USPS contractor 10 Roads Express to shutter, laying off about 2,000 as mail-hauling work dries up

CARTER LAKE, Iowa — On a cold January morning at the edge of Omaha’s airport, trucks at 10 Roads Express still rolled in and out of the company’s headquarters here, hauling U.S. mail on familiar overnight runs. Drivers backed their trailers into loading bays, grabbed paperwork and headed for the interstate as they had for years.

In less than two weeks, those runs will stop. On Jan. 30, 10 Roads Express, one of the U.S. Postal Service’s largest highway contractors, is scheduled to end all postal work and wind down operations, laying off roughly 2,000 employees across the country.

The shutdown, disclosed in early December in letters to employees, federal officials and state labor agencies, underscores the risks of building a business around a single government customer and highlights the human cost of the Postal Service’s sweeping overhaul of its nationwide network.

In a statement to employees, 10 Roads said it had “made the difficult decision to commence the wind-down of all operations” and would continue serving the Postal Service through Jan. 30. The company attributed its collapse to what it called “fundamental operational changes” at USPS that have already stripped away an estimated 70% of its revenue.

“Over the past 24 months, the USPS has made fundamental operational changes, including the more prevalent use of brokers and the insourcing of transportation work. This has resulted in a 70% loss of revenue for 10 Roads so far, with all indications that this trend will continue.”

Despite efforts to shrink its fleet and footprint, the carrier said it “has been unable to reduce its platform enough to make continued operations sensible.”

A nearly 50-year relationship ends

Founded through predecessor companies that began hauling mail in the 1940s, 10 Roads built itself into a specialized contractor moving time-sensitive postal freight. The Carter Lake-based firm operated 36 terminals and scheduled routes touching 47 states. Federal safety filings list about 2,462 power units and more than 2,600 drivers under its authority as of fall 2025, putting it among the largest mail-hauling fleets in the country.

For nearly five decades, the Postal Service was its anchor customer. Company materials describe a relationship dating back about 47 years. Industry publications rank 10 Roads among the Postal Service’s biggest highway transportation contractors.

That dependence is now proving fatal.

WARN notices and facility closures

In December, the company began filing notices under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires most large employers to give 60 days’ notice of mass layoffs or plant closings.

In Harrisonburg, Virginia, 10 Roads told state officials it would eliminate 70 positions — drivers, mechanics and supervisors — as of Jan. 30 and close its facility there by Feb. 28. A similar notice in Florida said 84 jobs would be cut at a Tampa-area terminal, including 79 drivers.

Across its network, roughly 2,000 workers will lose jobs, the company said.

USPS overhaul and the shift in transportation strategy

The Postal Service, which has been under pressure from Congress to cut persistent multibillion-dollar annual losses, is in the middle of a 10-year Delivering for America plan that aims to consolidate processing plants, redesign transportation and invest about $40 billion in new facilities and equipment.

As part of that effort, postal officials have been reconfiguring highway contract routes, shifting some work from long-term contractors to transportation brokers and bringing other routes in-house to Postal Service Vehicle Service (PVS) drivers, who are federal employees represented by unions.

10 Roads executives say those moves gutted their business. In public statements, the company noted what it described as “continued and significant headwinds impacting the transportation industry” — a reference to the freight recession that has squeezed carriers since 2023 — but put the primary blame on the loss of postal volume.

The Postal Service has declined to discuss specific contractor relationships or bidding decisions. In a December bulletin to major mail customers, the agency said it received sufficient notice of 10 Roads’ exit and did not expect mail service to be affected, indicating that routes handled by 10 Roads are being reassigned to other contractors, brokers or internal operations.

Inspector general scrutiny of insourcing

The agency’s insourcing strategy has already drawn scrutiny from its own watchdog. In a 2025 audit of highway contracts converted to PVS drivers, the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General examined 41 contracts that had been brought in-house. It found that 13 of those conversions saved money, but 28 cost more than leaving the work with private carriers, adding an estimated $18.4 million in annual expenses.

The inspector general recommended a formal waiver process when the Postal Service insources routes that do not reduce costs. Postal management rejected that suggestion, saying in a written response that decisions to bring work in-house can be based on factors such as operational control and service reliability, not just price.

That dynamic has left workers at 10 Roads facing layoffs while, in some cases, the Postal Service assumes higher internal costs for the same transportation lanes.

A freight recession backdrop, plus labor tensions

The shutdown comes amid a prolonged downturn in the trucking industry. After a pandemic-era boom drew in new carriers and pushed freight rates to historic highs, volumes cooled in 2023. Surging fuel, equipment and labor costs combined with lower spot prices have since pushed margins to the breaking point for many firms. Industry analysts have characterized the period as a freight recession.

Several high-profile carriers have folded in the past three years, most notably Yellow Corp. in 2023. But 10 Roads is unusual in that its fate is tightly bound to a government customer rather than a mix of private shippers.

“It’s a textbook case of concentration risk,” said one transportation economist, describing the hazards carriers face when a single account accounts for the bulk of their revenue. “When that customer changes strategy, your options are limited and your timeline is short.”

Labor tensions added another layer of pressure. Drivers at 10 Roads began organizing with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2023. On Feb. 18, 2025, more than 500 drivers in at least eight states went on strike, alleging unfair labor practices and accusing the company of refusing to bargain in good faith.

“Our members have had enough,” Teamsters Freight Division Director John A. Murphy said at the time. “They are on strike because 10 Roads Express refuses to offer a contract that recognizes our hard work and the essential service we provide.”

After the shutdown announcement, Murphy blamed management. He said the company was “responsible for shutting down its operations because it can’t stomach coming back to the table with a fair and serious offer for workers.”

At the same time, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which opposes mandatory union fees, issued legal notices to 10 Roads drivers outlining how they could resign union membership and avoid certain strike-related penalties. The back-and-forth illustrated the company’s role as a battleground in the broader fight over union power in trucking.

In its public statements about the closure, however, 10 Roads did not cite the strike or unionization drive. It consistently pointed to USPS network changes and industry headwinds as the reasons it could not continue.

What it means for workers — and for the mail

For drivers like those in Harrisonburg and Tampa, the immediate concern is finding another job in a softened market. Many mail-haul routes are scheduled and often allow drivers to be home daily or several times a week. Those positions can be hard to replace with similar pay and predictability.

The loss also ripples into local economies. Terminals like 10 Roads’ sites in Virginia and Florida support repair shops, fuel stations, restaurants and motels that depend on truck traffic. In smaller communities, a terminal closure can remove one of the more stable industrial employers.

For the Postal Service, the shutdown is an early test of whether its network overhaul can maintain on-time performance while reshaping long-established partnerships. The agency says customers will not notice the handoff, but the transition will require new carriers or in-house drivers to absorb thousands of miles of scheduled routes on short notice.

As the last 10 Roads trucks complete their mail runs at the end of the month, the company’s sign will likely come down quietly from terminals that once bustled with postal freight. The mail will keep moving, but the route changes, insourcing decisions and contracting shifts that helped end a nearly 50-year partnership will leave behind empty yards, idle equipment and thousands of workers looking for what comes next.