Mack Trucks to lay off up to 350 workers at Lehigh County plant; company blames tariffs, freight rates, demand

[Joseph Cummings]

LOWER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. - A state lawmaker representing part of the Lehigh Valley says one of the largest employers in the region plans to make a significant reduction in its workforce.

State Representative Josh Siegel (D - 22nd District) released a statement Thursday after receiving word that Mack Trucks is laying off between 250 and 350 workers at its Lower Macungie Township facility.

Siegel called it "a devastating blow to Lehigh Valley workers," saying, "these 350 workers are not just numbers — they are parents, neighbors, veterans and skilled tradespeople who built America’s backbone. And they deserve better."

 

 

https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/lehigh-county/mack-trucks-expected-to-lay-off-hundreds-at-lower-macungie-plant/article_106d6029-fca8-4189-9f3d-97ebee2068a7.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawJvymlleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHjz1D45sLHJEqfCn23F9j0RVhjRknH7iM-jzTOoZqpi4MusmKf7Zhdkm-Wq7_aem_5oj5Rn_6EWccTc3OIrb_Ow

[kscarbel2]

All because Volvo sources so many parts from outside the USA.

[Joey Mack]

Is this just theater to make a statement against Mr.Trump?  It seems too soon. The new tariffs are just that.... New... Wouldnt they ride this a bit longer to see if it is a negative ? Teach me.... 

[kscarbel2]

20 minutes ago, Joey Mack said:

Is this just theater to make a statement against Mr.Trump?  It seems too soon. The new tariffs are just that.... New... Wouldnt they ride this a bit longer to see if it is a negative ? Teach me.... 

It's not too soon. Just-in-time production.

[Bullheaded]

And once again, I'd be scared to buy a new one because think of how the build quality will be now.

[GA_Dave]

I don't find this too unexpected.  A buddy of mine lives near that factory and he tells me that there are parking lots all around the area full of brand new Mack trucks they can't sell.  It has been that way for the past couple years.

[Mark T]

Trucks are way overpriced. Might not be so bad if you didn't have to deal with all the headaches that come with them now too. Even warranty doesn't help cause no one is really good at fixing them (or if there is a good mechanic he's so overwhelmed it's pathetic) New trucks aren't such a good investment right now, too much lined up against whoever is buying them. Let alone that changes by the week anymore.

[Bullheaded]

6 hours ago, GA_Dave said:

I don't find this too unexpected.  A buddy of mine lives near that factory and he tells me that there are parking lots all around the area full of brand new Mack trucks they can't sell.  It has been that way for the past couple years.

You know, that's too bad. It's ashamed Volvo Mack abandoned most of their customers by not offering the specs their long time customers were begging for.

There are now ZERO Mack's in logging and heavy haul in my area. But at least for dump truck applications, the Granite is as good or better than any other new truck out there. Problem with that though is pricing and lack of dealer presence.

[fjh]

Exactly!  well said! The united nations of trucks is now going to feel the heat I do feel bad for the folks that are loosing employment thou! Volvo sources  there parts from every dollar store they can deal with on earth! That said the Mack name would be long gone with out them ! If that's saying anything!?

[other dog]

35 minutes ago, Mark T said:

Trucks are way overpriced. Might not be so bad if you didn't have to deal with all the headaches that come with them now too. Even warranty doesn't help cause no one is really good at fixing them (or if there is a good mechanic he's so overwhelmed it's pathetic) New trucks aren't such a good investment right now, too much lined up against whoever is buying them. Let alone that changes by the week anymore.

True that! I was out with Jeff Moore a couple of weeks ago and he said all the new trucks they're getting are well over $200,000 now. 

I saw a 2022 Peterbilt for sale the other day and they wanted over $300,000 for it. When I first started driving one of Jeff's trucks he traded the 2000 model W900L I was driving for this 2006 Peterbilt. The Peterbilt was only a year old, only had around 100,000 miles on it. 550 Cat, 18 speed, lots of stainless steel and chrome, top of the line interior, all LED lights, etc. And he paid right around $100,000 for it. 

And you're lucky to even make a trip without an engine light coming on with these new trucks. But I have to say, I had my share of issues with this Pete too. It had the ACERT engine and it had many "intake valve actuator fault" issues. 

I think maybe it broke down too much for the previous owner and that's why he only had it a year, but I don't know.

[Joseph Cummings]

I really don't know how anyone is making money in general freight with new trucks anymore. Not doing truckload shipments, that is for sure. Maybe if you own a place with a dock and a forklift and do warehousing and ltl. But even that is hard. Modern warehouses like amazon are so automated they can break bulk shipments like it's nothing. And they get foreign and other fly by night trucks to pull their trailers. 

[Mark T]

4 hours ago, other dog said:

True that! I was out with Jeff Moore a couple of weeks ago and he said all the new trucks they're getting are well over $200,000 now. 

I saw a 2022 Peterbilt for sale the other day and they wanted over $300,000 for it. When I first started driving one of Jeff's trucks he traded the 2000 model W900L I was driving for this 2006 Peterbilt. The Peterbilt was only a year old, only had around 100,000 miles on it. 550 Cat, 18 speed, lots of stainless steel and chrome, top of the line interior, all LED lights, etc. And he paid right around $100,000 for it. 

