Werner semi-trucks are rushing to restock supermarkets and stores across the U.S.
Trucking companies are making heroic efforts to keep store shelves stocked with toilet paper, food and cleaning supplies that have run low amid panic-buying spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, a task made easier by lighter-usual-highway traffic. On the downside, the availability of showers and sanitizing products for drivers at truckstops is a problem.
“We are definitely seeing transit time starting to improve and drivers are commenting on that and that’s encouraging,” Derek Leathers, president and CEO of Omaha-based trucking company Werner Enterprises, tells Forbes. “We really need people to stay off the roads if we want to get the supply chain to continue to operate more efficiently and get more stuff to stores more quickly.”
Werner, with about 9,500 drivers hauling freight across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, is racing to keep up with spiking demand for “paper products, sanitation products, hand sanitizers and basic household goods,” Leathers says. Shipments of products such as apparel have plunged, “but food and beverage is booming. In total, we’re more in demand at the moment and just trying to work through it and get things to market as quickly and safely as we can.”
Trucking giant J.B. Hunt Transport said Monday it’s providing a one-time $500 bonus for its drivers and personnel at field operations and customer facilities in recognition of how hard they’re working right now. “All of our employees have gone above and beyond the call to action during this crisis,” said John Roberts, president and CEO of J.B. Hunt. “They have kept pace with the evolving supply chain needs of our customers in the face of great uncertainty.”
Demand for shipments is especially high up and down the U.S. West Coast and in New York and the Northeast, according to Werner’s Leathers. Those are also the parts of the country where coronavirus infection rates have been the highest.
Lighter highway traffic means goods can get to stores and supermarkets faster during the coronavirus … [+]
Lighter traffic is particularly noticeable in cities synonymous with congestion, according to Seattle-based Convoy, a digital freight service that helps shippers get thousands of loads onto trucks everyday. “Compared to this time last year, we’re seeing average speeds on local deliveries during morning and afternoon rush hour in Seattle and Los Angeles increase by anywhere from 5 to 10 miles per hour,” says Aaron Terrazas, Convoy’s director of economic research. “For local hauls, surface streets are often a big portion of the driver’s total time. With fewer commuters out there, truckers increasingly have the open road all to themselves–even in the densest urban areas.”
There are exceptions, however. Highways in Florida, which hasn’t imposed statewide stay-at-home rules, seemed packed over the weekend, though things were different one state over, according to Doug Oberlin, a veteran long-haul driver based in Marysville, Ohio.
“I was down south of Orlando and picked up a load, coming up I-75 out of Florida, and boy it was busy,” says Oberlin, during a stop in Indiana. “I cut over to Alabama and coming up I-65 yesterday and it was pretty light.”
The ability of shippers to get goods to stores and supermarkets faster is a rare bright spot as the impact of the coronavirus and steps to curb its spread hammer the U.S. economy and financial markets. In the near term, there’s little indication circumstances will improve, as health experts such as Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warn that the U.S. hasn’t yet felt the full impact of COVID-19 crisis.
Truckers may be making better time but they are also contending with reduced services at vital highway truckstops, including the elimination of indoor dining at restaurants and coffee shops and temporary closures of fitness facilities and other important amenities for workers who spend hours behind the wheel. Truckstop showers remain available, but more stringent cleaning efforts mean fewer are available at any given time.
“Drivers still need to park, they need to take breaks, they need access to food,” Leathers says. “That is becoming more disrupted at times as state or local officials are passing well-intended regulations. We support what they’re doing but there are unintended consequences that disrupt the flow of goods.”
Some services have been scaled back though TravelCenters of America, the biggest publicly traded U.S. truckstop operator, says all its TA Truck Service centers remain open and continue to offer 24-hour roadside assistance for drivers. “Our showers are open and you can still reserve showers” using a company-branded app, TA said by email. And they’re being cleaned regularly with the “highest-quality chemicals.”
On the road, Oberlin is also encountering shortage of some of the same products consumers are scrambling to buy. “I can’t find Clorox wipes or hand sanitizer at any truckstop I’ve been to. Everybody is sold out.”
The current health crisis is also creating newfound respect for the critical role truckers play.
“One of our drivers told me a story about a delivery to a store in the southeast this week,” Leathers says. “When he arrived, the analogy he used is ‘it felt like when you a pilot lands a plane perfectly and everybody applauds for the pilot. Well, nobody does that for truck drivers, but he got a round of applause when he pulled up to the store, said it really felt pretty special.”
