What Ever Happened To This Great Company?

I was there for the whole thing. You guys are correct about the CAT engines or "regens". Those engines broke down all the time so Star argued that since they had to keep fixing them themselves they shouldn't have to pay the leases on them. This destroyed their credit rating and prevented them from being able to upgrade the fleet with new tractors. It should be noted that CAT stopped making truck engines because of the warranty issues.

In November 2013 Star Transport became a "fleet operator" under Swift and changed its name to Star Leasing. All the trucks now said Swift on the side but the drivers were paid by Star and used Star com data to fuel. This is when the Star trailers were still around but that only lasted a couple months until they got turned in.

In March 2015 all star drivers were sent a Qualcomm message out of the blue that said Star had not fulfilled it contractual obligations and all drivers would get a $1000 bonus (which they did) to head to the nearest Swift terminal to turn in their tractor and work directly for Swift if they wanted. When I called my dispatcher he said their Qualcomm communications had been totally shut off and Swift had rented land by the airport where they were taking all the repossessed tractors and trailers. The day after that there was a padlock on the gate and it was completely shut down.

That's how it happened...

 

For you @Mike2633

 

I still see a few of those trailers around.
Thankfully, not many. And I have not been burdened with in a couple years.

 

I've pulled only 1 ...

 

I remember that back in march, I was running out of the Rochelle, IL terminal as a local driver and all of a sudden there were a ton of drivers coming in to do the 3 day orientation, heard they were all star drivers. Didnt swift end up losing the caterpillar account? I was delivering somewhere and talked to an old star driver and he said that when swift took over they started dropping the cat loads in drop yards and cat wasnt too thrilled about that.

 

Were those the loads going to Corinth?

 

That name sounds vaguely familiar, I do believe that is the name he said.

 

If so., I've pulled a few of those. Corinth is a drop with strict appointment, too much time on the loads and the contract is cheap.

If that was Star account, explains why they went out of business. Inefficient use of equipment on cheap freight. If Swift did lose the account, they are probably glad they did.