Trucking News · Multi-state · November 14, 2026

Three Small Carriers in California, Illinois and Maryland File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

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Two or three unbranded sleeper tractors parked in a row at a small, quiet rural truck yard on an overcast afternoon — Illustration for this story. Not a photo of a specific location.

Three more small trucking companies have filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and they all pointed to the same problem: trouble repaying equipment lenders.

What Chapter 7 means

Chapter 7 is not the kind of bankruptcy where a company reorganizes and keeps running. It is the kind where what is left is sold off. Trucking Dive reports the three filings.

The three companies

One was a 20-truck carrier in Manteca, California, with nearly $3.4 million in liabilities. That carrier also owed the Small Business Administration more than $158,000.

One was a 12-truck company in White Plains, Maryland, with more than $541,000 in liabilities.

One was a family business in Waverly, Illinois, with four trucks and more than $1 million in liabilities.

The cleared report does not name the companies, so they are not named here.

Why it matters to truckers

Truck payments do not stop when freight slows down. For a small fleet, a few bad months can end the business. This is part of a harder year for small carriers, including a recent count of trucking bankruptcies that rose in September.

Quick facts

All three filings are Chapter 7, a wind-down, not a reorganization.
Manteca, California: 20 trucks, nearly $3.4 million in liabilities, and more than $158,000 owed to the Small Business Administration.
White Plains, Maryland: 12 trucks, more than $541,000 in liabilities.
Waverly, Illinois: a four-truck family business, more than $1 million in liabilities.
All three cited trouble repaying equipment lenders.