ST. LOUIS — Two Men and a Truck, the national moving franchise company, is having such a hard time finding drivers and movers in St. Louis that management has had to get behind the wheel.
"John Judson, our founder and one of the owners, has been driving a truck. So have I," said Cathleen Jones, St. Louis marketing manager. "We are all hands on deck."
Judson opened the franchise 27 years ago, and it has grown to three offices, in Sunset Hills, Collinsville and St. Charles. It is the largest and one of the oldest of the 300 Two Men franchises, with more than 10,000 moves in 2019.
"We have more than 50 trucks on the road," Jones said. "We are more than 'two men and a truck.'” In normal times, the franchise has about 200 workers during the peak summer moving season, including 110 drivers.
This year, it is short 20 to 25 drivers and 30 movers, as well as 10 support staffers.
What's the problem? "We believe the government incentives that people are receiving is limiting their desire to go to work," Jones said. "We have guys who started here and now own franchises around the country."
"It's extremely short-sighted," she said. "Yeah, they can sit on the couch and collect $600, but they are not building a career or a future."
Recently, for example, the state of Missouri said it will begin paying $300 a week in extra unemployment. The Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier this month approved Missouri's application to participate in a program restoring half of the $600 weekly supplement approved by Congress that expired at the end of July. President Donald Trump restored the extra unemployment benefits via executive order two weeks ago after Congress failed to approve an extension.
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