Western Dairy Transport lays off about 75 workers
Comments 7| Recommend 3
December 02, 2009 7:00 PM
By Argen Duncan: PNT Senior Writer
Western Dairy Transport in Portales laid off about 75 employees Wednesday because a large contract expired.
Company President David Shelton, who works in the Stephenville, Texas, office, said WDTs multi-year local-hauling contract with Dairy Farmers of America expired. The new contract was awarded to Greatwide Logistics Service, based in Dallas, and Ruan Transportation, based in Des Moines, Iowa. About two-thirds of Western Dairy Transports business in the Clovis/Portales area came from the DFA contract, he said.
We still have other lines of business in Portales, so we wont be completely exiting there, Shelton said.
About 30 drivers and 45 support personnel, all involved with local hauling, were laid off. Shelton said employees handling nationwide transportation arent affected.
Shelton estimated about 65 workers were left in Portales.
Some of the laid-off drivers were moving to the companies awarded the DFA contract, he said.
http://www.pntonline.com/news/dairy-19264-western-portales.html
Half of the contract went to Ruan and the other half to Great Wide.
WDT laid off most of the seasoned drivers and kept some of the newer drivers. They obviously did this to save money (on driver pay), but you have to wonder how they can sleep at night.
Great wide is already hauling milk here and from what I understand it is there first attempt at the tanker business.