Preston Trucking Ceases Operations

Preston Trucking Co. has ceased operating as of July 26.

Company President David Letke said the Preston, Md.-based less-than-truckload carrier will stop picking up freight immediately and will deliver all freight remaining in the system over the next two or three days.

In a news release, Letke said the company was unable to overcome the revenue lost in 1998 as a result of uncertainty over the negotiation of a new labor contract and the company’s future.

Letke was part of a management group that purchased Preston from Yellow Corp. in July 1998. Yellow is the parent of unionized long-haul LTL carrier Yellow Freight System and several nonunion regional LTL fleets, including Jevic Transportation, a New Jersey-based truckload and LTL carrier acquired earlier this month that serves much of the same territory as Preston.

According to Sean Callahan, Preston’s chief financial officer, the company has been generating insufficient cash to meet its payment obligations as they become due and that attempts to obtain financing from other sources were unsuccessful.

"On Saturday, July 24, we were informed that our current lenders would not make additional advances that would have permitted our continuing business operations," Callahan said.

Preston operated more than 60 terminals in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and employed 5,500 people. The company had revenue of $447.3 million in 1997.

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