Hiring Freezes?

Hey all, I was convincing a buddy of mine to get his CDL but he stumped me when he asked “Is their ever a time where truck companies have hiring freezes”?

Is their a time that happens every now and then?

Different trucking industries will have different hiring criterias.

Generally, most mega carriers may restrict hiring areas or tighten up their hiring requirements making them more stringent.

The hiring will slow a bit at times, but it rarely stops for the major carriers, even for a short time. The turnover is just too high, so they have to hire continuously to replace drivers as they leave if they want to maintain their fleet size.

For someone who is considering a career in trucking, there really is no bad time to get started based on the economy or seasonality. The industry always needs new drivers.

I came into Schneider via schneiderjobs dot com with 0 experience and a sign on bonus. As of a week ago when I was checking for a buddy who wanted to look into driving the jobs listed had 3 months experience.

I see students training but so far I've been too busy to go up and ask if it they already have CDLs or if it's the all in one paid CDL and Schneider training rolled into one.

Hey all, I was convincing a buddy of mine to get his CDL but he stumped me when he asked “Is their ever a time where truck companies have hiring freezes”?

Is their a time that happens every now and then?

Due to the economic down turn, my company has indeed slowed down the hiring. Last year freight went through the roof and a ton of people entered trucking. We had twice as much freight as we could handle. Literally 14,000 loads were run at my company every week and we were rejecting 14,000 loads a week. Right now we are in a freight deficit. Places like Amazon and Walmart stocked their warehouses and then the recession tanked. Sales slowed down so less replenishment of product is needed.

This means my company will be eliminating those who do not rise to the top or have just been getting by. It has already slowed down hiring and extended training time to have drivers ready for the increased freight when it rebounds.

It means it will be more competitive to get hired. Those with tickets or blemishes on their license will be less likely to be hired. But if you are asking if I fear not having a job.... Nope!

This is a competition against other drivers. When you are the best, you get the best treatment and the best opportunities.

Right now we are in a freight deficit. Places like Amazon and Walmart stocked their warehouses and then the recession tanked. Sales slowed down so less replenishment of product is needed.

This is indeed the case, and an excellent analysis of the current situation.

Governments around the world crippled supply chains during COVID, and that left companies begging for products when things opened back up. So companies ordered far more than they thought they might need to keep up with demand and prevent shortfalls in the future.

Unfortunately, about that same time, global governments and the Fed drove inflation sky-high, and our economy absolutely tanked. It hit a brick wall. Things are far worse right now than they're admitting. Shocking that our government would lie, I know. But our economy is at a standstill at this point, and it's going to get much worse over the next 12 - 18 months. We're only in the early stages of this disaster.

So now retailers are overwhelmed with products and no one is buying.

Yesterday, even FedEx said they're laying off a bunch of drivers in early December, at what is supposed to be their peak season. My girl worked at FedEx for almost 20 years (doesn't work there anymore) and she's floored by the announcement.

Layoffs in tech and retail are staggering right now. Amazon just today announced a layoff of 10,000 workers, their largest in history, and that's on top of similar announcements from Google, Facebook, and many others in recent months.

It means it will be more competitive to get hired. Those with tickets or blemishes on their license will be less likely to be hired. But if you are asking if I fear not having a job.... Nope!

This is a competition against other drivers. When you are the best, you get the best treatment and the best opportunities.

This is something many new drivers fail to understand for quite a while. Trucking is very competitive. Whether you realize it or not, as a driver you're competing for freight with the other drivers in your company. Those who work the hardest and perform the best get the most freight.

Here are a couple articles to help explain this view:

Trucking Is A Competition Between Drivers. Can You Hang With The Big Dogs?

The Employment Market For Truck Drivers Is Hyper Competitive

Yesterday, even FedEx said they're laying off a bunch of drivers in early December, at what is supposed to be their peak season.

FedEx is furloughing drivers, not laying them off and it's voluntary. The furlough is for a period of 3 months and FedEx will continue to provide health/dental/vision during that period. Upon return, the driver will recieve 300 dollars for each week they were off in one lump sum and insurance will be paid back at the rate of 50/week.

This is also our slowest time of the year. This is FedEx grounds peak season, but they're run by contractors so they are not included in this.

I would also like to add that it's not a bunch of drivers. My building is looking to reduce the driver/dock worker (they are included in this) number by 10%. We have 150 drivers at my building. We have 7 out on leave and 3 at ground so we're looking at furloughing a total of 5 drivers.

This is also not happening at every building.. Some buildings are in desperate need of drivers and FedEx is offering 10k to any drivers that transfer to those buildings.

This is also our slowest time of the year

Really? Six weeks before Christmas is your slowest time of the year? I'd love to learn more about that. I can see after Christmas, of course, but 6 weeks before?

What is your busiest time of the year?

This is also our slowest time of the year

Really? Six weeks before Christmas is your slowest time of the year? I'd love to learn more about that. I can see after Christmas, of course, but 6 weeks before?

What is your busiest time of the year?

Our busiest time of year is June to November. We run the way a DC does, a season ahead. The first quarter of the year, nobody is buying anything because they're recovering from the holidays. We're moving that first quarters freight the quarter before. People start spending money in the summer so by March (when FedEx ends their furlough) we start moving freight for the summer and it starts to pick up again.

The confusion comes into play because everybody hears FedEx and they think it's all the same company. It's not, FedEx is a parent company to about 5 or 6 companies that operate independently under that umbrella.

Right now, the only FedEx company doing furloughs is FedEx freight. FedEx ground (contractors) and FedEx express (FedEx employees) is going into peak season which is they're busiest time of year because they're operating in present time. They're moving the stuff you ordered today.

Really? Six weeks before Christmas is your slowest time of the year? I'd love to learn more about that. I can see after Christmas, of course, but 6 weeks before?

What is your busiest time of the year?

Banks explained it perfectly, but as far as I know all LTL companies have a slow down this time of year. This year is unusually slow however.

Last year and earlier this year we were extremely busy to the point we had to turn freight away. A lot of terminals added extra drivers unfortunately it sounds like some got laid off last week, I haven't heard anything official as far as number but some terminals are affected differently than others.