Sentinel Transportation, LLC California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

What the filing says

These are the details as Sentinel Transportation, LLCreported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and these figures come from the state's report as retrieved on Aug 13, 2026. All 25 are listed below; the table scrolls.

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

Sentinel Transportation severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes. Severance you were already promised — in a contract, a handbook, or a union agreement — cannot be used to satisfy that obligation, though Labor Code section 1402 does let an employer reduce a back-pay award by voluntary payments it was never required to make. A release may also give up more than you expect. Justin reviews severance agreements before workers sign. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through May 31, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. Every notice on this page falls after that date. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

Where a layoff can raise a legal question

A layoff is lawful on its own, and nothing below is a statement about Sentinel Transportation. These are the places California law can still come into play, depending on the facts of your own situation.

• The severance you were asked to signA release can give up claims you did not know you had, and the terms are sometimes negotiable.
• How you were selectedA reduction in force still cannot be used to cut someone for a protected reason such as age, disability, pregnancy, or a complaint they made.
• Your final paycheckCalifornia sets when final wages are due at termination, and unpaid time or accrued vacation can carry penalties on top of the wages.

General information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

PBS KVIE's Abridged reported that Sentinel Transportation, a Delaware-based tank-truck hauler of petroleum products, is permanently laying off 126 workers across California — mostly drivers in Northern California, including 37 in the four-county Sacramento region — effective May 31, 2026.

FreightWaves reported the cuts span 25 California locations and described Sentinel, which operates more than 30 terminals nationwide, as a Phillips 66 subsidiary.

Sources: Abridged (PBS KVIE) (opens in a new tab) · FreightWaves (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

• The filings name 23 California locations, including Chico, San Andreas, Antioch, Placerville, Willows and Los Angeles.
• They cover 25 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
• The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 62 days, close to the statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
• By headcount it sits in the top 30% of the 599 employer layoffs tracked here.
• The 126 workers leaving Sentinel Transportation, LLC re-enter a job market where Sacramento County unemployment stood at 4.8% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
• All 25 notices are dated within a single month, March 2026, which reads as one event reported site by site rather than a rolling reduction.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Sentinel Transportation.

Free job-search help near the affected sites

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; these are the closest to the sites in these filings.

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Sacramento County around the same time

33 employers have WARN notices on file in Sacramento County, covering 3,618 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

• Intuit Inc.910 workers
• Del Monte Foods Corporation II Inc822 workers
• LinkedIn Corporation606 workers
• eBay469 workers
• ServiceNow, Inc.404 workers
• Snap Inc.320 workers

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

California wage claims filed against Sentinel Transportation

California employers face claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which lets an employee sue for civil penalties over Labor Code violations on behalf of the state. The state publishes every filing. One PAGA case naming this employer is on that record, including the settlements below.

These are outcomes in other people’s cases, obtained by other lawyers, taken from the state’s public filing record. They are not results of this firm, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. What any individual recovers depends on their own hours, pay records, and dates.

• Court-approved settlement · 2024

  $565,000

  A group of current and former non-exempt or hourly paid drivers and other employees in California reached a settlement with their employer over claims that they were not properly paid wages, overtime, and accurate wage statements, and that they did not receive all required compensation upon termination. The settlement resolves class action and PAGA claims without admission of liability. The court granted final approval and entered judgment.

  Covered (i) all current and former non-exempt or hourly paid employees of Sentinel who worked in a driver position in California at any time from March 8, 2018, through December 1, 2023 ("Driver Class" or "Driver Class Members"); and (2) all current and former non-exempt or hourly paid employees of Sentinel in California who received "Base Pay" at any time from March 8, 2021, through December 1, 2023 ("Wage Statement Class" or "Wage Statement Class Members"). The settlement resolved class claims as well as PAGA penalties.

  Employees covered

  265

  Attorneys' fees

  $188,333

  To the state (LWDA)

  $37,500

  Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Santa Barbara · 22CV1684 · Sentinel Transportation denied liability; a settlement is not an admission.

A PAGA case is not a class action, and there is nothing to opt out of. A PAGA settlement resolves civil penalties owed to the state — most of which the state keeps — and it does not necessarily resolve your own unpaid wages, missed break premiums, or final-paycheck penalties. If you worked here and were not paid correctly, that is a separate question worth asking about. How California wage claims work.