A Minnesota trucking company unexpectedly closed its doors and funneled customers and equipment to a new company in order to reduce labor costs, according to local Teamster leaders.
More than 100 drivers in Minnesota and South Dakota showed up to work at Roseville-based Lakeville Motor Express this week, only to find a note on the door stating the company had been permanently closed.
Teamsters Local 120 Business Agent Virgil Christoffersen, who represents 90% of LME’s employees, commented on the unexpected news. “It didn’t close; the freight is still there, the trucks are still there and the customers are still there. All they did was change the logo on the trucks. Now they are saying they won’t even pay the employees for work they had already done or benefits that have been accrued and are owed,” he said.
A press released published on Tuesday, states that Lakeville Motor Express executive Travis Hoeschen left the company earlier this fall and started a competing trucking company called Finish Line Express (FLE). Over the course of a few months, customers, trucks, and other equipment, were transferred from Lakeville Motor Express to the new company.
Bill Wedebrand, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 120, said “They are doing this to undercut labor costs and drive down the entire market. Every step of this has been done in an underhanded and dishonest fashion. The icing on the cake, that we should all be outraged by, is that there are over 100 families who, without notice, are all of a sudden wondering how they will get by, how they will put food on the table at Thanksgiving, and presents under the tree at Christmas.”
Lakeville Motor Express was the 25th largest LTL carrier in the U.S., with reported revenue of $125 million in 2014.