‘Large portion’ of 300 CRST employees being laid off are truck drivers

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids-based trucking company CRST is laying off more than 300 workers nationwide in an effort to “redeploy” parts of its fleet.

In a post Thursday on the company’s website, CRST said it is shifting 100 trucks from its Capacity Solutions OTR fleet to other divisions and removing another 200 trucks from its fleet of 4,300 vehicles.

“This change represents less than 4 percent of our total logistics portfolio,” the company said in the online post.

CRST noted that “a large portion” of the employees being laid off are drivers. They were given a 60-day notice of the impending layoffs Dec. 3.

“Our goal is to work with them to provide alternative driving opportunities within our other fleets,” the post said.

The company said the reorganization is intended to “strengthen our ability to serve customers through the solutions that drive the most value, reliability and long-term stability.”

In a 2021 interview with The Gazette, executive Mike Gannon — now the company’s president and CEO — said CRST had more than 6,000 drivers nationwide across multiple divisions within the company.