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Pilot Flying J Settles Case Filed by Western Express

After settling an $85 million class action lawsuit in November over allegations it bilked trucking customers out money in the form of rebates from fuel purchases, truckstop chain Pilot Flying J has settled separate litigation brought by one trucking company.

Evan Lockridge
Evan LockridgeFormer Business Contributing Editor
January 9, 2014
Pilot Flying J Settles Case Filed by Western Express

Photo: Evan Lockridge

2 min to read


 After settling an $85 million class action lawsuit in November over allegations it bilked trucking customers out money in the form of rebates from fuel purchases, truckstop chain Pilot Flying J has settled separate litigation brought by one trucking company.

Photo: Evan Lockridge

Western Express has withdrawn its lawsuit it filed in Louisiana, according to published reports, after originally claiming Pilot Flying J cost it tens of millions of dollars, much of it in the form of additional debt it was forced to take on for alleged lack of rebates.

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Terms of the deal have not been released but the Western Express President Paul Weick told the Knoxville News Sentinel, “We never stopped our relationship with Pilot, and they’re a great partner. They had some issues within their organization that they got worked out and it’s our plan for that partnership to last a long, long time.”

Pilot Flying J and CEO Jimmy Haslem have denied any wrongdoing since a raid in April of last year by federal agents on company headquarters, as part of a criminal investigation. Since then at least seven people have pleaded guilty for their roles but have yet to be sentenced.

Meantime, a new lawsuit has been filed against Pilot Flying J in federal court in South Carolina by the trucking company Quality Logistics, claiming it is a victim of rebate fraud. It was originally filed in South Carolina state court.

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Pilot Flying J customers who felt they were cheated by the company had the choice of opting out of the class action settlement.

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