US LTL giant closes shop

DELANCO, N.J. — The message fronting Jevic Transportation‘s website from President David Gorman pretty much sums it up:

"I regret to inform you that Jevic Transportation Inc. will be discontinuing operations. The current high fuel costs, economic downturn, increasing insurance costs, and tightening credit markets have made this decision necessary. Jevic will stop providing pickup service effective Monday May 19, 2008."

The 27-year-old company, ranked one of the largest LTL carriers in North America and in the top 100 total for-hire fleets, said it will continue to deliver all freight within its system prior to closing.

Jevic was bought by Yellow Corp. in 1999 for $200 million. At the time the company was attractive for its innovative approach to LTL trucking.

The company was launched after U.S. deregulation in 1981 by owner-operator Harry Muhlschlegel, who is said to have reinvented the LTL model by combining elements of the truckload and less-than-truckload models in a regional company.