Wisconsin-based carrier files for chapter 11 protection

There were four separate filings in the federal bankruptcy court for the western district of Wisconsin covering that many companies operating under the Sparhawk name: Sparhawk Trucking, Sparhawk Truck and Trailer, Sparhawk Inc. and Sparhawk Properties. That latter company owns the company’s real estate holdings.

An attorney for Sparhawk, Nick Kerkman, said in an email to FreightWaves that the debts for Sparhawk Trucking and Sparhawk Truck and Trailer are identical. He said Sparhawk Trucking is the over-the-road activities, while Sparhawk Truck and Trailer “provides shop and servicing for the trucks and trailers.”

Sparhawk Inc. was to be a holding company for all the assets, Kerkman said. While it is part of the bankruptcy, assets had not been moved into it at the time of the chapter 11 filing.

Sparhawk Trucking is the company that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported as having 178 power units. 

Sparhawk’s website says it has more than 200 tractors, more than its SAFER file, and more than 1,000 trailers. Its listed services include both dry van and refrigerated transport.

In his email, Kerkman said the company continues to operate. “The Court has permitted debtor-in-possession financing, use of cash collateral, payment of wages, payment of independent owner-operators, payment of independent contract carriers and certain critical vendors,” he wrote. “In short, the first day motions that were approved permit the companies to operate as business as usual.”

Sparkhawk Trucking says the company’s assets are less than $50,000, but it has estimated liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. 

In the filing listing the largest creditors, Paccar Parts Fleet Service was by far the largest creditor at Sparhawk Trucking, with debts of $147,805.10. Cintas, a company that provides various business equipment such as uniforms, was listed as the second largest creditor at $50,618.58.

Its estimated number of creditors is between 50 and 99.

The list of largest creditors for Sparhawk Trucking is the identical list of creditors for Sparhawk Truck and Trailer.

The other three Sparhawk-related companies that filed for chapter 11 protection and their key numbers in the filings are as follows:

Sparhawk Truck and Trailer and Sparhawk Properties: both between 1-49 creditors, assets of $1 million to $10 million, estimated liabilities of $10 million to $50 million. (The actual categories in chapter 11 filings for liabilities and assets are $1 more than the cutoff point. So the category is actually $1,000,0001 in assets or liabilities). Sparhawk’s Properties creditors with listed secured or partially secured liabilities were two: Nekoosa Port Edwards State Bank of Nekoosa, Wisconsin for about $325,600, and WoodTrust Bank of Wisconsin Rapids for about $438,758.

Sparhawk LLC: 1-49 creditors, $1 million to $10 million in both assets and liabilities. Sparhawk LLC listed just one creditor with the size of the claim disclosed: a secured or partially secured claim to the North Central Utility of Wisconsin for $923,098. Kerkman said that company is a trailer financing company.

An email sent to Sparhawk via its online portal and a separate email sent to its bankruptcy attorney listed in the filing had not been responded to by publication time.

More articles by John Kingston

Derek Barrs defends FMCSA’s bold moves at TCA

6th Circuit rejects NLRB’s Cemex rule, dealing blow to unionization efforts

New Jersey delivery firm will reclassify independent drivers as employees