Uber Freight cutting about 150 jobs, all in brokerage operations

Uber Freight is laying off 3% of its workforce, and all of the job losses are coming in its digital brokerage activities.

In a memo to staff, obtained by FreightWaves and confirmed by a spokesman for Uber Freight, CEO Lior Ron said the cutbacks would impact about 150 employees. The Digital Brokerage division is separate from the Transplace operations that Uber Freight acquired in 2021. 

“As you know, the logistics market is currently facing a number of headwinds which has impacted our customer base as well as the overall industry,” Ron said in the note. “We accelerated hiring last year within certain areas of our Brokerage business, planning for a different economic reality, but the volumes did not materialize as expected.”

Ron said Uber Freight (NYSE: UBER) remains “well-positioned to be the global leader in logistics technology and solutions.” But the company needs to “match our organization and cost structure to the realities of today’s market dynamics.”

The employees who are being let go will receive severance, extended health care, their 2022 bonus payout and outplacement services.

With the layoffs not hitting the legacy Transplace business, which is known as Transportation Management, Ron said that group is experiencing “record momentum.” With “the end-to-end logistics platform we’re building across all modes and participants, we are uniquely positioned to help customers navigate a rapidly evolving logistics landscape.”

The driving force behind Uber Freight’s $2.25 billion acquisition of Transplace was to have that end-to-end transportation solution, with Transplace’s deep penetration providing transportation management services to shippers combined with the capacity provided by the Uber Freight digital brokerage.

Ron closed his note by saying that the departing employees “have helped move the world of logistics forward.”

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