Logistics community steps up for laid off C.H. Robinson workers

Welcome to the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Newsletter presented by XPO. In this issue, C.H. Robinsons latest layoffs; freight community offers roles for displaced CHRW workers; Truckersgiving comes to Love’s; PS5s in stock and more.

C.H. Robinson lays off nearly 1,200 employees

The significance of this must be lost on no one. The idea that this great freight forwarder has to lay off people v. the need for employees two years ago is incredible… slow down!!! https://t.co/NRZDrutOg0

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) November 10, 2022

Twitter

“We got ahead of ourselves in terms of headcount” — Sad news out of C.H. Robinson as 650 employees* are shown the door. FreightWaves reports, “Truck brokerage giant C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. is laying off between 1,000 and 1,200 employees*, most of whom are at the vice president and general manager level, according to sources familiar with the situation.” [Ed note: C.H. Robinson e-mailed FreightWaves to confirm 650 employees were let go]

What went wrong? — The big comedown from pandemic highs has been on the horizon for most of the year in trucking and since June on the water. Despite this, during C.H. Robinson’s most recent conference call, CEO Bob Biesterfeld said he did not forecast truckload demand declining as rapidly as it did, as well as spot market and contract rates deflating considerably. C.H. Robinson missed earnings last week and hinted that these firings were on the way.

More to come? — Layoffs at big logos can be influential … in the worst of ways. Now that C.H. Robinson has broken the seal with a big number, I’d expect to see many more brokerages and FreightTech firms use this as market cover to make their own corrections.

Picking each other back up — The best thing about the logistics community is that whenever a big report of mass layoffs has come out there are so many people and companies that step in to helpout. In light of the CHRW layoffs, I asked you, the freight community, to post any roles that you may have available for the displaced. The good news? There are still plenty of opportunities in this business. Here’s a link to the post with over 80 listings and sampling of those jobs below.

If you have roles available, email me and I’ll mention them tomorrow on the show.

For me personally, in 2016 I was let go right around the holidays while my wife was 8 months pregnant. It set me on the career path towards what I do now and turned out to be the greatest thing that could have happened to me. I even did a Ted Talk on it. May the wind be at your back and the journey forward glorious.

Truckersgiving

Fill ‘er up —Stuck under a load again this Thanksgiving season? Starting Thursday, Nov. 17 Cheester’s Chicken is working in collaboration with Love’s on their second annual Truckersgiving celebration. According to the companies, “Chester’s and Love’s will honor truck drivers with a free Super Snack meal for the first 100 guests at each Chester’s located at Love’s. Additionally, the first 20 road warriors who show their commercial driver’s license at each location will also receive a custom Chester’s trucker hat.”

What’s in the Super Snack Meal? While it isn’t a meal with all the fix-ins, you will get 2 pieces of fried chicken and a side of potato wedges. Can’t complain about the price, the heartburn is another story.

The supply chain is healing?

Under the tree — Still waiting to get a PS5 after two years of inventory shortfalls? You may be in luck, and just in the nick of time too as God of War: Ragnorok is finally out (have you seen those review scores?!?) What’s different now? Certainly not demand. “In September, it took an average of 17.5 hours to sell out of 100 thousand units after their arrival,” executive deputy president and CFO Hiroki Totoki said. “To meet this strong demand, we will do our utmost to bring forward supply into the year-end holiday selling season.”

Sony says it no longer has the same issues securing semiconductors and parts. All told, the company plans to sell 18 million units this year and 23 million in 2023 putting it on pace to beat the PS4 in sales.

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WTT Friday

Getting back on your feet in a bad market — On Friday’s episode of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner and The Dude are putting on a show for those of you who want to fight through a bad freight market and make it out on the other side. We’ll be talking about roles for laid off workers; strategies for carriers looking to survive a downturn; dealing with the mental stress of market conditions and how you should be thinking about growth over these next two quarters.

With special guests Adam Wingfield, Founder/Managing Director at Innovative Logistics Group LLC.; Dan Abrahamsen, CEO at Cover Whale; Joshua Hernandez, Director of Operations at Mustang Express; Maria Leal, Recruiting coordinator at Steam.

Catch new shows live at noon ET Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWavesTV, FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player.

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