Seventeen days after Arrow Trucking Co. suspended operations, stranding drivers, trucks and freight around the country, dozens of drivers — possibly more than a hundred — are missing or unaccounted for, industry officials say.
The family of one Arrow driver, John Eischens, 34, of Mabank, Texas, has filed a missing person’s report with the Anna (Texas) Police Department, police department officers said.
Eischens was last seen Christmas day in Butte, Mont., where he cleaned out his truck, which was out of fuel, and turned over the keys to the manager of the Pilot Truck Stop, officials said.
Eischens had no money because his previous Arrow paychecks bounced, his family said.
Steve Williams, a detective with the Anna Police Department, 30 miles north of Dallas, said the missing person’s report on Eischens was filed Wednesday by Christopher Eischens, the driver’s brother, who lives in Anna.
Neither Christopher Eischens nor his mother, Connie Salik, could be reached for comment.
“He (John Eischens) was seen in Anna the first week in December,” Williams said. “John Eischens’ wife, who lives in Mabank, Texas (30 miles southeast of Dallas), said they’ve had phone conversations in the same time frame — the first week in December and at Christmas.”
Neither his wife, brother or mother has been in contact with Eischens since Christmas, Williams said.
Eischens is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds. He is clean-shaven and has no tattoos or scars, Williams said.
Persons with information on Eischens may contact Williams at the Anna
After the missing person’s report was filed, the Montana Department of Justice became involved in the case, said Jennifer Viets, coordinator of the Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse.
“I will put out a statewide broadcast to every Montana law enforcement agency that we are looking for him (Eischens) on a check of his welfare,” Viets said. “I will attach his photo.”
People with information about Eischens can contact the Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse at (406) 444-2483.
Arrow’s lender, Transportation Alliance Bank of Ogden, Utah, canceled the company’s fuel credit cards on Dec. 21 after the company’s unpaid bills and debts mounted, drivers, employees and industry officials said.
With no fuel, drivers were forced to abandon their trucks and loads at truck stops and rest areas from Baltimore to Bakersfield, Calif., and from Butte, Mont., to south Texas, drivers and industry officials said.
More than two dozen drivers said their last paychecks from the company bounced, depriving many of the means to get home.
Sandi Soendker, managing editor for 22 years of Land Line Magazine, a publication of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association of Grain Valley, Mo., said the Arrow collapse is the “messiest” she’s witnessed.
“I have seen a lot of companies go under,” Soendker said. “For a big company, you would expect an orderly shutdown. This is the sloppiest I have ever seen.”
Soon after company executives closed its west Tulsa offices and told dozens of employees to go home on Dec. 22, drivers around the country found they were on their own, drivers and officials said.
But with the help of OOIDA, trucker message and bulletin boards, 7,500 people across the country became involved with the effort to bring stranded drivers home, said Lisa Philpot, a volunteer with “Support for Stranded Arrow Trucking Drivers” who lives in Baltimore.
“There were a couple of drivers up here (near Baltimore),” Philpot said by telephone late Thursday. “There are 300 to 460 drivers who are not home or (whose whereabouts) we can’t verify.”
John Eischens is one of them.
story curtesy of: D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer, at Tulsa World News