Illinois trucking company, brokerage file for bankruptcy liquidation

July 26, 2024

A 36-year-old Illinois trucking company and brokerage ceased operations recently and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

B.T. Trucking Inc. of Broadview, Illinois, doing business as Blue Thunder Trucking, and its three affiliated companies — B.T. Transportation Group Inc., JPL Transport Inc. and Rysoti Inc. — filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on July 19 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

At the time of its closure, Blue Thunder had 75 drivers and the same number of power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website.

The petitions for the four entities list Michael J. Irwin as president and founder.

The trucking company’s website, which has since been taken down, stated that Irwin founded Blue Thunder Trucking in 1988 with 35 owner-operators and 50 trailers. At one time, the family-owned regional and over-the-road fleet, which hauled general freight, operated 130 tractors and had 220 trailers, according to the companies’ social media pages.

No reason was given as to why Irwin and his companies filed for Chapter 7. The entities are represented by bankruptcy attorney Joel A. Schechter of Chicago. As of publication time Thursday, neither Schechter nor Irwin had responded to FreightWaves’ request for comment.

Based on FMCSA data, Blue Thunder Trucking was granted its common and contract carrier authority in 1988.

Prior to its closure, the company’s trucks had been inspected 65 times, and 28 had been placed out of service for a 43% out-of-service rate over the preceding 24-month period. That is nearly double the industry’s national average of around 22.3%, according to FMCSA.

The company’s drivers had been inspected 138 times, and 11 were placed out of service over a two-year period, resulting in an 8% out-of-service rate. This is slightly higher than the national average of about 6.7%.

In the past two years, Blue Thunder trucks had been involved in six injury crashes and five tow-aways.

Blue Thunder’s insurance was canceled July 1, and its common and contract authority was involuntarily revoked on July 8, according to FMCSA.

The company listed its assets as between $100,000 and $500,000 and liabilities as between $1 million and $10 million, according to the petition. Blue Thunder states that it has up to 199 creditors. While the petition includes a list of its creditors, the filing did not include the claim amounts the companies are owed.

B.T. Transportation Group

In its petition seeking Chapter 7, B.T. Transportation Group of Broadview, formerly known as B.T. Truck Brokerage, states that it has up to 199 creditors. The petition lists both its assets and liabilities as between $100,000 and $500,000. As with the Blue Thunder petition, B.T. Transportation includes a mailing list of creditors but doesn’t include the amounts it owes to more than 100 trucking and logistics companies that hauled B.T. Transportation’s freight.

According to FMCSA, the brokerage’s authority was granted in April 1997, and its surety bond was canceled last Saturday, a day after it filed for bankruptcy.

JPL Transport Inc.

The trucking company listed its assets as up to $50,000 and liabilities as between $50,000 and $100,000. JPL Transport’s petition states that it has up to 49 creditors.

Its petition, which seeks liquidation, lists 17 former employees, including Michael J. Irwin, his wife, Linda Irwin, and their son, Ryan Irwin, as creditors in the bare-bones petition. No amounts were given as to how much the ex-employees are owed.

JPL Transport received $1.5 million in U.S. Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from Beverly Bank & Trust Co. to make payroll to save 137 jobs, according to ProPublica’s PPP tracking database. About $1.1 million of that was forgiven.

Irwin is listed as the president, secretary and director of JPL Transport, according to its most recent business entity filing in April on the Illinois secretary of state’s database.

JPL Transport received its PPP loan during the first round of funding of the CARES Act in April 2020 to help businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the 3PL’s website being taken down, Irwin said he had 30 employees, “including sales, dispatch, safety, administration and a full clerical staff” at his facility, which encompassed 25,000 square feet of office and warehouse space. The site also had “three acres of parking area for our 250 trailers and power units based in the Chicago area,” according to the website.

Rysoti Inc.

The company listed assets of between $100,000 and $500,000 and liabilities as between $1 million and $10 million. Rysoti has up to 49 creditors.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David D. Cleary has given the entities until Aug. 2 to submit their schedules of assets and liabilities as well as their statements of financial affairs. The four Chapter 7 petitions state that no funds will be available to unsecured creditors after administrative expenses are paid.

Cleary has set a creditors meeting for Sept. 5.

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