Consolidated Freightways stock crash sealed its demise

More information is surfacing about the demise of Consolidated Freightways.

The 73-year old freight transportation company and third largest less-than-truckload carrier in the U.S filed petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.

According to an AP report, the Vancouver, Wash.-based company lost $36.5 million on $463 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year. It lost $104.3 million last year and $7.6 million in 2000.

Its stock had tumbled in the past two weeks, after it announced it might lose its listing on the Nasdaq stock market.

In letters being mailed to workers, the company said it simply didn’t have enough money to continue operations.

“We expected that recent discussions with our banks, other lenders and real estate investors would enable us to obtain significant additional financial resources,” the letters said. “Unfortunately, this has not been the
case.”

Operations of the company’s CF AirFreight and Canadian Freightways, Ltd. subsidiaries are continuing normally, and their employees will not be terminated as a result of this action.

Consolidated Freightways had 350 terminals and 30,000 trucks in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The company’s stock traded on the Nasdaq stock market at more than $18 in early 1999, but closed at just 71 cents Friday.

The largest less-than-truckload carrier in the U.S. is Yellow Corp. of Overland Park, Kan., followed by Roadway Corp. of Akron, Ohio.