Trucking labor

Last month’s actual trucking employment gain was lower than expected as the US economy added more jobs in service industries such as hospitality and healthcare. 

US trucking companies hired more workers than expected last month as stronger manufacturing and service sectors are beginning to generate more freight.

US trucking employment shrank last year, and seasonal trends point to more cuts in 2024 amid weak freight demand.

Larger trucking employers may be reluctant to lay off workers ahead of what they hope will be an uptick in freight demand this coming spring or summer. 

Motor carriers may be concerned that in what is still a tight job market, any employees who are let go temporarily would not be available when demand rises again.

Rising labor costs — both behind the wheel and at the warehouse, elevated diesel prices and cross-dock scarcity in major cities are making it more costly to run transportation networks, attendees at the Journal of Commerce’s Inland Distribution Conference were told.

Yellow lost money in its last six months as shippers moved freight elsewhere and non-operating expenses, including debt payments and interest, consumed shrinking operating profits.

The US economy is improving, but the gains in recent months haven’t translated into additional freight, nor an additional surge in trucking employment.

The third-largest US less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier said Sunday it plans to use debtor-in-possession financing to support the sale of assets, while CEO Darren Hawkins blamed the Teamsters union for its collapse.

The loss of the third-largest US less-than-truckload carrier is hitting a broad tranche of smaller, less-sophisticated shippers hard as they struggle with volatile rate hikes, logistics providers say.

US shippers gained some security in the LTL market as Teamsters at TForce approved a new contract with the LTL carrier.

Word of layoffs among non-union staff at Yellow spread Friday, and shippers report less-than-truckload (LTL) pricing is already moving higher in anticipation of a shutdown of the third-largest US LTL carrier.

In its latest attempt to avert a potential bankruptcy, unionized trucking company Yellow is trying to raise funds through the sale of Yellow Logistics.

A tentative agreement removes the threat of a disruptive strike that would have roiled supply chains, giving UPS Teamsters several weeks to vote on the new contract.

The missed payment erases a measure of optimism that existed after creditors, including the US government, last week gave Yellow more time to resolve its restructuring dispute with the Teamsters in return for heightened financial oversight.

For-hire trucking companies have been expanding their workforce since February, but a soft freight market is cutting into weekly hours worked by drivers and dockworkers, BLS data shows.

UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are battling on the brink of a potential strike, with both sides claiming the other has walked away from the negotiating table.

The ABF-Teamsters contract is the first of three major negotiations the union is conducting this summer to make it past the finish line, with UPS and TForce Freight talks still ongoing.

In a letter Thursday, less-than-truckload provider Yellow asked President Biden to intervene personally in its dispute with the Teamsters and break an impasse it claims threatens 22,000 union jobs. 

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS say they’ve made progress on non-economic issues, but there’s still heavy lifting ahead for the largest labor pact in the US private sector.

Leaders within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have endorsed a tentative contract reached with ABF that would set a high bar for other unionized carriers in the largely non-union less-than-truckload sector.

Despite disagreement over Yellow’s restructuring plans, the Teamsters union is taking a first step toward opening contract talks by surveying 22,000 union members online.

Air conditioning, heat shields and air intake vents are coming to UPS package cars as the Teamsters and their largest employer move closer to a tentative five-year labor agreement. 

More freight density, a tighter point-to-point network and better data have enabled successive rounds of transit time cuts at Roadrunner, which company executives claim is gaining shipments.

US trucking companies added jobs for the second straight month, but the employment wave hasn’t reached package delivery firms or warehouses.

Yellow, the largest Teamsters employer in the US less-than-truckload sector, says it is willing to negotiate a new contract a year early as it tries to remove roadblocks to consolidating its network.

The Intermodal Association of North America is adding its voice to the chorus of opposition against a federal push to reclassify independent workers.

Courier, trucking, and warehousing firms lost workers last month, but the seasonal surge and purge was more muted than expected, reflecting broader labor market resilience.

Firms engaged in last-mile delivery hired fewer workers than expected in December, but still made big employment gains, while real trucking jobs in the US dropped in a typical seasonal pattern.

A new rule proposed by the US Department of Labor could signal the beginning of the end of the independent contractor model in port drayage and other trucking sectors, opponents say.

The traditional increase in bookings for December and January shipments out of Asia is nowhere to be seen as importers in destination markets struggle with surplus stock levels and weakening demand.

Hiring expectations fell short across many transportation sectors in November, with real trucking employment dropping while warehousing firms and couriers added workers.

Stubbornly strong industrial output and pent-up demand are expected to keep pressure on trailer manufacturers to increase supply, even during a US economic slowdown.

For-hire trucking companies added almost 20,000 jobs last month, erasing September’s payroll cut as capacity shifts between trucking sectors.

While trucking makes hiring gains in the US, unadjusted warehousing and storage employment has fallen in four of the past five months, contributing to supply chain bottlenecks.

The addition of 22,500 trucking employees in May after a 14,900-gain in real jobs in April reveals a trucking sector confident in continuing freight demand as markets realign in 2022.

For-hire trucking employment soared past seasonal expectations in April, underscoring strong demand despite declining spot market pricing.

Facing one of the most challenging labor markets in recent memory, US transportation and warehousing managers are finding workers -- they’re just having trouble holding onto them, says a sector analyst.

Seasonality was behind the large increases in courier and delivery employment and a drop in trucking employment last month; beneath the surface, there’s tooth-and-nail competition for labor.

The fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 likely won’t affect trucking as much as warehousing and aviation, but its indirect impact will put more pressure on already high trucking costs.