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Spike in insurance rates lead to shutdown of Carney Trucking (with video)

A major accident in 2018 led to a spike in insurance premiums for Carney Trucking, an increase the company just couldn’t absorb. (Photo: Carney Trucking)

One crash is all it took. Carney Trucking Company, a Gilbertown, Alabama-based flatbed carrier, has shut down, citing a spike in its insurance rates.

“We had a major accident last year,” David Carney, one of the family owned business’ owners, told FreightWaves. “Once we got the insurance quote, we tried to make it work, but we just couldn’t.”

The fleet had about 25 drivers and had been in business since 1983. Carney said that most of the drivers at this point have found other jobs. He doesn’t know what his future holds – he’s been in the business for 27 years – but his brother Robbie may continue in the industry, David Carney said.

July 31, 2019, was the last day of operation for the fleet.


According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) SAFER Web website, the fleet had a fatal crash in the past 24 months and three additional U.S. Department of Transportation reportable crashes in the past two years. In the past 24 months, its vehicles had been inspected 70 times with a 31.4 percent out-of-service rate versus a national average of 20.72 percent. A total of 109 driver inspections had occurred in that timeframe with a 2.8 percent out-of-service rate, below the national average of 5.51 percent.

Carney said the drivers “got all the vacation [pay] and anything else we owed them.” There was also some additional pay provided, he added.

FMCSA said the fleet had 28 registered vehicles that covered 2.1 million miles in 2017.

Trucking shutdowns have spiked this year, and insurance is just one cause. Indiana-based A.L.A. Trucking shut down in early June and company owner Alan Adams blamed the FMCSA’s scoring system for fleets that caused a spike in insurance premiums.


“I didn’t do anything wrong with the company. It’s the way the government has this new grading system that is affecting a lot of companies,” Adams told FreightWaves. “If there’s a situation on the road where a car comes off the on-ramp and bumps into a tractor trailer, until that claim is settled, the insurance company charges a company with that claim.”

Adams said insurance for his 41-driver company climbed from $340,000 to more than $700,000 in one year.

Other companies have cited low freight rates, lack of freight and other reasons for their shutdown. Just last week, Schneider National announced it was shutting down its First to Final Mile business due to a lack of profitability. That shutdown put nearly 800 drivers out of work.

Also on July 30, Terrill Transportation of Livermore, California, ceased operations. That fleet had 30 trucks and 36 company drivers as well as 12 owner-operators.

In addition to Schneider’s announcement last week, three of the largest closures so far in 2019 have been New England Motor Freight, Falcon and LME.

LME was a 400-truck less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier based in Minnesota. LME’s shutdown may have been in part due to a National Labor Relations Board dispute related to Lakeville Motor Express, a carrier that shut down in 2016. The Board called LME the “alter ego” of Lakeville.

Falcon’s shutdown was tied to alleged mismanagement, according to former executives of the company. Those executives told FreightWaves the company was struggling to meet payroll even after the sale to a private equity company.

New England Motor Freight’s shutdown in February shook the Northeast LTL market. With roots going back 100 years, the nation’s 19th-largest LTL carrier with more than 1,300 drivers had struggled financially for some time, but a shutdown was not expected. But on February 12, the company concluded that after two years of losses and the combination of high labor costs and a “severe” driver shortage made it unsustainable to continue as a going concern.


29 Comments

  1. Jim

    How many of you “respondents” pull specialized equipment? Other than the “logger”, it appears that the vast majority of you are Box/reefer pukes. You constantly whine about rates. I’ve pulled boxes/reefers and I can most assuredly tell you that if you had to make payments like I/we have to make, and deal with the rates I/we have to deal with, you’d man up and just do your job. I don’t imagine that someone held a gun to your head and forced you into this industry. Yet all I’ve heard over the last 40-some years I’ve been in this industry is “oh the lazy shippers, wah, wah, wah, about the incompetent receivers . Shame on the government for getting into our business! Dudes, the problem is NOT with the shippers, receivers the government…..it’s in the mirror you gaze at when you look in it. It’s when you go to the polls (if indeed you do take time to vote, and lastly it’s on us….yes US. Because we were too lazy, or inept to police our own industry. We could have prevented the CDL, we could have prevented the CSA. All the “wrongs”, we could have prevented. NOT by shutting down, but by policing our own industry. When we were in the military, if someone screwed up, we took care of it BEFORE the heavy hand of the officers came down on us. But no….we weren’t about to drop a dime on fellow drivers. No, we were too busy to stop and correct a fellow driver, even it it meant physical correction. It was much, much easier to just go about our business and whenever a new regulation came about, we’d whine about it, but, like the dutiful sheep that we were/are, go right along with it. And now, here we are. An industry of dutiful sheep, whining and complaining, but following along nonetheless. The mirror, ladies and germs, we have to look no further than the mirror. Therein lies the problem. How to change it? I really don’t think it can be changed. Way too much water has ran under the bridge. We went along way to peacefully. Just about the only way change can come about now, is by pure, unadulterated luck! No amount of whining and complaining is going to help. John Q Public damn sure isn’t going to help. Nope, we ruined that bridge by piss bottles lying all over the place. By walking around in pajamas and sandals, by not taking pride in our appearance and our industry. Nope, all they see is some bedclothes, sandal wearing, body painted, ear-nose-eyebrow jewelry wearing morons who couldn’t find their ass with both hands and an atlas, who have to be lead around the country by their nose. Nope folks. JQ rates us lower than wormshit, and rightly so. Worst thing is , John Q IS the customer whom we must please.
    RANT OVER.

  2. Jimmy Wells

    If we ever get organized to actually shut down/strike for a while then we MUST be fully prepared to disable ANY scab/truck that crosses and tries to haul. This is how we used to do it and it’s how we must do it again. WE STOP…THEY STOP!

  3. Michael Allen Laidlaw

    We all just need to pull over make a date srick with it driver strike nation wide is the only way we can fix this. Driver strike is tge only way.

  4. Steven

    Until we the small trucker don’t get United..we will be eaten alive one at the time.
    We just complain again and again but when a strike was called …everyone is pulling cheap freight.
    Don’t forget to park it at next strike…even if it cost money for the moment.

  5. Alexio

    They run crazy because of e logs. Trying to make up time for lazy shippers and receivers. DOT say it is for safety. E logs working against safety. It is just counts time like a clock. The government organization want e logs to control every driver along with IRS. To co troll every person. It is all about money that we do not have not safety.

  6. Manuel Ensinia

    So then who are you after the government or the people? I understand the frustration, the anger and the bullshit *THE GOVERNMENT ” does but think about in the end who is the one that suffers ? The driver’s, the family’s, the smaller companies, not “THE GOVERNMENT ” it does suck ass but it is just one more thing to truthfully say you the small business owner stepped up when the “GOVERNMENT ” wouldn’t be proud of what you do “FUCK THE GOVERNMENT “

Comments are closed.

Brian Straight

Brian Straight leads FreightWaves' Modern Shipper brand as Managing Editor. A journalism graduate of the University of Rhode Island, he has covered everything from a presidential election, to professional sports and Little League baseball, and for more than 10 years has covered trucking and logistics. Before joining FreightWaves, he was previously responsible for the editorial quality and production of Fleet Owner magazine and fleetowner.com. Brian lives in Connecticut with his wife and two kids and spends his time coaching his son’s baseball team, golfing with his daughter, and pursuing his never-ending quest to become a professional bowler. You can reach him at [email protected].