Note 14 - Commitments and Contingent Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

14. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

From time-to-time, we are a party to ordinary, routine litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, most of which involves claims for personal injury and/or property damage incurred in connection with the transportation of freight.

On February 11, 2021, a lawsuit was filed against Covenant Transport on behalf of Wesley Maas (a California resident and former driver) who is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, California. The Complaint alleges claims for failure to pay all lawful wages, failure to provide lawful meal and rest periods or compensation in lieu thereof, failure to timely pay wages, failure to comply with itemized wage statement provisions, failure to indemnify for expenditures, and violations of California Labor Code and unfair competition laws. Based on our present knowledge of the facts and, in certain cases, advice of outside counsel, management believes that the recent resolution and dismissal of a prior class action lawsuit alleging similar claims, taking into account existing reserves, is not likely to have a materially adverse effect on our condensed consolidated financial statements, however, any future liability claims could impact this analysis. Covenant Transport intends to vigorously defend itself in this matter. We do not currently have enough information to make a reasonable estimate as to the likelihood, or amount of a loss, or a range of reasonably possible losses as a result of this claim, as such there have been no related accruals recorded as of December 31, 2022.

We maintain insurance to cover liabilities arising from the transportation of freight for amounts in excess of certain self-insured retentions. Refer to Note 1, "Significant Accounting Policies" of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for information about our insurance program. 

We had $23.9 million and $26.4 million of outstanding and undrawn letters of credit as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The letters of credit are maintained primarily to support our insurance programs. Additionally, we had $45.0 million of availability on a line of credit from Triumph solely to fund any indemnification owed to Triumph in relation to the sale of TFS.

We had commitments outstanding at December 31, 2022, to acquire revenue equipment totaling approximately $156.6 million versus commitments at December 31, 2021 of approximately $73.8 million. These commitments are cancelable upon stated notice periods, subject to certain adjustments in the underlying obligations and benefits. These purchase commitments are expected to be financed by operating leases, finance leases, long-term debt, proceeds from sales of existing equipment, and/or cash flows from operations.