Amazon delivery contractor shuts Durham plant, cuts 75 jobs as partnership ends
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- CNC Logistics closed Durham DRT8 delivery station on Sept. 26 and cut 75 jobs.
- Company says Amazon terminated its contract unexpectedly on Aug. 27, precluding WARN notice.
- Amazon directed affected workers to apply with other Delivery Service Partners in region.
An Illinois company that drives Amazon packages “the last mile” to customers’ doorsteps has shut its Durham location and laid off 75 workers after it says Amazon “suddenly and unexpectedly” ended its contract.
CNC Logistics ceased operations at Amazon’s DRT8 delivery station on Sept. 26 according to a WARN letter company president Timothy Thomas sent last week to the N.C. Department of Commerce and Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams. The closure affected 69 delivery associates, five dispatchers and a station manager at the delivery hub on Person Street.
Businesses typically must submit WARN notices at least 60 days before plant closures, allowing the state Commerce Department to help employees find new opportunities. Thomas wrote that advance notice wasn’t possible after CNC’s “principal customer” notified the company it would terminate its contract on Aug. 27.
Amazon contracts drivers through its Delivery Service Partner program, which it started in 2018.
“CNC Logistics has exited the Amazon Delivery Service Partner program,” Amazon spokesperson Dannea DeLisser wrote in a statement to The News & Observer. “Affected employees will have the opportunity to apply with other Delivery Service Partners in the region.”
The e-commerce giant did not share why CNC’s Durham contract ended. A second Amazon delivery partner, Safeway Logistics, is also conducting a mass layoff of 72 contract workers, mostly drivers, in the Eastern North Carolina city of Kinston, according to a Sept. 19 WARN letter. On Thursday, Amazon confirmed Safeway is no longer part of its Delivery Service Partner program.
Since 2018, Amazon says it has worked with at least 4,400 businesses through its contract delivery program. It also hires independent contractor drivers though a separate program called Amazon Flex.
Amazon is the state’s sixth-largest employer and the country’s second-biggest private employer. It entered this year with 1,556,000 employees worldwide, according to its most recent annual filing, and supplements its workforce with contractors and temporary personnel. Around the Triangle, Amazon runs a massive Garner warehouse (RDU1), a smaller Durham warehouse (RDU5), and a same-day fulfillment center near Research Triangle Park (SNC3).
Durham wasn’t the only CNC site to shut; in September, the company ended operations in the Chicago suburb of Palatine, affecting 57 workers. Online, CNC describes itself as “one of the top Amazon delivery partners,” and its website doesn’t mention any other company.
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM.
