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By Peggy Dorf, DAT Solutions
Mother Nature never fails to kick up a storm in August and September, the latest being Hurricane Florence. Just as certainly, though, truckers and freight brokers are using their equipment, ingenuity, and sheer force of will to bring relief.
The work typically pays well, but it's complicated, difficult, and sometimes risky.
It's also necessary.
In the United States, a "major disaster" is any natural event—including hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes, snowstorms, and fires—where the damage is going to be so severe that the federal government determines that it is beyond the capabilities of state and local governments to respond.
This declaration provides a wide range of assistance for individuals and public infrastructure, including funds, administered through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), that can be used for trucking and logistics.
Here's what you should know if you want to haul or broker emergency freight for FEMA and other organizations:
Find FEMA loads or trucks on the spot market: Many freight brokers, including some of the largest 3PLs, move and warehouse emergency freight. They may be handling this work on behalf of FEMA itself, or for a non-governmental agency like the American Red Cross.
If you're a load broker, and your customers have emergency freight to move, you may be working in an unfamiliar area where you don't have a lot of carrier contacts. You can post loads to the spot truckload freight market so carriers can find them, or take a proactive approach and look for trucks on load boards going a destination near the storm-affected area. Either way, the spot market is where you'll find FEMA and emergency freight.
Provide warehousing or trucks for non-FEMA relief: After the storm has passed, stores and warehouses will need re-stocking because inventory was sold out before the disaster or ruined by it. Brokers and carriers can learn about immediate needs at American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), which provides a handy map and list of aid requests. ALAN loads won't necessarily be FEMA freight but they could still be emergency relief for local people trying to put their lives back together.
Don't be part of the problem: Safety is your priority, and conditions after a hurricane or other severe weather can be hazardous well after it's done. If you're a broker or dispatcher, learn as much as you can about the loads, the routes, and the loading or unloading environment before you assign a truck to a disaster area. For example, after Hurricane Harvey, sections of interstate highways were closed due to high water in Houston, and many other roads were closed or partially closed for repairs, usually at night.
Look at a map of road closures, sign up for alerts in
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the states you expect to drive through, call 511 before you go, and don't encourage risky or "heroic" behavior. Brokers and dispatchers should be sure to give the driver an emergency contact number just in case.
Fuel is not always available: It's no surprise that gas stations in Florida were running out of every kind of fuel after Irma, as hundreds of thousands of people attempted to evacuate. But shortages also occurred in Georgia and Mississippi as these evacuees fueled up to head home. Check on fuel availability before starting out.
If you can't go, you can still help: The American Red Cross has a special donation site for hurricane relief. After Harvey and Irma, DAT employees donated there, and our company matched those funds. Maybe you want to help an organization with a special focus, like the Human Society.
Some groups seem to come out of nowhere during emergencies. To be sure you are giving to a legitimate relief organization, check out the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOAD), which publishes "how to help" advice and other resources.
You can also provide disaster relief just by doing your everyday job and moving goods around the country. Massive numbers of loads have been re-scheduled and re-routed because of Florence, and today manufacturers and wholesalers are desperately re-stocking warehouses and distribution centers, which in turn, re-stock store shelves all over the country.
I have a cousin in Miami who made it through Hurricane Irma safely with her family but they ended up with a week-long power outage and a stinky mess in the house from piles of seaweed, plus three kids and two dogs who could not go outside for days. You'd better believe that when it was safe to drive, my cousin was on her way to Publix or Walmart for carpet shampoo, bottled water, coffee, fresh food, and maybe a new bottle of ibuprofen.
If you helped move those loads from Columbus to Atlanta, and those items eventually ended up on the shelf in that Publix store in Miami, thank you: you helped to restore hope and a sense of normalcy for my cousin and her neighbors.
The same is happening today after Florence.
Peggy Dorf is a market analyst with DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT® network of load boards and RateView rate analysis database and tools. She researches and writes about the impact of economic trends on companies and individuals in transportation and logistics. Peggy is based in Portland, Ore.
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