If you’ve heard that Stevens Transport is shutting down, you’re reacting to a real event but one that’s been widely misunderstood. A major division did close, and hundreds of workers were affected. That doesn’t mean the entire company went under.
This article explains exactly what closed in 2019, why it happened, what became of the employees involved, and whether Stevens Transport is still running today.
Stevens Transport Is Still in Business
Let’s answer the main question first: Stevens Transport is not going out of business.
The company is a privately held trucking and logistics operation headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its official website is active, its careers page lists open roles, and it continues to market freight services across North America.
In 2025, Stevens marked 45 years in business. The company started in 1980 with 18 trucks and one terminal. That milestone confirmed through a company social media post is not the behavior of a business on its way out.
No credible public source shows that Stevens Transport has filed for bankruptcy, lost its operating authority, or stopped running its core operations. The “going out of business” story is based on a specific division closure from 2019, not a company-wide collapse.
What Actually Closed — The Tanker Division, Not the Whole Company
In October 2019, Stevens Transport shut down its oilfield tanker subsidiary, known as Stevens Tanker Division. This was a separate business unit focused on hauling fracking sand and production water for the oil and gas industry.
The closure affected 12 locations across Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Operations ended on October 15, 2019. On September 26, 2019, Stevens filed a WARN notice with the Texas Workforce Commission, listing approximately 586 employees as laid off. The largest number of affected workers were based in Stockdale, Texas.
According to reports from both CCJ Digital and The Truckers Report, the rest of Stevens Transport including its refrigerated and OTR divisions was not affected by the tanker closure. The company kept running its main business while exiting the oilfield tanker segment entirely.
This distinction matters. Closing a division is not the same as closing the company. The confusion happened because the division carried the Stevens Transport name, and when hundreds of workers were laid off at once, word spread fast that “Stevens is shutting down.”
Why the Tanker Division Closed
The tanker business was tied directly to oilfield activity specifically hauling fracking sand and production water for drilling operations. When drilling slows, demand for that kind of hauling drops fast.
Two main factors drove the closure:
- A 65% reduction in sand orders. Demand for fracking sand dropped sharply, which cut into the core work the tanker division depended on.
- A shift to piping for production water. Customers who previously used tanker trucks to move production water switched to pipeline infrastructure instead. That eliminated a significant portion of the division’s volume.
This is a known risk in oilfield logistics. The work is cyclical and closely tied to oil prices and drilling activity. When commodity markets shift, the hauling that supports them shifts too.
Large carriers sometimes add niche divisions during boom periods and exit them when conditions change. That’s a business decision, not a sign of financial collapse. The refrigerated and temperature-controlled freight that makes up Stevens’ core business is far more stable than oilfield hauling.
What Happened to Employees After the Closure
Around 550 to 586 employees were listed on the WARN notice, with the majority based in Stockdale, Texas. On paper, those were layoffs. In practice, the situation was more nuanced.
According to The Truckers Report, virtually all tanker drivers were offered positions in Stevens’ refrigerated division. Most office staff from the tanker unit were also moved into the refrigerated operations center.
It’s worth understanding what a WARN notice actually means. When a division closes, the company is legally required to file WARN paperwork for any position that is eliminated even if the employee is offered another role at the same company. So the 586 number reflects job eliminations under the law, not necessarily 586 people permanently out of work.
That said, not everyone stayed. Some workers likely couldn’t take the transfers due to route changes, location differences, or personal reasons. So while many were offered a path forward inside Stevens, some did end up leaving the company for good.
Stevens Transport’s Core Business Today
Stevens Transport describes itself as a multimodal logistics provider focused on temperature-controlled, time-sensitive, and dry-expedited freight. It also offers dedicated and logistics solutions for shippers across North America, including cross-border services.
The company has grown significantly since its founding with 18 trucks. At the time of the 2019 tanker closure, Stevens ranked No. 38 on CCJ’s Top 250 list of largest fleets in North America a position that reflects real operational scale.
Its careers page currently lists openings for drivers, diesel technicians, logistics coordinators, and support staff. The contractor division page also shows active recruiting for owner-operators. These are not the signs of a company in financial distress.
Why These Rumors Keep Spreading
Trucking communities Facebook groups, forums, and word of mouth move fast. When a company lays off 500+ workers at once, the story travels quickly, and it rarely travels with the full context attached.
Here’s how it typically plays out: a tanker driver loses their job when the division closes. They tell friends, “Stevens is shutting down,” meaning their division. Those friends post online. Someone searching for Stevens Transport years later finds those posts and assumes the whole company is gone.
The 2019 tanker closure was real and significant for the people involved. But it says nothing about the health of Stevens’ refrigerated business, which kept operating and hiring throughout.
How to Check a Trucking Company’s Current Status
If you’re considering working for Stevens or any carrier and you’ve heard rumors, here’s how to check for yourself:
- Check the official website. An active site with updated service pages and open job listings is a strong sign the company is operational.
- Look at recent social media activity. Stevens posted a 45-year anniversary video in 2025. That’s not something a closing company does.
- Search recent news, not old forum posts. The tanker closure articles are from 2019. Look for anything more recent before drawing conclusions.
- Check the FMCSA database. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration tracks operating authority for carriers. A company without active authority cannot legally haul freight.
Don’t rely on a single forum post or a headline from five years ago to decide whether a company is still viable. Dig a little deeper and the picture usually gets clearer.
For more practical breakdowns of business news and company decisions, Tower of Business covers topics like these in plain language.
Final Takeaway
Stevens Transport is not going out of business. What happened was specific: the company closed its oilfield tanker division in October 2019 due to a sharp drop in demand for fracking sand hauling and production water transport. That affected roughly 586 employees, many of whom were offered transfers to Stevens’ refrigerated division.
The rest of Stevens Transport its core refrigerated, OTR, and logistics business kept operating. The company has been in business for 45 years, continues to hire across multiple roles, and shows no signs of shutting down its main operations.
A division closing is a business decision. It’s not the same as bankruptcy, and it’s not the same as a company disappearing. Understanding that difference helps you make better decisions about who to work for, ship with, or trust in the industry.
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