Sad news out of Polo, Missouri, as Rooney Trucking, a family-owned mail hauling company, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Clarissa Hawes, Senior Editor at FreightWaves, posted her article after speaking with the attorney for Rooney Trucking. Attorney Ryan Blay said “fuel and labor expenses were certainly issues that affected Rooney Trucking Inc. The bigger issue, though, was the decision by the U.S. Postal Service to take away some routes and cancel certain contracts. The business couldn’t function profitably with a restricted income stream. This was the biggest factor in deciding to declare bankruptcy for the company.”
“Dynamic Route Optimization” is a USPS program that once paid companies via contract, but was revamped in 2019 to a mileage pay system similar to linehaul miles. This led to consolidation among carriers in order to cover the larger service areas. Several smaller private carriers were squeezed out, those of which now include Rooney Trucking. The company was founded in 1955 by Patrick and Dixie Rooney.
A look into Rooney Trucking
The company had a fleet of 37 drivers and 66 power units (trucks) according to FMCSA SAFER data. The trucks were inspected 26 times in 24 months, with only 4 OOS violations. That’s only 15.4%, much better than the 21% national average. I don’t know what the reasons for the out-of-service violations were, but drivers know a truck that passed a pre-trip inspection can go bad as soon as you get behind the wheel.
The drivers for Rooney were great; those 26 inspections yielded no driver violations in the two-year period. There were also three injury crashes and five tow-a-ways, but being from the Midwest and dealing with the conditions from weather, construction, and other vehicles, I personally can take that as an acceptable amount.
I’ll be watching this case like I do all the others. The next scheduled creditor meeting takes place on June 10th, and hopefully good news will come from it. Driver pay was listed on the documents, although no particular amount of wages was listed. Hopefully all drivers made it home and no issues occurred. The events from other carriers are not forgotten.
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