Jet USA / Active Aero lays off 50+?

[cherry20's]

Good luck to all you guys, it always sucks when buss. is bad.

 

[Freight Dawg]

Damn this sucks, I figured that house of cards there in YIP was gonna collaspe. Best of luck to JUS guys sorry about ya'lls incompentent management. Later

 

[80for80]

Yep CDL ratings in the Peterbuilt, Kenworth, and Freightliner will now be an application requirement.

So are they changing their name to USA Truck? And are you Randy going to change your name to truckeryip?

 

[80for80]

http://www.usa-truck.com/

 

[VABB]

An picture of yourself standing in front of your truck for your avatar? You're a tool dude, a complete and utter tool.

 

[pilotyip]

A changed avatar just for us, I am touched, but change my name. Naa, I have been trucked enought in my life. Now this is really strange USA Truck is in Van Buren, AR, USA Jet is in Van Buren, MI

 

[Capn Sac]

Best of luck folks. Cape Air is interviewing for upcoming classes.

 

[Porky]

Before there was Enron, before there was WorldCom, before there was Global Crossing, there was Skyway Freight Systems.
Who?
Skyway Freight Systems was a Watsonville shipper that aspired to reinvent itself as a high-tech distribution expert. The company was bleeding money, however, when it was finally snapped up by a San Francisco investment firm specializing in corporate salvage jobs.
Skyway went bust in early 2000 and subsequently became the focus of a bitter legal battle over alleged fraud and money owed to hundreds of former workers.
That battle may at last be coming to an end as the two sides weigh a settlement that would pre-empt a trial now scheduled for December. A decision is expected this week.
"This is a case where employees were deceived so the company could make a little more money," said Joseph Clapp, the San Francisco attorney representing about 700 former Skyway workers. "It was a house of cards."
Skyway's bankruptcy is small potatoes compared with either Enron or WorldCom. But it served as an early warning of the tsunami of scandals to come,
with its allegations of greedy managers bending the rules for their own benefit.
And getting the short end of the stick, then as now, are the workers.
The story of Skyway begins in 1998 when its original owner, Union Pacific, decided to sell off the operation. The railroad said at the time it would take an after-tax loss of $40 million to dump the unprofitable California shipper.
Employees took heart because Skyway was purchased by San Francisco's Genstar Capital, which had experience turning around distressed companies and then selling them at a profit to others.
Clapp said Genstar initially pumped $10 million into Skyway, followed by an additional $15 million down the road. Genstar's business partner, Congress Financial, also invested about $15 million, he said.
Both Genstar and Congress declined to comment.
In any case, Skyway continued to hemorrhage money. In late 1999, Genstar brought in a new chief executive officer for the struggling company in hopes of accelerating plans to enter the potentially lucrative field of transport logistics.
Logistics involves making all the arrangements for shipping and storage, as opposed to the more cash-intensive running of a truck fleet.
According to Clapp, the new CEO, Chris Healy, ultimately came up with a $12 million plan to reorganize Skyway's operations. But by early 2000, both Genstar and Congress were reluctant to invest additional funds in the company.
Worse, Clapp said Skyway's business affiliates and creditors were beginning to get nervous. They feared that employees would begin leaving in droves if the company was unable to meet its nearly $1 million payroll obligation every two weeks.
On March 16, 2000, according to the suit filed by employees, Healy sent an e-mail to all workers assuring them that Genstar, Congress and senior Skyway managers had agreed to provide more cash to the troubled company.
"The funds required to take Skyway to the future are available," the e-mail said, adding that "Skyway is financially secure" and that investors "have great confidence in this company, its vision and its employees."
In fact, Skyway was anything but financially secure, and the lawsuit charges that both Genstar and Healy knew that the company barely had enough funds to get by.
Clapp said the sole purpose of the e-mail was to prevent employees from leaving before a reorganization plan could be implemented.
"Customers knew that things were shaky," he said. "If employees started leaving, the whole thing would fall apart."
Believing their CEO's assurances, Skyway workers stayed on the job, in many cases adding to their responsibilities to help pull the company through a difficult time.
Their efforts were in vain. On March 30, the company told employees it had run out of cash and would cease operations the next day. However, it still wanted workers on hand during the winding-up process.
Healy assured employees they'd be paid for their efforts. "We are not declaring bankruptcy," he said in an e-mail.
A week later, Skyway liquidated all assets under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Act.
Healy's San Francisco lawyer, Gordon McAuley, said his client did nothing wrong. "Mr. Healy believes he has excellent defenses to the claims made in the lawsuit," McAuley said.
Employees, who were owed about $2 million in wages and vacation time, filed suit in July 2000. But Clapp said it was not until the litigation was given class status this summer that Genstar and Healy finally took the threat seriously.
"They believed the employees wouldn't want to press their cases one by one, " he said. "But as a class, the employees can join in a single action."
Settlement talks were finally held earlier this month. Clapp said Genstar and Healy now appear eager to avoid a jury trial, especially in the wake of so many corporate scandals.
Sources close to the case said a settlement offer of $4 million is on the table. Clapp declined to comment on details of the talks, but said he would seek millions more in punitive damages if the case goes to trial.
However it all turns out, the sad story of Skyway Freight Systems illustrates what can go wrong when the bond between a company and its workers collapses.
Employees, whether at a small shipping company or the world's biggest energy trader, need not feel that senior executives are their friends. But they should at least have confidence that their leaders aren't enemies. ,laz

Looks like he's doing it to us here. Thanks Chris!!!!

 

[canadflyau]

They didn't even give a two weeks notice or two weeks severence to the pilots that they let go. Class Act

 

[Captain Oveur]

Porky, are you suggesting that USA Jet is about to declare bankruptcy?
canadflyau, I assume you are one of the laid off pilots. What did they tell you?
(It's none of my business, I admit. Just curious as to the company's story....
and no severance? not the nicest way to do things, but not exactly
unusual in the world of auto freight)
Commiseration to the laid off guys....