Fil-Mor Express has apparently announced its closing via an email to employees, but has not provided further information.
Richard Olson, president and CEO of the Minnesota-based dry van carrier, issued a Dec. 16 email saying the business and benefits would end the next day. Employees’ current pay was deposited and a “check sent for the next two weeks and any vacation pay,” according to a Dec. 29 in the Rochester, Minn. The Post-Bulletin.
No one responded to calls made to Fil-Mor Dec. 20, nor was an automated message available. The company’s website did not provide closing information or email contacts.
David Oren, Dart Transit president, invited Fil-Mor drivers to apply at Eagan, Minn.-based Dart on his company’s website. The rival carrier would match Fil-Mor’s mileage rate and drivers would drive for Fil-Mor’s customers, but at Dart, his statement said.
Fil-Mor has 157 trucks and 210 drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The company has not filed notice that it was dissolving the company, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Some states, including Minnesota, have enacted their own WARN Act laws, which tend to be stricter than federal rules.
Trucker forums have noted Fil-Mor’s announcement occurred nearly on the one-year anniversary of Arrow Trucking’s abrupt closing. Truck makers, carriers and individuals helped Arrow truckers stranded on the road, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an emergency order for the carrier to get its trucks and cargo to safe locations or face penalties.
