Sudden layoffs for trucking company employees

HOUSTON Arrow Trucking is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but has terminals across the country including here in Houston. It is a 60-year-old family run company.

The maintenance manager was the last one out Tuesday night. He didn't want to talk to us after what was a very depressing day.

Former Houston Arrow Trucking employee James Cooey did talk to us -- through the tears.

"I usually don't cry," said Cooey. "I ain't cried in years."

Cooey is still trying to grasp what happened. On Monday the fleet manager had a job, now he doesn't, but he still has a wife and two children to support.

"You go tell that beautiful little girl you can't give her everything she wants no more," he said.

Employees told us they were told Arrow Trucking was suspending operations. There would be no benefit packages, and trucks and trailers would be repossessed. Hundreds of drivers all across North America were told to leave their trucks where they were. The timing is the worst part.

"Three days before Christmas and you get the door slammed in your face. Nothing I can do than try to find another job," said truck driver Leroy Sam.

Employees say the company have offered no explanation.

James Cooey says he has lost his holiday spirit.

"What holiday?" he said. "We lost our jobs three days before Christmas."

Employees say about 100 workers lost their jobs in Houston.

The sudden shutdown of Arrow Trucking has left hundreds of others without jobs. Workers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are cleaning out their vehicles. They say in the past, their payroll checks have bounced. Other drivers are stuck in Arizona because their fuel cards from the company don't work. That means they can't pay for the gas to drive their semis. Family members of drivers say those drivers are trying to sell anything they can just to return home.

Arrow Trucking's website says it has been in business since 1948 and that it runs a fleet of 1,400 tractors and over 3,000 trailers operating throughout the United States and in Canada and Mexico. The company is also described as one of the country's largest and most financially sound flatbed motor carriers. That information has since been removed from its website.