[vimeo-autoplay video-id=”391569659″]
Roughly 130 unionized drivers for Rodgers Trucking Company of San Leandro, California, will be looking for new jobs after the company announced it will cease operations after 48 years in late April.
Rodgers Trucking, which hauls dry freight, including wine and spirits, beverages, and food ingredients, filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice with the state in late January. The notice stated the carrier, founded in 1972, will shutter operations by April 30.
Alan Osofsky, safety and compliance manager of Rodgers Trucking, told FreightWaves on Thursday that the high cost of doing business in California, as well as the financial challenges of being a union carrier vying for loads against low-cost nonunion companies, was difficult.
“Smaller freight companies are having to contend with higher costs of new regulations and potential increases in insurance costs for this year,” Osofsky told FreightWaves. “We are doing everything to assist them in finding new jobs.”
According to the carrier’s WARN Act notice, Frank Ghiglione, owner of Rodgers Trucking, stated that one of its major customers, Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits (SGWS), will now provide most of its own transportation services. He said that Rodgers drivers “will have the opportunity to submit applications” to work for SGWS.
Around 30 drivers plan to retire once the company shuts down, Osofsky said.
This is the second carrier this week to announce plans to shutter operations after Tennessee-based Howard Baer Inc. ceased operations after 69 years. In both cases, the trucking company owners decided to shut down and retire.
Andrey
This is epidemic in trucking industry thousands people lives affected it should be in national news every day like coronary virus news. But it never be in national news because they controlled by our enemies reptiloids.
Concerned trucker
The industry is being hijacked by third party’s logistic companies and brokers. There is no relation to cost in the rates they quote and the people they hire are dumb enough to put the freight on their trucks. Many small carriers live day to day and need to put something on just to sustain som sort of a cash flow. They operate day to day and are one disaster from going out of business. The business mode we have in many parts of this industry is unsustainable and we are headed for a real shortage of carriers.
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Reread the article !
They LOST A MAJOR CUSTOMER !
Quote:
“According to the carrier’s WARN Act notice, Frank Ghiglione, owner of Rodgers Trucking, stated that one of its major customers, Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits (SGWS), will now provide most of its own transportation services.”
Oh and by the way , The Teamsters represent SGWS drivers . LOL !
Furthermore , SGWS is one of the BIGGEST middlemen in their industry !
IMHO …………
Joel Duclos
This capacity is not leaving the market as it is moving in house to fight high labor costs with unions. If the unions think they will come out favorably with AB5 they are dead wrong. This is actually a smart move considering the trucking environment today and it is important for this private carrier now to set a new example and it’s nice to see this company invest in its people and resist automation with driverless technology
Kenneth Jeffery
Hopefully, the drivers will get picked up by SGWS. Driving jobs with good salaries and benefits are difficult to come by.
John
We are all getting squeezed. Union and non union a like. I just paid 2.5 dollars a gallon for fuel in Holbrook Arizona. That same in California would be 3.5 to 4.5 a gallon. At around 6 miles to the gallon I can save 500 a week just on fuel. Registration, insurance, etc is ridiculous as well. After 57 years in California I Moved to New Mexico. Farewell and good riddance.
Martin Pollock
I keep reading about the closure of companies stateside in the logistics industry and I am perplexed as to how this continues to occur. Fluctuations in all industry are common but a lot of emphasis is being placed on cost and compliance recently with most closures. It sounds, from this perspective like it’s just bad management of resources. The demand for skilled drivers remains high throughout the continent and it shocks and amazes me that in such demanding times, large companies can’t get their act together. I know from personal experience that drivers are in extremely high demand right now. Few industries offer the same opportunities as does trucking now. If Corporate Officers and executives can’t make a go at it in this situation, they will not succeed anywhere else either. I also think FREIGHTWAVES is printung too much negative info regarding these closures. I can’t remember the last positive story I read on here but I can distinctly remember a number of negative stories. I can’t help but wonder if this is not the “Fake News” the Trump administration won the election with. Please stop printing just negative articles, it’s very misleading to possible up and coming drivers. Would you make the move to this career, after reading a series of FREIGHTWAVES stories? I doubt so. I personally have just 4yrs on the Hwy but have never had difficulty finding jobs in this industry. They pay is excellent and the conditions we work in can’t be beaten. I have family in healthcare and I make better money with my 6 week course then they do with 7 yrs schooling. Things aren’t all bad. Drive safe everyone!
2lazy2p
God bless you. You are truly one in one thousand. Hope your carries does not fold up on you. Then again you are in some “halo” so no matter what happens, all will be peaches and cream……………..
Boxer Bob
I wouldn’t recommend even thinking about a career in trucking. The government and big corporations have ruined the industry. Autonomous trucks are in the not to distant future. It will be another industry that gives way to technology.
Jason Miller
This is really sad to see, especially since this was a very safe outfit; looking at the SMS scores (DOT# 145923), this carrier was performing very well across the Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, and Vehicle Maintenance metrics.
Jimmy Gilbert
Well it figures due to the freight rate hasn’t changed since 1975