Labor issues
Freight company cited driver shortage, overhead in filing
Seventy-seven Capital Region workers will be laid off after one of the nation’s largest shipping firms filed for Chapter 11.
Seventy-seven Capital Region workers will be laid off after New England Motor Freight, one of the nation’s largest shipping firms, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.
Statewide, 518 workers at eight shipping terminals from Buffalo to Long Island will be laid off as a result, according to a WARN filing with the New York State Department of Labor.
The company, along with 10 related entities, filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey on Feb. 11. In a statement, the company said it “intends to use those proceedings to facilitate an orderly wind down of its operations.”
“We have worked hard to explore options for New England Motor Freight, but the macro-economic factors confronting this industry are significant,” Vincent Colistra, a senior managing director with Phoenix Management Services and chief restructuring officer for NEMF, said in a statement.
The company, headquartered in Elizabeth, N.J., cited “continuing and unsustainable rises in overhead as well as a severe industry shortage of drivers” as the reason for the bankruptcy filing.
Two workers were outside of the company’s Albany terminal Thursday morning shutting down remaining equipment. Operations have ceased completely at the building on 4315 Albany St., and employees have been laid
off, they said.
NEMF ran 40 shipping terminals throughout the Northeast, Midwest and Puerto Rico, and was founded in 1977 by Myron Shevell — father-in-law to musician and former Beatle Paul Mccartney.
Logistics Management listed NEMF as the 19th largest less-than-truckload shipping company in the U.S. and Canada, with revenue just over $400 million in 2017.
Because of the driver shortage, local industry professionals expect drivers who were laid off to have little trouble finding a job.
“They shouldn’t have a problem finding work because there’s such a shortage in regards to qualified, skilled, experienced, good workers. It’s tough,” Wayne Tearno, owner of the Albany-based Capitaland Logistics, said.
Tearno, whose firm worked with NEMF for three years transporting their local freight, said he didn’t see NEMF’S folding as a harbinger of trouble for the shipping industry. He said it could potentially be a boon for other local companies who may take advantage of the crop of available workers.
One firm, Old Dominion Freight Line, operates a terminal in Glenville and had posted on its website an alert about NEMF ceasing operations.
“Old Dominion is ready — with capacity and premium service levels you demand — to assist shippers who have any immediate freight needs,” the post read.
An employee with the Old Dominion terminal declined to comment.