Schneider National blames ‘firmware defect,’ not cyberattack, for network outage

Trucking giant says system operation back to normal

Schneider National is back online after network outage. Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Schneider National is blaming a “firmware defect” tied to an external vendor’s equipment for a massive computer network outage that knocked the trucking giant offline on Thursday. 

In a statement to FreightWaves on Monday, the company said it is operating normally and “began accepting orders and dispatching our drivers electronically on Saturday.”

On Thursday, Schneider (NYSE: SNDR), headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was forced to switch to manual operations to book freight, execute loads and pay carriers, citing a “temporary systems issue.”

The company, which has been in business for 87 years, didn’t disclose the name of the external vendor with the firmware defect that caused its entire network to shut down, other than to state that the affected equipment has been replaced, “enabling Schneider to resume normal activity.” 

“The firmware defect was not related to a cyber event and no customer data was compromised,” the Schneider statement said.  

On Friday, Kara Leiterman, media relations manager for Schneider, told FreightWaves that its “driver payroll ran as expected.” She added that the company was able to pay carriers except those using Schneider’s QuickPay option.

Schneider, which posted $5.6 billion in operating revenue in 2021, said its IT teams “quickly adapted to keep customers’ freight moving.”

This is a developing story.

Do you have a story to share? Send an email to Clarissa Hawes at chawes@www.freightwaves.com.

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Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 18 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to chawes@firecrown.com or @cage_writer on X, formerly Twitter.