Of course, this move to hire more truck drivers was based solely on the bigger demand, and if they could have they would have tried to do the same portions ow work without more hires. I’m curious to did the company just decide to increase the funds for this segment or are some workers from other parts of the company pay with their jobs for these increases and hirings?
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Yup. The issue with the trucking industry is that you already had more drivers quitting or retiring than you did entering the business.
Then, at Walmart, you had this guy named Greg Smith take over. If you read about his history online, basically he comes off as sort of an axe man. I believe his goal was (and maybe still is) to outsource a lot of logistics. Anyhow, whether through c-appy changes in policies or reorgs/layoffs, we lost a lot of people in transportation recently including drivers.
And, to be fair, I’m sure just the basic rate of drivers retiring was part of it. But I’m also sure rocking the boat with new policies at a time where there was a driver shortage didn’t help.
Anyhow, now Walmart is on a crusade to hire in more truckers because they have to. But so is every other company. And if Walmart has a reputation of treating their truckers like p--pies then they’re going to have to overpay by a long shot to get people to put up with that. Word gets around.
So in essence, this may wind up being a prime example of where treating your employees poorly can lead to a reputation that ends up costing you more.
Exactly! It's all about trying to replace drivers who were mistreated and quit! Unfortunately for Walmart the word is out that this sure ain't the great job it used to be! Take care of your employees and they'll take care of you, Walmart is learning the opposite is also true.
I read an article a few weeks ago that over 2400 wm drivers quit or retired in the last 6 months of last year. The ROCK is working well.
This is nothing to do with bigger demand! It's because Walmart effed over their drivers and around half have quit in the last year! Walmart and the fake news can spin it however they want. The fact is Walmart screwed themself and now their desperate to get back to the fleet they once had. It's a microcosm of what's wrong with this company. Everything revolves around screwing the employees to make the shareholders an extra nickel. Eventually the good workers all quit and your left hiring from the bottom of the barrel because everyone hears what a greedy c-appy company it is. Good luck Walmart! All these dedicated Swift drivers are sure doing a nice job of banging up your trailers 👍