Truckload carrier U.S. Xpress announces 2nd round of corporate layoffs

Chattanooga, Tennessee-based U.S. Xpress announced it is cutting another 5% of its corporate workforce in the trucking company’s second round of layoffs in three months. 

Since May, the trucking giant has cut about 10% of its corporate workforce, around 140 office jobs. No drivers were impacted in either round of layoffs.

Brad Carmony, vice president of brand communications for U.S. Xpress, said the decision to lay off about 66 of its 1,330 office employees was the result of the company’s “multiphased restructuring to improve our financial results.”

“Through this process, U.S. Xpress is evolving into a leaner, more disciplined company,” Carmony said in a statement to FreightWaves. “As we continue these efforts, we’re evaluating a wide range of systems, programs, projects and teams across the enterprise.” 

In May, the truckload carrier laid off 5% of its corporate workforce, amounting to around 70 of its 1,400 office employees at the time.

The move comes less than a week after the company parted ways with Jake Lawson, its chief commercial officer, after 17 months on the job and three weeks after U.S. Xpress released its latest earnings report that showed that the initiatives put in place to drive up revenue at the company’s subsidiary, Variant, were not achieving that goal.

Variant, the company’s technology-driven truckload carrier venture, reported a 150% turnover rate in the second quarter of 2022, up from 74% in Q2 of 2021.

Since December, U.S. Xpress (NYSE: USX) has terminated two other key executives: Cameron Ramsdell, who headed Variant, and Joel Gard, the company’s chief technology officer.

Carmony said U.S. Xpress didn’t file a WARN Act notice of a mass layoff since fewer than 100 employees were let go. Federal law required companies that are laying off more than 100 workers to provide employees with 60 days’ notice of a possible plant closure or mass layoff. 

The company’s restructuring efforts include “analyses of company-wide investments on everything from our headcount, real estate, vendors and benefits,” Carmony said. 

“Through the end [of] August, we’ll be making additional changes throughout the company to help improve our financial results,” he said.

FreightWaves’ John Kingston, who listened to the call about the truckload carrier’s Q2 earnings in early August, reported that U.S. Xpress CEO Eric Fuller said Variant’s fleet needs to grow in order to “have its fixed cost structure spread out among more trucks and its utilization also needs to improve.”

“Continuing to increase our overall tractor count … will help lower our fixed costs as a percentage of revenue and realize better tractor economics over a larger fleet,” Fuller said.

This is a developing story.

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Disclosure: FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller retains ownership of U.S. Xpress shares through his family trust.

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Source: freightwaves - Truckload carrier U.S. Xpress announces 2nd round of corporate layoffs
Editor: Clarissa Hawes