Standard Forwarding Freight Suspends Operations
Midwest LTL Carrier Less Than a Year Removed From Takeover
Key Takeaways:
- Less-than-truckload carrier Standard Forwarding Freight suspended daily operations in the final week of 2025 as several top executives departed, the company said.
- The move follows its purchase of assets from DHL Freight less than a year earlier, a five-state Midwest network with about 375 employees.
- Standard said it is conducting a strategic review after leadership exits, casting uncertainty over expansion plans that added lanes across more than 10 states.
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Less-than-truckload carrier Standard Forwarding Freight suspended day-to-day operations in the final week of 2025, the company said, as key executives departed.
Standard is now conducting a strategic review of operations after “careful consideration” of current circumstances, it said.
The move comes less than a year after it bought the assets of East Moline, Ill.-based Standard Forwarding from DHL Freight for an undisclosed sum.
Formed in 1934, Standard Forwarding had around 375 employees, 300 tractors and 600 trailers at the time of the takeover. The carrier served customers in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It focused on next-day and second-day freight services.
Bankrolled by Riggs
Tucker, Ga.-based Standard’s purchase was bankrolled by Sakaem Holdings, which also owns auto haulers Sakaem Logistics and Sherpa Auto Transport.
Sakaem Holdings is owned by Mike Riggs, longtime CEO of auto hauler Jack Cooper, which sought bankruptcy protection in February 2025.
The Standard leadership team was stacked with veterans from bankrupt less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp., including company President Tim McKinstry, Chief Commercial Officer Tim Haitz, Vice President of Operations & Strategy Michael Conley and Vice President-LTL Technology Jeff Wright.
McKinstry and Conley left the company in October while Haitz left in December, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
After the takeover, Haitz told Transport Topics that customers could expect an expanded footprint and services.
“It’s more valuable to customers if you can offer more states,” Haitz told TT at the time. “It will be premature to say more, but we have big plans for the future.”
In August, the carrier began offering new lanes in Arizona, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota and Utah.
In High Demand
Jack Cooper, after Riggs left the company, in late 2024 sought to buy Standard Forwarding. Executives at Jack Cooper were aiming to diversify operations by expanding beyond the auto hauling segment and viewed the LTL market as an opportunity.
Initially it attempted via its Next Century Logistics affiliate to revive Yellow out of bankruptcy through a so-called going-concern bid. That offer was rejected by Yellow’s bankruptcy administrators. A second bid to acquire 46 owned terminals and 147 leased terminals as well as Yellow rolling stock was also rejected.
Next Century was led by then-Jack Cooper Executive Chair Sarah Amico — Riggs’ daughter.
Auctions and piecemeal private sales of Yellow assets eventually netted more than $2 billion, prior to the administrators filing for court approval of liquidation plans in November.
Judge Craig Goldblatt of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware estimated Yellow’s assets at $650 million to $700 million in November.
Core Segment Woes
Without the diversification, Jack Cooper remained reliant on automakers’ business, which collapsed in January and February 2025. Ford Motor Co. ended its 40-year relationship with Jack Cooper in January 2025. Jack Cooper then lost its biggest and oldest customer, General Motors Corp., at the start of February 2025.
Jack Cooper shuttered its doors later that month.
The Kansas City, Mo.-based private company ranked No. 71 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 2 among motor vehicle carriers at the time of its demise.
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