Trucking should be back to normal Tuesday

Trucking officials said they may be hampered now by flooding concerns, but expect to be back at 100 percent capacity within days or — at least in one case — even by tomorrow.

“I think we’ll be back to normal very, very quickly,” said Scott McWilliams, CEO of Brentwood-based OHL, one of the world’s 50 largest third-party logistics and transportation companies.

McWilliams said between 50 and 60 percent of OHL’s Nashville-area employees could not report to work today as they watched after their homefronts.

OHL, which operates a number of distribution warehouses in the Nashville area, said several deliveries to those warehouses have been late, and have operated today at a reduced capacity shipping from those locations, none of which suffered flood damage, McWilliams said.

“Overall, I’m pretty encouraged by how everyone is reacting,” McWilliams said, citing employees that have stepped up to fill needed roles. OHL is helping the Red Cross warehouse relief supplies and is also assisting with distribution.

McWilliams said OHL — which overwhelmingly relies on trucking to serve its clients — will be at 100 percent capacity by Tuesday.

Nashville-based M&W Logistics Group should have its transportation side back to normal shortly, but warehousing operations may lag behind, according to Jason Pitt, M&W’s manager of warehousing.

“We had some drivers that did get out, so we’ll be back to normal from a transportation standpoint,” Pitt said.

Pitt and others at M&W started their Monday at 5 a.m., getting 20 semi-trucks and 30 trailers to higher ground from their location on Pumping Station Road, located on the south side of the Cumberland River. A warehouse on site has been enveloped by flood waters, though Pitt estimated the water may only be a foot high inside.

“The loss is probably not going to be as dramatic as you might think,” Pitt said. However, M&W is now in search of a food-grade storage warehouse to use on a temporary basis.

“That has set us behind a couple of days,” he said.

A delay on transportation could impact manufacturers outside of Nashville, considering the number of companies that rely on a just-in-time supply chain, said Dr. Paul Dittman, a lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Logistics at the UT Knoxville College of Business Administration.

"It could have a ripple effect," Dittmann said.

As McWilliams indicated, any disruptions will likely be short-lived, Dittmann said, especially compared to the blizzards he endured while working in the logistics industry in Chicago.

"My guess is this is not going to be that big of a thing," he said.

Though McWilliams and Pitt said they have few tie-ins with barge and rail lines, Dittmann said the popularity of both has increased in conjunction with the higher costs of trucking transportation. Area barge traffic, Dittmann said, could be disrupted for a week or more.

Calls to spokespeople for both Ingram Barge Co. and the rail company CSX have not been returned thus far.

You can reach Eric Snyder at esnyder@bizjournals.com or 615-846-4254.


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