Charger Owner to Liquidate Flatbed Carrier
The owner of Charger Inc. is calling it quits two years after buying the former J.B. Hunt Transport flatbed division for $40 million.
Following the buyout in July 1997, Bradley, who was the flatbed division manager at J.B. Hunt, arranged to have the entire fleet of 650 company-owned tractors replaced with 550 new Century Class tractors from Freightliner Corp. and optimistically projected that revenue would grow from $75 million in 1996 to $185 million over five years.
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Mike T. Bradley said he has begun an “orderly liquidation” of the 600-tractor fleet, based in Springdale, Ark., due to cash flow problems and the company’s inability to recover rapidly rising costs for fuel, driver wages and other expenses from shippers.
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“We had a young company, and we were unable to build up a nest egg for bad times,” Bradley said in an interview with Transport Topics Dec. 22. “It’s basic economics — demand and supply.”
