Paul Svindland, the former CEO of Celadon, described the emotional strain of the company’s bankruptcy and the sequence of events that left drivers stranded after FreightWaves published the news before the company was ready to announce it. He said the business was operationally healthy, but a combination of financial and legal liabilities ultimately forced its collapse. The episode also underscored how quickly a public filing can ripple through trucking operations, where access to fuel cards and the ability to keep drivers moving are tied to a company’s day-to-day cash flow. Svindland also discussed the difficulties of executing a large trucking turnaround and detailed his current role with Mallory Alexander.

When FreightWaves published its Celadon bankruptcy scoop on a Friday night in December 2019, Svindland had planned to wait until Sunday — after flying into Indianapolis to brief his management team — before notifying fuel-card providers and drivers of the Chapter 11 filing the following Monday. The early publication triggered an immediate shutdown of fuel cards, stranding drivers on the road during the winter holiday season and creating what Svindland described as roughly 36 hours of chaos.

“I’m not going to lie to you. I mean, it was the first and probably only time in my professional career that I literally actually cried because I felt I let everybody down.” — Paul Svindland, former Celadon CEO

Svindland, who is now CEO of Mallory Alexander and has also led Pacer and STG Logistics, said Celadon’s filing was structured as a liquidating Chapter 11 rather than a straight Chapter 7. That approach preserved the company’s legal entity while it was wound down because the value of its assets exceeded its outstanding loan balances. He said the company was burning about $1 million per month to cover legal defense costs for former officers after exhausting directors-and-officers insurance, a cash drain that made lenders unwilling to keep extending credit even after operations had stabilized.

He also pointed to maintenance costs of $0.32 per mile, more than three times the industry benchmark of under $0.10, as evidence of the scale of the fleet-renewal problem. Svindland said Celadon might not have survived the downturn in early 2020 caused by COVID-19 in any case, when freight volumes fell for roughly four to five months before recovering in July. To service its debt load, Celadon had already sold its A&S division and Celadon Logistics unit and was aiming to return to operating ratios in the low 90s. He said SEC and DOJ investigations created an unknown liability overhang that ultimately froze lender support.

Svindland is now focused on a different strategy at Mallory Alexander, a Memphis-based freight forwarder with more than 100 years of operating history. He, former BDP International CEO Rich Bolt, and BDP veteran Carmen Jaraiz acquired the company through their holding company, Copilot Global Logistics Holdings, with backing from Endeavor Capital Management of Los Angeles. The team is targeting middle-market shippers — companies that move several thousand TEUs of ocean freight annually and also need air freight, customs brokerage, and port warehousing services — rather than competing directly with DSV, Kuehne+Nagel, and DHL for Fortune 500 business.

Svindland said the team has reviewed about 40 acquisition candidates but has not yet signed any under a letter of intent.

On the current freight market, Svindland said Mallory Alexander is heavily exposed to transpacific eastbound lanes, where container spot rates have surged. FreightWaves SONAR data shows rates are up roughly 300%, a move he said has been influenced in part by the Iran conflict rerouting vessel traffic. He said January and February were difficult, but performance has met expectations since March. At the same time, he warned that a large wave of 15,000-to-20,000-TEU newbuild vessels entering service will add significant capacity to Asia-U.S. and Asia-Europe trades, making current rate levels unsustainable over the medium term.

Mallory Alexander is also using the AI platform Pallet to automate freight-forwarding documentation, including letters of credit and arrival notices, along with other repetitive tasks. Svindland said the goal is to free employees for customer-facing work rather than reduce headcount.

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