Arrow Trucking Co. of Tulsa, Oklahoma, unexpectedly went out of business last Tuesday, leaving more than 1,300 truckers stranded on highways all over the country. Dispatchers for Arrow ordered their truckers to immediately drop their rigs off at the nearest Freightliner dealership, where they could pick up a bus ticket to get home.
But truckers on international routes found that Arrow had deactivated their fuel cards the previous night, stranding some without enough fuel to get to the nearest dealership.
Calls from desperate truckers started pouring into the offices of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), headquartered in Grain Valley, Missouri. The sad luck stories also flooded the press room of OOIDA's trade publication, Land Line Magazine.
Land Line's news clerk, Kerry Evans-Spillman, tells The Pitch, "We just looked at each other like, 'Huh? We gotta do something.'" She says she and the staff took to the 'Net, creating a Facebook fan page
for stranded truckers that explained their plight, and created a central
point of contact. The page encouraged Facebook users to post their
contact information if they thought they could provide resources to a
stranded driver near them, and stranded truckers posted information regarding their whereabouts. Land Line's senior editor, Jami
Jones, went on trucking radio shows Tuesday night and the following Wednesday to draw traffic to the Facebook page.
"The truckers took it from there," Evans-Spillman says. When she spoke with The Pitch last Wednesday,
the day-old Facebook site had already attracted 1,645 fans and more than a
thousand messages from people offering to help drivers get home. As of this morning, the page's fan base has ballooned to 5,770.
"We're not usually surprised by generosity, but when people started
rallying, this time it really grabbed us," Evans-Spillman says. "We've
gotten four or five truckers back to their families already."
Land Line is posting updates on its blog.
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To all drivers of Arrow, I am sorry to hear of your job-loss. The news was a suprise to me. Just like when Jevic went out of business. I was not an Arrow employee, but I drove for Werner Enterprises. I have had the good fortune of running with one of your drivers cb handle was tin-man in the minnesota blizzard of 2007. Hope he made it home safe to his family too, just like all y'all. I am not a trucker anymore, my choice. Wanted to settle down in one place with my new wife instead of being on the road months on at a time. But somedays I do miss trucking and all the good folks I have met through trucking.-Timetraveler.
Alarming and sad story. I have a difficult time imagining what type of jackasses would consider doing this to anyone, much less people in their employ.
I was one of the few lucky drivers that made it home...Even though I was one of the unlucky drivers that lost their job with Arrow Trucking. I just wanted tto thank OOIDA and everyone else that stepped up and helped the drivers that wasn't as lucky as I was. One thing us Arrow drivers done was helping each other out. And we never asked for anything in return. We would always say "pay it forward". With the company closing it's doors and leaving many people without jobs. The help was "paid forward" right back to the ddrivers that needed it. Thank you all for your help!!!
Worm
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