16 US Trucking Bankruptcies in Five Weeks Lay Bare Small-Carrier Debt

At least 16 US trucking companies filed for bankruptcy protection between Sept. 18 and Oct. 21, according to a review of federal bankruptcy records, and the filings stretch from single-truck operators to a 53-power-unit logging carrier.

The collapse list covers general freight, petroleum hauling, logging and timber transport, and it splits between Chapter 7 liquidations and Chapter 11 restructurings. That mix matters. Chapter 7 means the trucks get sold; Chapter 11 means the carrier still hopes to run while it renegotiates debt.

What does this change for shippers and brokers? Mostly, counterparty risk. When a carrier with your freight on board enters Chapter 7, the question stops being rate and becomes recovery.

Who filed, and how deep is the hole?

The largest documented debt gap sits with Chicago-based Midwest Expedited Co. It filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 6 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, listing roughly $2.31 million in liabilities against just $108,351 in assets.

The schedules break down into $935,384 in secured claims and about $1.38 million in nonpriority unsecured claims. Court documents identify seven Freightliner M2 trucks from the 2023 and 2024 model years, collectively valued at $107,500 — even though the company's LinkedIn page claims 95 trucks. The seven vehicles in the schedules are not necessarily representative of the previously reported fleet.

In El Paso, Texas, Site2Site Transport filed Chapter 7 on Sept. 29 after its revenue went the wrong way. The carrier booked about $2.1 million in gross revenue in 2024, then $1.6 million in 2025 — a drop of roughly 24%. From Jan. 1, 2026, through the filing date, it reported no gross revenue at all. The filing discloses leases on eight trucks and liabilities exceeding $493,000.

What does the wider map look like?

The filings cluster in a handful of states, with small fleets dominating:

• KLS Logging Inc., Lyons, Georgia — Chapter 11, 53 power units, 28 drivers, hauling unmanufactured logs, poles, beams and lumber.
• American Petroleum Carriers, McAllen, Texas — Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas, case 26-70331, 16 trucks, 10 drivers.
• Eskil Trucking, Lakeview, Oregon — Chapter 11 with over $1 million in liabilities and no more than $500,000 in assets; it owes nearly $855,000 to Sargent Transportation, another southern Oregon carrier and its largest creditor.
• Douglass Logistics LLC, Illinois — Chapter 11 on Sept. 23, 15 trucks, 10 drivers.
• Maksteel Transport LLC, Illinois — Chapter 11 the same day, five trucks, three drivers.
• Windy City Supply Chain LLC — Chapter 7 on Oct. 2, with 20 owner-operator drivers.
• Xcalibur Logistics, Lake Zurich, Illinois — Chapter 7, one truck, one driver.
• Site2Site Transport — Chapter 7, eight leased trucks.
• FAB Trucking LLC — Chapter 11 in the Eastern District of North Carolina, two trucks, one driver.
• Porter's Hauling LLC, High Point, North Carolina — Chapter 7, one truck, one driver.
• Queen's Hauling LLC, also High Point — chapter not specified, 8–9 trucks, five drivers.
• Wooten 4 Trucking LLC, Illinois — Chapter 7, two trucks.
• Jotham Trucking LLC, Michigan — Chapter 11, one truck, one driver.
• Tros Logging, Alabama — Chapter 11, three trucks, three drivers.
• Gerek Trucking, West Virginia — three trucks, chapter not specified.
• Midwest Expedited Co. — Chapter 11, the $2.31 million case above.

Fleet counts come from FMCSA data and bankruptcy schedules compiled across different reporting periods, so they aren't necessarily current operating figures.

What does this signal, and what doesn't it?

The pattern is consistent with prolonged financial stress among smaller carriers: revenue erosion first, then a debt wall, then a court date. Eskil owing $855,000 to another trucking company shows the distress also travels carrier-to-carrier, not just carrier-to-bank.

But the filings alone don't establish an industrywide rise in bankruptcies. They're a sample, not a census.

Still, 16 filings in roughly five weeks, spanning liquidations and restructurings from Texas to Oregon, keep the pressure on small-fleet economics — and suggest more schedules like Midwest Expedited's, with liabilities twenty times assets, will reach federal courts as long as revenue keeps sliding.