Trucking company shuts down, lays off 222 in Tampa, Jacksonville

An Illinois trucking company laid off 222 employees in Tampa and Jacksonville last month after it was forced to cease operations by a creditor.

Midwest Transport Inc. announced the closing and the layoffs in a letter to state officials, writing that the job cuts come after it shut down its Tampa terminal at 4710 E. Seventh Ave. and its Jacksonville terminal at 3370 Old Kings Road.

It also closed three other terminals nationwide and its corporate office in Illinois. In all, 504 employees were terminated.

The letter does not say how many jobs were cut at the individual Florida terminals, but the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification database lists 111 jobs were affected at each location.

(The contact person listed for Midwest Transport did not respond to an email asking to clarify if the number in the database is correct or if a total of 111 people in the state lost their jobs rather than 222.)

According to the letter, Midwest Transport was looking for capital to continue operating, but time ran out. That’s because a large unnamed creditor with a loan in default stepped in and “unforeseeably exercised its right” to require business cessation and to appoint a receiver.

The company is currently being liquidated and wound down but administrative workers remain to wrap up operations and a few fleet managers and mechanics are cleaning up the terminals.

The layoffs happened Sept. 9, but the letter, which was sent to meet federal WARN requirements, is dated Sept. 30. There is no explanation provided for the lag.

The notice also does not appear to have been posted to the state’s WARN database until Oct. 7.

The Trucker, an industry publication, reports that employees were told of their job losses in phone calls with regional managers.

Midwest Transportation, according to its website, which is still up, at one point employed 650 people and had a fleet of more than 450 units. The company boasts that it has “spent over four decades perfecting the art of logistics” and was a long-standing contractor for the U.S. Postal Service.

Neither the letter nor the website discusses what lead to the company’s financial difficulties.