Illinois
Illinois trucking company with 480 drivers abruptly ceases operations
An Illinois-based trucking and logistics company, which contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail and had over 650 employees, including more than 480 drivers, abruptly ceased operations Thursday, according to sources familiar with the closure.
Former truck drivers for Midwest Transport Inc. (MTI), headquartered in Robinson, Illinois, told FreightWaves that they received telephone calls from their regional managers late Thursday notifying them the company was winding down operations.
As of publication on Friday, MTI has not issued a formal statement about what led to the closure. However, FreightWaves confirmed with some former senior managers and truck drivers who worked for the mail contractor that the company was ending operations. They did not want to be named in the article for fear of retaliation.
MTI, founded in 1980, operated key terminals in Greenup, Illinois; Harmony, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; and two terminals in Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida, according to its website.
MTI had over 480 drivers and 428 power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website.
FMCSA data shows the company’s trucks had been inspected 244 times, and 65 had been placed out of service for a 27% out-of-service rate over the preceding 24-month period. That is significantly higher than the industry’s national average of around 22%.
MTI’s drivers had been inspected 564 times, and 16 were placed out of service over a two-year period, resulting in a nearly 3% out-of-service rate. That is less than half the industry’s national average of 7%, according to FMCSA.
The trucking company had 21 injuries and 42 tow-aways over the past 24 months.
According to the SAFER database, MTI was cited for acute/critical violations in two categories: controlled substances/alcohol and driver fitness.
A check on SAFER shows that MTI’s common, contract and broker authorities remain active. MTI had two compliance reviews on July 7 and July 25, according to FMCSA data.
As of publication Friday, MTI had not filed a notice of its impending closure in Illinois, Tennessee, Pennsylvania or Florida.
One longtime former MTI driver said he was surprised by the news the company was ceasing operations but said that drivers had started receiving notices over the past few months to ensure their log books were certified after each run and to watch their speed and improve their on-time performance.
“I don’t know what happened because we had a lot of postal contracts all over the U.S.,” a former MTI driver told FreightWaves. “I [don’t know if] the USPS is just finding out like us [that] the mail will be sitting on the docks on Monday.”
A media spokesperson with the Postal Service did not immediately return FreightWaves’ request for comment.
This is a developing story.
Do you have a news tip or story to share? Send Clarissa Hawes an email or message @cage_writer on X, formerly Twitter. Your name will not be used without your permission.
The post Illinois trucking company with 480 drivers abruptly ceases operations appeared first on FreightWaves.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CHICAGO (CBS) — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday warned stores and restaurants around the country not to sell or serve oysters from British Columbia, Canada, that may be contaminated with the norovirus.
Illinois was among the states where the oysters were sold. They were also sold in Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
The oysters were sold as Fanny Bay, Buckley Bay, and Royal Miyagi.
The oysters were harvested between Dec. 1 and Dec. 9 from growing areas BC 14-8, Landfiles (LF) # 1413888, 1409240, 1402294, 1409454, 1402193, 1402293, 1402060, and growing area BC 14-15, LF # 249854.
Symptoms of norovirus include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and stomach cramps. A fever may also develop.
Restaurants and retailers that have the oysters should throw them away, or return them to their distributor to be destroyed. The FDA also advised that shellfish can be a source of pathogens more generally, and the risk of cross-contamination of food processing equipment and the food processing environment must be averted.
What’s New
President-elect Donald Trump has been urged by former adviser Roger Stone follow up on his settled defamation lawsuit against ABC News by suing Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for calling him a “rapist.”
“I certainly hope the president will file this lawsuit and based on the precedent set by his lawsuit against ABC, I believe that he would get a judgment against JB Pritzker,” Stone said in a text message to Newsweek on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Trump and Pritzker via email on Wednesday.
Why It Matters
ABC News recently agreed to apologize and pay $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos for incorrectly saying on air that a jury found Trump civilly liable for rape.
A jury found Trump civilly liable last year for sexually abusing former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her by denying that an assault took place, although the judge presiding over the trial later said that Trump’s actions met “the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance.”
NICK OXFORD/AFP; Oleg Nikishin; Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative
What To Know
While sharing an article on former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich calling for Trump to sue Pritzker, Stone wrote the following on X, formerly Twitter, earlier on Wednesday: “President Trump should sue billionaire Governor JD [sic] Pritzker who falsely called him a rapist.”
Pritzker referred to Trump as an “adjudicated rapist” on multiple occasions while acting as a surrogate for the Democratic presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris over the summer.
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar,” Pritzker said during a speech in June. “He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.”
What People Are Saying
Blagojevich—an outspoken Trump supporter since being granted clemency by the then-president in 2020 after serving several years in federal prison on corruption charges—called for Trump to follow up his ABC suit by taking similar legal action against Pritzker in a post to X on Monday.
“Now that Trump successfully won his defamation case against ABC for calling him a ‘rapist,’ when will he sue Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for repeatedly lying & calling him the same thing?” Blagojevich wrote.
What Happens Next
While it is unclear whether Trump intends to file a lawsuit against Pritzker, the former and future president has seemingly started a legal revenge campaign against critics and perceived political enemies before his inauguration on January 20.
Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against retired pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and its parent company Gannett for what he alleges was “brazen election interference” for publishing a poll that showed Harris with a narrow lead in The Hawkeye State shortly before the election.
I simulated Tennessee at Ohio State on College Football 25
Why Doesn’t Oklahoma Have An OTA-Run Train System
Oregon’s incoming attorney general announces ‘cabinet’ to strategize Trump response
Pennsylvania teenager accused of fatally shooting another teenager inside victim’s home
Vandrevius Jacobs Signs New NIL Deal to Stay in Columbia
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene was ‘kicked out’ of the Freedom Caucus according to Rep. Buck
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
DOJ seeks to block Jan. 6 defendants from attending Trump inauguration
Syria’s interim gov’t pledges justice, jobs, and security in ‘new era’
Georgia court blocks Fulton DA Willis from Trump election interference case
Massie comes out against Johnson retaining speaker's gavel: 'He does not have my vote'
Can toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad be brought to justice?
-
Politics6 days agoCanadian premier threatens to cut off energy imports to US if Trump imposes tariff on country
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25782636/247422_ChatGPT_anniversary_CVirginia.jpg "Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT")
Technology1 week agoInside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25789444/1258459915.jpg "OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change")
Technology6 days agoOpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change
-
Politics6 days agoU.S. Supreme Court will decide if oil industry may sue to block California's zero-emissions goal
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25546252/STK169_Mark_Zuckerburg_CVIRGINIA_D.jpg "Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit")
Technology6 days agoMeta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit
-
Politics1 week agoConservative group debuts major ad buy in key senators' states as 'soft appeal' for Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel
-
Business4 days agoFreddie Freeman's World Series walk-off grand slam baseball sells at auction for $1.56 million
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23951353/STK043_VRG_Illo_N_Barclay_3_Meta.jpg "Meta’s Instagram boss: who posted something matters more in the AI age")
Technology4 days agoMeta’s Instagram boss: who posted something matters more in the AI age