ELITE Transit Solutions, a Pittsburgh-based freight brokerage released approximately 65 employees via Microsoft Teams on Friday. This number adds to the previous 20 employees who were let go on Oct. 20, with sources familiar with the layoffs citing the “current economic situation” as the key factor behind the release.
ELITE is a third-party logistics (3PL) company that services the freight management industry. It established its first Pittsburgh office in Oct 2013 and currently has offices in Arizona, Chicago, and North Carolina. After completing 10 years working in the trucking industry, the company is now down to 10 stakeholders including Michael D. Johnson, the founder and CEO of the company.
According to a former employee who was among the many laid off, the CEO forbade the use of chat function and microphones during the call for layoff held on Microsoft Teams. The employees fired were also immediately deprived of their computer access.
Here’s the statement of a now former employee who preferred remaining anonymous: “We all had questions about when we would get paid for working these last two weeks and if we would get paid for our vacation time we had accrued. We were told to email human resources if we had any questions, but our [vice president] of HR left a day before we found out our jobs were being eliminated. Who is left to respond to our emails?”.
Melissa Bucci, former vice president of people and culture at ELITE Transit Solutions, expressed her sorrow over the matter as she didn’t “have an opportunity to say goodbye.” while confirming the layoffs via LinkedIn. The future of the company remains uncertain as both the ceasing of operations and a possible merger seem to be on the card.
A former employee at ELITE Transit Solution commented on the company’s shaky financial situation, stating “We were cut off by almost every factoring company you can think of, it got so bad that the factoring companies were taking money back from the carriers because the contract was between the factoring company and the carrier, not with ELITE. We heard from carriers that were forced to close their trucking companies, including one that had to sell his business and his home, because we hadn’t paid him. We received an email from the wife of a carrier owner whose husband attempted suicide and blamed ELITE for not paying him.”
The financial problems had been ongoing since May when the former employee was recently hired. He noticed that most of the inbound calls were from trucking companies that hadn’t been paid for loads they hauled for the brokerage since May or June.