Fall is here and what a doozy it has been so far. From port strikes to hurricanes in the first three weeks of Autumn, there is no telling what the rest of this year is going to look like. We all might want to keep our fingers crossed that the good Lord doesn’t unleash anything worse. At the same time, we should all be thankful for the blessings we have. Life and trucking is hard, but if we always help out our fellow man or woman then we can get through anything.
Unless you have been living under a rock the past few weeks, you are aware of the devastation this country has witnessed. Our supply chain is a wreck right now. It’s not often anywhere but the coast sees damage from a hurricane, but Helene proved that wrong. They say the rainfall in TN and NC only comes once every few thousand years. Too bad some of that rain didn’t head to the west where they really need it. California, Arizona and the other western states have seen record breaking heat day after day after day with wildfires raging seemingly all over the place. The western side of Florida just got slammed head on with a powerful hurricane. Tampa Bay hasn’t been directly hit with a hurricane in 100 years. Half of the ports in the country were on strike, but thankfully that only lasted a few days.
Even though we don’t do much work in most of these areas, everything is connected, and we see the effects of the carnage in the freight market. Some of our customers might get supplies from the affected areas so they aren’t able to produce the normal volumes of freight if they aren’t getting the materials to make it. Supply and demand principles tell us that low freight volume means high demands for the available loads so some over the road drivers have seen higher deadhead miles and we have seen lower rates per load.
But it’s not all bad news. There is plenty to celebrate. We have broken ground on a new warehouse in Decatur. It is not on-site at our current terminal. It is about a mile away. The current warehouse known as the “Mac Warehouse” was built over 20 years ago and remains a healthy piece of McLeod Express. The new facility is not replacing the Mac Warehouse. We are increasing our warehouse footprint in Central IL. With this comes new opportunities in Decatur and beyond and we are excited to share this news with our extended family.