Image via XPO Logistics

Image via XPO Logistics

XPO Logistics Freight is suing rival less-than-truckload carrier YRC Freight for allegedly hiring employees from the company  to obtain important trade secrets, according to a report posted by DC Velocity.

The lawsuit aims to block YRC Freight from employing two former XPO executives and five other individuals for at least a year and to return any secrets or information that the company may have acquired from those hirings. When XPO bought Con-way Freight for $3 billion last year, YRC hired away two Con-way executives, Paul Lorensen and Chet Richardson, only a few days after the acquisition.

During the acquisition, the two executives in the suit were made aware of XPO’s plans to move into the LTL space with the Con-way acquisition. Richardson in particular, said XPO, had access to and knowledge of certain internal XPO software that focused on routing XPO Freight more efficiently than competitors.

According to the The Wall Street Journal, the suit alleges that the two executives had knowledge of the details of XPO’s acquisition and plan to compete with YRC Freight. In addition, it claims they intentionally delayed accepting jobs at YRC in order to obtain trade secrets. XPO also alleges that the poached employees were offered special bonuses and commissions for each XPO Freight customer they brought to YRC.

The five other employees indicated in the suit were sales and operations personnel who XPO said also had access to confidential information.

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