Hurricane Season Strategy

A Perfect Storm of Opportunity

Two recent news items have raised our eyebrows and, as always yet especially now, we do our best to be prepared.

The first piece of news is that hurricane season begins this week, on June 1, 2018. Hurricane season always begins in early June, and it usually trend up or down in terms of frequency and severity of events.

That said, in 2017 the United States experienced the costliest hurricane season ever, estimated at some $200 billion.

And meteorologists are predicting an above-average number of extreme weather events.

The second eyebrow-raising piece of news is a story of supply and demand: the nation is experiencing a shortage of truck drivers. Part of that shortage is a limitation on eligibility; if you drive a semi-truck, you need to be at least 21 years old to cross state lines. And part of that is a reduction in the driver pool due to the new ELD mandate, which went into effect at the end of last year.

The shortage certainly doesn’t seem to be due to wages. Carrier rates are going up. Yes, supply and demand at work.

As we detailed recently, the industry is in a period of chaos, the likes of which we haven’t seen in quite some time. We welcome chaos, though never in a haphazard manner.

That’s why we’re reaching out to our carriers. We campaign to be as prepared as possible so that everyone has opportunity—to work, to schedule in advance, and to contribute to any recovery efforts in a smart and strategic way.

We’re interested in our carriers’ business activity: how it’s going, what their preferred routes are, the best and most up-to-date contact info.

Businesses—and, in disaster recovery, lives and communities—depend on our industry getting it right. In these times, we always reinforce with our carriers that we coordinate thoroughly with local, state, and federal agencies. As always, we maintain excellent relationships with carriers, dispatch & clients.

And we NEVER send our drivers into harm’s way.

So, what may seem like a perfect storm of chaos to others—an above-average hurricane season, a shortage of drivers—is to us an opportunity.

A challenging opportunity, yes. Yet, our approach, conducting professional business with a human touch, gives us the advantage and the confidence to deliver successfully in the best and worst of times.