IMAGE: JIM ALLEN/FREIGHTWAVES
Carriers steering clear of Louisiana due to precarious weather conditions can start accepting loads into the state again. While Hurricane Barry caused serious flooding over the weekend, most of the damage was limited to rural areas with little freight activity.
“Most of the damage occurred in rural areas where there is little freight presence, but still check the road conditions map in SONAR for any road closures or street flooding,” FreightWaves Director of Freight Intelligence Zach Strickland said. “There will be disaster relief efforts in the coming weeks but at nowhere near the scale of those after a major hurricane.”
Hurricane Barry weakened into a tropical storm as it made landfall about 150 miles west of New Orleans on Saturday, July 13. Still, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration waived hours of service restrictions for any carrier providing relief supplies to the affected areas.
It is too early to provide a reliable estimate of the damage, but New Orleans was spared from the brunt of the storm.
“There were no significant disruptions to contracted freight, as the storm hit over the weekend in a relatively low volume area,” Strickland said. “Many carriers made their adjustments to their routing last week as inbound tender rejections, seen in SONAR, increased from under 5 percent to over 7 percent leading up to landfall.”
As inbound tender rejections climbed last week, outbound tender rejections fell from 12 percent to 8.5 percent. This indicates that carriers were jumping at the opportunity to get out of the area, according to Strickland.
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Volumes have climbed somewhat in the area as shippers work to move goods out of the path of potential flooding.
In short, carriers accepting loads into Louisiana’s more populous areas should not encounter too many issues. These carriers should still keep an eye on road conditions while moving through the area.
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