The 2:00 Minute Warning

BY MIKE REGAN, CO-FOUNDER OF TRANZACT

With the recent announcements that FedEx and UPS temporarily suspending their service guarantees, and FedEx’s recent imposition of a surcharge on all FedEx Express and TNT International parcel and freight shipments, shippers are waking up to the reality that the coronavirus continues to throw a lot of curveballs at professionals tasked with managing supply chains.

We want to emphasize, FedEx and UPS are not unique. Over the past two months we have been having discussions with our Freedom carriers and several truckload carriers. Every one of them has been impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

For example, in last week’s Two Minute Warning we highlighted issues such as carriers imposing freight embargos to protect their drivers, or how they are being impacted by decrees to only service “essential industries.” And that is why we have been inundated with calls from shippers who are asking questions about what they should expect to see in the future.

At TranzAct, we have a fabulous network of resources we can contact to help you answer the “What’s Next” question. And trust me, we went right to the top to give you a better understanding of what’s happening in the industry. We interviewed the CEOs of several trucking and logistics companies so that they could share their insights on two critical issues.

First, how are their companies operating in the coronavirus environment? Second, what are the things shippers need to know going forward? I know you are extremely busy, but you owe it to yourselves and to your companies to listen to these interviews with:

Rob Estes, CEO Estes Express

Darren Hawkins, CEO YRC Worldwide

Dave Yeager, CEO Hub Group

Here are some practical tips that they all agreed on …

First, lock up your capacity now. There will be a post corona surge causing some shippers to think that they are back in 2018 when capacity was extremely tight.

Second, make sure you keep your dock facilities open so that drivers can, at minimum, have access to a restroom.

We understand that everyone wants to restrict access to their facilities, but smart companies will hire someone to sanitize their facilities so that they avoid getting bad reviews and aggravating the drivers that are keeping our nation’s supplies moving.

One final note. Based on the great reviews we are getting on our interview with David Simchi-Levi, I can not encourage you strongly enough to listen to this interview in which he addresses how shippers are putting their supply chains at risk and why they need to consider risk mitigation strategies.

We know that these are challenging times for companies and communities, and that’s why now, more than ever, TranzAct is on your team, we’re here to help, and we are passionate about seeing you be successful.