Private truckload carrier U.S. Xpress has laid off about 20 people, eliminating positions in the company's operations unit.
"The bulk of the changes took place within our extended coverage group, which is responsible for the night and weekend shifts in our 24-hour, seven-day operation," company spokesman Greg Thompson said via email Monday. "We made changes to our extended coverage team in order to better serve our drivers and our customers."
Thompson declined to describe what "operations" entails, but said the positions were part of the "extended coverage group."
He said the company is creating "regional service pods that will consist of dispatchers, customer service representatives and load planners, who are assigned to a geographic region."
"We will now have dedicated extended coverage teams who will be sitting together and resolving issues within a defined regional area," he said. "We believe that this approach will allow us to handle our business in a more efficient manner while improving our relationships with our customers and our drivers."
According to a recent survey, some hiring analysts said they expect hiring in the transportation industry to increase in the first quarter, which begins in January.
In October, at an industry event, U.S. Xpress co-chairman and CEO Max Fuller referenced six layoffs and said the company had recently "re-organized" a department and that is what prompted the cuts.
At that time, he said adjustments are always being made in a company with about 1,000 employees.
The company did offer severance to the employees of the most recent round of layoffs, but Thompson declined to discuss specifics.
"While it is painful to lose people from your organization, U.S. Xpress remains a major employer in Chattanooga and nationwide in the transportation industry," he also said. "U.S. Xpress currently employs approximately 1,000 people at our Chattanooga headquarters and at our Tunnel Hill, Ga., terminal facility.
"Nationwide, U.S. Xpress employs nearly 10,000 people as the nation’s second largest privately owned truckload carrier. Despite these recent adjustments, U.S. Xpress has added more jobs in our Chattanooga headquarters than we have cut in 2011."
