Armbro Transport placed into receivership

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — After 57 years, Armbro Transport has permanently closed its doors, the company placed into receivership Friday.

President Jim Davidson confirmed the decision to Trucknews.com. He blamed the closure on market conditions and intense pressure on rates.

“It had been failing financially for some time,” he said. “That would be the result of a number of things, at the top of the list, the marketplace itself. We needed an increase from our customers of 8-10% and you can’t get it. It doesn’t exist, because there’s sufficient competition out there that won’t allow it to happen and it has depressed our rates.”

Davidson said there will be no attempt to restructure and revive the organization.

“It has been wound down and the equipment will be sold off,” he said.

Many of the company’s drivers are already working for other carriers, he added.

Davidson took over the company a year and a half ago with an eye towards reviving it from its already tenuous state.

“I took it over on the basis it needed to change significantly from the direction it was heading and I was hopeful I could make that work. In the end, it obviously didn’t,” he said.

 

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James Menzies is editor of Today's Trucking. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 20 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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  • As a former driver for Armbro Transport Inc. I was saddened to hear of the company’s closure. Armbro was a good company with hard working, long time employees that serviced its customers well. After 2009 however, the company was forced to endure a perfect storm of recession, loss of two of its major interlines, and rates on Canadian freight that never seemed to stop falling and continue to be under severe pressure even today. In a last ditch effort to save the company two years ago Armbro employees took deep wage rollbacks, but that itself raised its own problems as long time drivers began heading for better paying jobs elsewhere. It seems there is no room left in the Canadian freight market for companies that pay their employees a decent wage with good equipment and reasonable hours of work. Surely, Armbro’s passing will only be the first in another round of closures for the last of the good transport companies as yet another round of rate cuts and freezes looms on the horizon with no apparent bottom in sight.

  • I worked at Armbro for 28,yrs and when I got called in last Fri 19 June and found out how this company closed the doors with no notice at all then found out after working 49 yrs all wk no pay at ALL then vacation pay was July 1 5wks vac pay nothing then nothing for severance pay well that doesn’t sit good with to many drivers made me so sick just the way the owner did this BUT !!!!!!

    • I’m so sorry to hear the new Lester & friends. Al loved the company & he would surely be upset by the outcome too. He always said it was like a family! Please let the guys know too.

  • The Canadian consumer and cut rate transport companies have driven the rates into the ground. The consumer may find one day that low rates mean lousy service, missed pickups and equipment that breaks down. If the Canadian consumer can live with drivers who are not as experienced, speak little English and drive rickety old trucks more power to them.

    This is not a rant against immigrants, it is pointing out that more and more drivers are hard to understand, are deficient in truck handling abilities such as backing into doors and drive junk that is too old to be on the road.

    All Immigrants have to start somewhere and driving is a good way to enter the work force. No blame is attached to them. In their place I would be doing the same thing.

  • As a driver for over 4 decades I was very saddened by the closure. We all knew it was coming but expected to be treated fairly. Not getting our last weeks wages, holiday pay due or any severance was not expected. Armbro was a great place to work . Our drivers, dock staff, dispatchers and the entire administrative team were all great professionals hiring anyone of them would surely be an asset to your company. 135 family’s have had summer plans ruined. Armbro owners…shame on you. I don’t know how you can sleep at night! Co workers…good luck to all!

  • As long as carriers are will to undercuts rates the will continue, until there is capacity shortage about the same time e logs show up.

  • This was not related to rates. This was the result of extremely poor management. After the change 18 months ago you could see it coming in the things the current management did.
    Employees families do not deserve this, management does.
    All the best in future endeavours to the hard working employees.

  • The demise of more small companies is on the Horizon as well. Until something is done to stop the cutting of rates it will not stop. Individual owner ops are cutting each others throats, immigrants come in buy a truck and haul freight for virtually nothing, and shippers and load brokers know it. Good service does not matter Driver.s go with little pay little sleep and a rotten home life the industry has to change, competition is good but cut throat has to be stopped we need to start talks about unionization in order to put a stop to this mess.

  • As a truck driver for CMF for the past 3 years I can tell you that your assessment of this company is not a realalistic one. You seem to be dazzled by the PR of this company and you haven’t bothered to dig deeper into the workings of this company. You should speak candidly with the truckers…Dan’s bread and butter. But we are treated like pions rather than than members of a team. The only people that are treated with any respect are those who have the “cushy” jobs in the “Ivory Tower.” Yet it is the truckers that bring in the money. Like I said at the beginning, I am a driver and I don’t make enough hauling for CMF to get my family off of Welfare. Please stop extolling the virtues of this company until you have all the facts.

  • To James Menzies Editor I had been a driver with Armbro Transport for 46 years, when they called us in one afternoon and told us to go home. No paycheck for a week’s work, no vacation pay, which was legally ours, and no severance pay. Peter Ballen who brought in Jim Davidson as President, to CLOSE Armbro like he has done at other companies. Armbro was always a family company, and the Armbro name was always respected. These two clowns ought to be ASHAMED of themselves! I am in contact with most of the drivers, and I hope the Transfers DON,T let us down!!