Over the weekend, two Minnesota carriers owned by True North Equity Partners halted operations overnight, putting about 200 drivers out of work.
MinStar Transport and Transport Design Inc., which each operate fleets of about 100 trucks, announced an immediate shutdown of communications with employees and partners, according to multiple reports circulating in the trucking community on social media. The sudden outage is the latest in a series of carrier failures during the Great Freight Recession, which has entered its fourth year since it began in March 2022.
“2 companies in Minnesota closed overnight. Another 200 truckers lost their jobs,” read a widely shared post on the TalkCDL Facebook group that drew considerable attention from drivers and industry insiders. Similar alarms have emerged on other trucking forums, highlighting the sudden loss of jobs in an already challenging market.
Both companies are part of True North Equity Partners’ transportation portfolio. True North, a Minneapolis-based private equity firm focused on lower-middle-market investments, acquired Transport Design in March 2020. The Burnsville, Minn.-based company specializes in refrigerated and dry trucking services, serving food and consumer goods shippers throughout the Midwest. True North expanded its holdings in October 2022 by acquiring Eagan-based MinStar Transport and its affiliated entities MinStar Logistics, Transport21 and North Star Transport. MinStar specializes in temperature-controlled logistics and has a network that supports regional and national distribution.
At the time of the MinStar acquisition – eight months into the freight downturn – Minneapolis/St. paul business magazine True North Equity Partners’ trucking portfolio is expected to generate $220 million in annual revenue, the report said.
True North Transport Holding Company, a key entity in the group’s structure, was named in a lawsuit filed by American National Bank in Scott County District Court in September 2025. The lawsuit, which names Norsemen Holdings, Norsemen Trucking and principals Brian Slipka and Eric Valder as defendants, alleges breaches of loan agreements and seeks repayment of outstanding debts. Such financial pressures often precede operational curtailments in the industry, although details remain limited due to the early stages of the cases.
This is not an isolated incident. In 2025, the trucking industry saw a wave of closures and bankruptcies. FreightWaves has reported on several high-profile closures in recent months, including:
