or so much gold in the canyons.
Russ
K&L Transport will be next in IL.
Kevin Duzinski
There’s only one problem with these European owned companies 1099 Chicago based I like to call them.
So many reorganized with the same group and open up under another name. That’s where you have to be very careful.
Auditor
Notice that the largest creditor is the IRS?
Virtually every Illinois-based trucking company misclassifies driver-employees as 1099 contract employees to avoid payroll taxes and worker’s comp premiums. Eventually, the IRS comes after them (if they grow large enough or service long enough), and each story ends like this one..
If the IRS audited the rest of the Illinois-based trucking companies, there would be thousands more carrier bankruptcies! Easy pickins for the IRS if they weren’t incompetent.
Matt T
I’m surprised these two companies had only 135 power units. I see (saw) them all the time in the Chicago area.