And you're lucky to even make a trip without an engine light coming on with these new trucks. But I have to say, I had my share of issues with this Pete too. It had the ACERT engine and it had many "intake valve actuator fault" issues. 

I think maybe it broke down too much for the previous owner and that's why he only had it a year, but I don't know.

$200,000.00 + and figure another $25,000.00 besides that before it's cycled (5 years ?)  due to after treatment. That's not even scratch'n the surface of new stuff on them to idiot proof them. That's all yet to be seen to some degree....and it ain't gonna be cost effective.

[Joey Mack]

Its amazing how easy it is to destroy the American trucker... Theres no damn way that you could make a good enough living to be able to treat yourself to things like Hobbies, or a small retreat on a lake or in the mountains.  All the money will be spent on keeping that P.O.S. on the road..  

[mowerman]

Lots of interesting posts  too bad about all those people losing their jobs but it sounds to me like too many people in Hugh management are tripping over the dollar to pick up the penny leadership skills these days have really gone down the drain. It’s the same old story. Just fill the seat and catch the paychecks. Not enough people keep an eye on things.

[mowerman]

I used to run with a Wonderbread driver years ago, and he was telling me they had a problem over there when their sales were failing due to people wanting healthier diets instead of sugary snacks and their upper management was not seeing the writing on the wall. They were just rewarding themselves with bonuses and not watching the companies production. While their sales were falling considerably, nobody was even watching…. Bob

[Joseph Cummings]

There is a large plant here in Hazleton that has a 2,000 horsepower boiler installation. That's 4 Cleaver-Brooks boilers that run at 21 MILLION BTU hour each. The boilers also burn the gas from the digester at their wastewater treatment plant. Should they have a boiler outage there is a 30 foot tall flare the digester gas gets diverted to and burned off. It has about 10 feet of flame coming out the top when the boilers go out. The boilers going out means like 350 people are standing around doing nothing, all the product gets ruined, and the whole plant is going to be down about 10 hours by the time you get the problem fixed, and get the whole plant's steam system hot and operating stable.

It's a big F ing deal like easily a million in lost production and product that has to be trashed. Upper management is so clueless they will walk right past that flare with the 10 foot flame going into the night sky and not even notice it. Not an inkling in their little pea brains that when the giant flame shoots into the sky they are minutes away from the entire plant shutting down.

Why do the boilers go down? They go off on low water alarm. Why do they run low on water? Because upper management sees steam coming out of the deaerator tank vent and thinks it's wasting energy, so they send one of their DEI morons to shut the valve on the vent stack. I saw them have 4 boiler outages and plant shutdowns in a year over this same dickhead deciding to shut off the vent stack.

I've worked in a lot of big plants doing repairs and moving machinery, And pretty much all upper management is clueless like that

[mowerman]

I hear a stories like that from my wife every day she works for a bicycle supply warehouse …same  bologna just like you described no leader ship nobody watching anything. They hire the dumbest people they could find and get rid of all the good ones that were doing their jobs. You know the old story you pretty much just said it. Higher up management does not even work there. They try to run everything from the Midwest on a computer. Half the time orders that were supposed to go out or still sitting there when they close the doors at night since nobody’s watching anything that goes on there.

[mowerman]

Oh, I forgot to add one of their good supervisors just walked out the other day. Said I’ve had enough of this place. Everybody is just chasing their tails here and none of the so-called higher-ups even care. Bob

[Joseph Cummings]

1 hour ago, mowerman said:

They try to run everything from the Midwest on a computer

Yeah they all want to sit in their cushy offices and never set foot in the plant. They rely on reports coming from the next level below them. And that level is just as stupid and not to mention are always lying to cover their ass.

There was another plant with a molding line that was all timed off of a line shaft that ran the whole line. Somebody got the bright idea that gearboxes on the line were old and should be replaced. The original gearboxes were like 39.5 to 1. Someone in upper management was told by someone that the originals were no longer made. So they had someone custom build gearboxes for the machine that were like 40 to 1. They thought that was close enough. They shut the line down for like a week. When they started it up, about 5 or 10 molds got squirted full of product, and then the product started missing the mold trays and squirting on the floor. They had to shut down for another week and install all the old gearboxes.

Two weeks production lost, the custom gearboxes were over $750,000 and God only knows how much in labor. And that was like 25 years ago.

So plant management hid the new gearboxes in the corner of a warehouse with a tarp over them and some stacks of pallets around them and act like the whole thing never happened. Like 3 years go by and some big shot from corporate comes to the plant and gets curious what's under that tarp in the warehouse. Now he wants to know what all the brand new gearboxes are there for. By that time the wrong ratio guy has retired. So he has my friend who was a maintenance supervisor investigate.

He already knew what had gone on and how the idiot above him tried to cover his own ass. Now he contacts the manufacturer of the molding line in Germany and when they get back to him they tell him the original gearboxes for that machine are still being made and they have some of them in stock.

It's only getting worse

[fjh]

Unfortunately know one knows the real end game!The prez has something up his sleeve! Hope he shows his hand soon! Lot of people going to start hurting!