Bond Transfer Co. to liquidate after 75 years in Baltimore

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 13, 2009 by Ben Mook

Bond Transfer Co. had weathered 75 years of ups and downs in the commercial trucking industry, but the recent economic crunch proved too much to handle for the family-owned Baltimore business.

Bond Transfer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- liquidation -- on Friday, listing $220,358 in assets and $3.35 million in debt. The largest unsecured creditor listed on Bond's filing is Lutherville- based Bay National Bank, which is owed $815,788.

Bond Transfer Co. traces its start to 1934 when William E. Constantine Sr. founded Liberty Transfer Co. Inc. with a single truck. Constantine's son later purchased Bond Transfer Co. Inc., and the companies operated together until 1980, when Liberty ceased operations.

According to Bond's Web site, the company has close to 90 trucks and more than 275 trailers. The company said it employed nearly 100 drivers. In the bankruptcy filing, 76 people are listed as debtors being owed a total of $187,895.

"We're obviously very sorry to lose such a longtime, homegrown Maryland company like Bond," Maryland Motor Truck Association President and CEO Anne S. Ferro said. "But it's a sign of how difficult things are in the industry."

Bond Transfer CEO Douglas Constantine could not be reached for comment on Friday. The company itself appears to have been closed down.

The phones at Bond are disconnected and the company's headquarters and trucking hub that sit on 13 acres of land at 5501 Belle Grove Road in Baltimore are on the market. A listing on commercial real estate Web site LoopNet.com has the property listed at $2.5 million.

The Maryland Motor Truck Association was founded just a year after the Bond Transfer Co.'s predecessor was formed. Ferro said 2008 was a horrendous year for trucking companies as freight volumes dropped drastically and many companies were shuttered outright, filed for bankruptcy or just parked trucks. She said some larger companies have done what they can to weather the declines, but not all have been able to.

"We're seeing companies getting to the point now where they just can't hang on anymore, and maybe that was the case with Bond," she said.

Clayton Boyce, with the Arlington, Va.-based American Trucking Association, agreed that the trucking industry had been hit hard with freight volume declines and thinner profit margins as companies compete for dwindling business opportunities.

Boyle said at the end of 2008, freight volume was down 20 percent

from what it had been in January 2005.

"In 2008, it just dropped like a rock," he said.

The industry is cautiously optimistic 2009 may see a turnaround. In February there was the second, month-to-month increase in freight volume -- although the increase was not enough to overcome the single-month decline witnessed in December 2008.

As profits dry up, Boyle said a number of companies nationwide were filing for bankruptcy or just closing. According to the American Trucking Association, the industry saw 113,065 companies either close or file for bankruptcy in 2008.