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News Alert: Specific PPP loan information released by SBA; 4 companies in key sectors got maximum

Image: JIm Allen/FreightWaves

Four trucking-related companies received the top grant of $10 million under the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a massive amount of data dumped out by the Small Business Administration late Tuesday.

The SBA gave up on fighting a lawsuit brought by the Washington Post and other organizations that had sought full granular disclosure of all the more than 5 million loans disbursed under PPP. A federal court last week lifted a stay that had given SBA time to prepare an appeal, but the stay ended December 1. The data dump was the agency’s response.

The previous data did not disclose the names of recipients of less than $150,000. For recipients of PPP money above that amount, it only showed the range of the money it received though did disclose the company’s name. 

But with the granular data out, it shows that four companies in three key NAICS codes received the maximum allowable loan of $10 million.


(Note:for purposes of consistency and focus, FreightWaves only looked at data for three NAICS codes: 484121, truckload; 484122, LTL; and 541614, 3PL companies.)

The four companies that got $10 million, according to the data, are Truck Centers Inc of Troy, Illinois; Acme Truck Line of Gretna, Louisiana; Central Freight Lines of Waco, Texas; and Benore Logistic Systems of Erie, Michigan. Truck Centers and Acme are listed as truckload carriers under 484121. Central Freight is an LTL carrier under 484122, and Benore is a 3PL under 541614.

Each of the four companies reported there would be 500 jobs protected as a result of the loan, the maximum target under the PPP. 

Publicly-traded companies were not eligible for PPP loans, a rule that was not in effect at the beginning of the PPP program in April but which was added later.


Four companies received loans in excess of $8 million but less than $10 million: Alan Ritchey of Valley View, Texas, a TL carrier under 484121, and three 3PLs under 541614: Armada Partners of Pittsburgh, Envista of Carmel, Indiana and ODW Logistics of Columbus.

By contrast, a quick look at the loan information for companies that got less than $150,000 finds numerous small firms who received from the government amounts less than $15,000.

The data can be found here. A word of warning: the files are large and arranging them in a readable way is not a quick process.

FreightWaves will continue to cover this story over the course of the day.

More articles by John Kingston

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.