C.H. Robinson Cuts Headcount 11% as AI Takes Over Order Entry

C.H. Robinson has cut its workforce by nearly 11% compared to last year, confirming that new automation tools are now doing the work of thousands of employees. The logistics giant reported the sharp drop in headcount alongside its third-quarter results, explicitly linking the job cuts to software that can schedule shipments and price quotes without human help. You can read the full report at Trucking Dive.

Key Facts

• Workforce Shrinks 10.8%: The company reported an average headcount drop of 10.8% year-over-year, effectively decoupling job numbers from business volume.
• Productivity Spikes: While staff numbers fell, the amount of work handled per person in the North American Surface Transportation (NAST) division jumped 40% since 2022.
• Massive Automation Scale: AI tools are now processing over 10,000 transactions every day, including pricing quotes and load bookings that used to require phone calls or emails.
• Source: Trucking Dive, The Motley Fool

Doing More With Less

The company is proving it can grow without adding more people. While the number of employees fell, the volume of truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments actually went up by 3%. This creates a gap that the company is filling with software.

Chief Executive Dave Bozeman said the company is not just cutting costs but changing how the work gets done. By using AI to read emails and set appointments, the company has removed the need for manual data entry in many parts of its business. This allows them to handle more freight orders without hiring back the staff they let go.

The “Touchless” Shift

The biggest changes are happening in how the company books appointments. In the past, scheduling a pickup or delivery required back-and-forth phone calls or emails. Now, a “touchless” system does it automatically.

Company data shows this new technology saves an average of 7.4 hours per load. For a company that moves millions of shipments a year, that adds up to thousands of work hours that no longer exist for human workers. The AI can also generate pricing quotes in seconds, a task that used to take brokers significant time to calculate and communicate.

Financial Impact

The cuts are showing up clearly in the company’s bank account. Personnel expenses dropped by roughly 3.4% to $349.3 million for the quarter. At the same time, the company’s income from operations jumped nearly 23%.

This signals that the job cuts are not a temporary fix but a permanent change in the business model. The company plans to keep using these tools to keep costs low, even as the freight market starts to recover.