Dive Brief:
- The many closures on I-95 as a result of Hurricane Matthew are proving expensive for the trucking industry, resulting in up to 50% lost revenue in some cases, Overdrive reports.
- Closures in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee have been in place for over a week now as flood waters remain high and drivers cannot receive or deliver goods throughout a key portion of the East Coast freight corridor.
- As a result, rates could rise as much as 18 cents a mile in areas with particular demand, such as coming from Atlanta into the Raleigh area. In the days following the storm, other loads going to Raleigh from major inbound lanes, such as from Pittsburgh, PA, Elizabeth, NJ, and Greenville, SC have also risen.
Dive Insight:
On average, over 10,000 trucks travel along the I-95 corridor each day, carrying 5.3 billion tons of freight shipments between Miami and Houlton, ME every year. To put the corridor's importance into perspective, the region it connects represents 38% of all U.S. jobs and 40% of the country's GDP.
The corridor is partially blocked throughout the 452 miles between Savannah, GA and Richmond, VA, however, forcing losses onto regional trucking companies whose truckers cannot work and retailers who cannot receive shipments despite the condition beginning to return to normal.
Inland routes do exist, but backlogs, delays and rising rates should be expected until road conditions clear — after all, given the nature of the supply chain one missed shipment along the route can have impacts throughout.
