Homeowners and renters planning to move into new residences often need to hire a moving company or rent a decent-size truck to load up all their possessions to transport to their new home.
Demand isn’t always strong enough to keep moving or truck rental companies from filing for bankruptcy. Paragon Relocation in January 2024 filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas listing about $11.6 million in debt.
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Another moving company Worldwide Moving Systems of Longmont, Colo., in September 2023 filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after a February 2023 asset sale.
Related: Troubled retailer closes more stores in Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Richmond, Va., moving company WayForth in September 2023 filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy listing $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities.
While truck rental company U-Haul has not filed for bankruptcy, its parent company Amerco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2003 and emerged in March 2004.
A box truck rental hauls items.
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Fluid Market files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Finally, huge truck rental company Fluid Truck’s parent Fluid Market filed for Chapter 11 protection facing a class action lawsuit and liquidity problems dating back to spring 2024, as the company underperformed its budget due to weaker demand and inability to control expenses adequately to offset a shortfall.
Fluid Market filed its petition on Oct. 16 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware seeking to sell substantially all of its assets to enable the company to continue as a going concern and provide the highest return for its creditors and stakeholders. The debtor is working on terms for an asset purchase agreement with Kingbee Rentals LLC and hopes to file it along with bidding procedures soon.
The debtor has also arranged $7 million debtor-in-possession financing from its prepetition bridge loan lenders, including Bison Capital Partners, Ingka Investments, Carbon Fleet, and Kingbee Rentals, conditioned upon Fluid entering an asset purchase agreement with Kingbee.
Related: Another discount retailer shuts down, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Fluid also faces a class-action lawsuit filed by Urban Interests LLC on Oct. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, asserting improprieties with respect to proceeds from vehicle sales and insurance claims. All litigation is subject to an automatic stay while the debtor proceeds in its Chapter 11 case. Â
The debtor reported annual losses of $18.7 million in 2022 and $20.6 million in 2023, and its financial distress continued to worsen in 2024 as the company lost a $15 million financing commitment it obtained to help alleviate liquidity shortages, according to a declaration by interim CEO T. Scott Avila.
The Denver-based debtor listed $50 million to $100 million in assets and liabilities, including $7.8 million in unsecured trade debt owed to Fort Collins Ford, over $974,000 owed to Always Funday, and over $888,000 owed to Broken Mirror.
Fluid Truck operates a technology-based, peer-to-peer truck-sharing platform in 400 cities in 32 states across the U.S. for rental trucks, cargo vans, and box trucks owned by their non-debtor affiliates or third-party owners who put their vehicles on Fluid’s platform.
Vehicles are available to rent 24/7, 365 days a year through Fluid Truck’s mobile app or website. Trucks can be rented for as little as a few hours to as long as several months.
Fluid Market was founded in 2016 by James Eberhard and Jenifer Snyder as an online marketplace where people could rent almost anything from others such as tools, lawnmowers, bounce houses, and trucks. The truck rental business began to grow and the company shifted its focus to renting trucks and launched debtor Fluid Fleet Services LLC in 2019.
In addition to Denver, Fluid has offices in Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City; Seattle, and Buenos Aires and employs 127 workers. It also leases parking lots in 60 cities across the U.S., where vehicles are stored and rented to customers. The company operates and manages a fleet of 5,500 vehicles, mostly comprised of cargo vans and small trucks, with about 2,000 vehicles owned by the debtor’s non-debtor affiliates and 3,500 owned by independent third parties.
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