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XPO’s App Is Stealing Drivers’ Work
XPO Logistics’ “Drive XPO” mobile app has been updated, released, re-released, downloaded and is set to steal our work. Check it out, both linehaul and local, it is set up to use drivers other than us.
The company says 100,000 drivers downloaded the app in 2019 alone.
As reported by the media site dcvelocity.com, the app gives drivers on-the-road access to the XPO Connect digital freight marketplace, which is used by more than 40,000 individual carriers, the company said. Drivers use the app to access tools that help them source loads based on time, place, freight, and equipment type. XPO’s proprietary algorithms analyze spot rates, driving conditions, and other factors that affect bid decisions, the firm said. In addition, a virtual counter-offer feature lets shippers and carriers negotiate in real time. This makes sure the runs go to the lowest bidder.
During an investor call on February 11, 2020, XPO CEO Bradley Jacobs discussed slashing costs in its LTL business, which includes the app.
Jacob’s said cost-cutting is the company’s “main focus throughout the company. The major projects like automated pricing, like many forms of automation, including robotics, productivity enhancements, especially workforce planning to the smart labor tools, attacking that $1.3 billion a year we spend on line haul, in LTL and so forth.”
While owner-operators benefit, we workers at XPO are losing work.
“… Carriers are excited to get such a high level of visibility for their business,” XPO Logistics President Troy Cooper said in a statement. “Drivers give the app high marks for ease of use and proactive income opportunities, like backhauls that reduce empty miles. These are all reasons behind the rapid adoption we’re seeing.”
But Cooper fails to recognize that company drivers are losing work. Drivers are left sitting at home everyday because of “lack of work or runs”. This “app” is yet another example of how the company puts the dollar above caring about its workers.
The “Drive XPO” app is another example of why we need to organize and form our union. Protect our work, protect our families, protect our livlihoods. Talk to Teamster organizers.