NationsWay Files Bankruptcy, Ceases Operations
President Jerry D. McMorris confirmed that the company is closing.
"It's a blow," McMorris was quoted as saying. "We couldn't get our costs down over the last five years to make a profit. We were put into a position that we couldn't continue to battle that."
Cal Wolfe, vice president of human resources, said the company has stopped picking up freight Thursday evening but will continue to deliver all freight in the system.
McMorris said he will continue to be involved in the Colorado Rockies baseball team and that other trucking businesses — WestWay Express, a refrigerated truckload carrier, and SLT Express, a flatbed truckload and hazardous materials carrier — will continue in operation.
McMorris and his late father Donn McMorris formed NW Transport with the merger of a number of small companies. The company adopted the NationsWay name after expanding from its regional base in the West to provide nationwide coverage.
NationsWay had revenue of $364.1 million in 1997 and accounted for 82% of the total revenue of the parent company NW Transport Service.
A spokesman for the Colorado Motor Carriers Assn. said the shutdown came as a "complete surprise."
Shippers also expressed surprise at the development.
Leroy Finnewald, traffic manager for Fiat Allis North America in Carol Steam, Ill., said he sees no problem switching to other carriers for construction equipment parts shipments, but he expressed regret at losing such a good carrier.
"They had the best LTL service to the West Coast," he said. "They didn't use as much of a break bulk system and they had sleeper teams."
