Refrigerated carrier to close for good by end of month

Hundreds of truck drivers will be affected after a Florida-based trucking company shuts their doors for good by the end of February.

Multiple outlets have reported that Cold Carriers Logistics will permanently wind down operations in the next few weeks.

Cold Carrier Logistics operates approximately 350 trucks and employs around 450 workers.

Cold Carrier Logistics and several affiliated trucking companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2019.

Following the bankruptcy filing, the company was reportedly unable to secure a buyer by the deadline imposed by creditors.

Cold Carriers Logistics was formed after private equity firm KJM acquired several midsize regional carriers including Interide Transport, Gantt Trucking, Blue Sky Logistics, and Sunco Trucking and consolidated them into a single company.

According to the FMCSA’s SAFER website, Gantt Trucking operates 102 trucks, Interide Transport operates 136 trucks, and Sunco Trucking operates 159 trucks. Blue Sky Logistics operates about 30 trucks.

KJM Managing Director Ken Meister described the company’s acquisition strategy in a 2018 interview with Business View Magazine: “… I came to understand that there are a lot of mid-sized, family-owned companies that have not invested in technology for efficiencies, processes, financial reporting, and accounting functions but still have an instinctively well-run business where they know the industry and have been successful for decades. We believed that if we got involved, we could bring our expertise in finance and technology to improve and grow the business through those infrastructure investments.”

This is a developing story.