USA CDL JOBS TRUCK DRIVER FORUM

With its bank demanding $8.3 million, the C.W. Johnson Xpress trucking company plans to announce today that it is closing.


Charlie Johnson, the company's owner and chief executive, will hold a 10 a.m. news conference to discuss the matter. He declined to comment yesterday.

According to a federal lawsuit, Johnson's firm received loans from Branch Banking & Trust in early 2007 to buy trucks and equipment, along with a line of credit for operating costs. It started defaulting on the loans in February, and BB&T filed suit Aug. 12, asking the court to seize Johnson's assets and pay back all the loans at once, including interest and fees.

Messages for local BB&T executives and the bank's attorney in the case were not immediately returned yesterday.

Many small trucking companies are struggling because of soaring diesel prices, competition and a tight credit market, said Steve Russell, chief executive of Celadon Group, an Indianapolis transportation firm.

Russell said in an interview yesterday that his company will take over some of Johnson's customer base in Louisville, and possibly hire some of its roughly 100 drivers and other employees.

"This is happening throughout the trucking industry in America," Russell said, adding that an "enormous amount of fleet failures" have happened so far this year.

Johnson founded Active Transportation in 1987 and sold his interest in 2000 after it became one of the city's most prominent minority-owned firms. Among its current clients, Johnson Xpress hauls tequila from Mexico to the United States for Brown-Forman Corp.

In the lobby of his headquarters on Maple Street off West Broadway, a display case is filled with awards for Johnson's community involvement, charitable giving and diversity efforts. In 2006, Johnson won $200,000 in the lottery and gave the entire amount to Benedict College, a small liberal arts school in Columbia, S.C.

Celadon has about 4,000 employees, with annual revenue of more than $500 million. Russell said C.W. Johnson Xpress has about 80 tractors and several hundred trailers. Much of that equipment is at a facility on Cane Run Road.

Competition among area trucking firms has been fierce over the last year, said David Summitt, owner of Summitt Trucking in Clarksville, Ind. Even with diesel prices falling to around $4.20 a gallon from $4.75 a few weeks ago, Summitt said most carriers face a tough business climate because they can recoup only a portion of the higher costs from customers through fuel surcharges.

Summitt said so many firms have closed this year that his company, which has about 1,000 trailers and 600 employees, has seen competition ease slightly in recent weeks.

"The smaller you are, the harder it probably is," he said.