Potential Rail Strike Sends Shippers to Truckers

Although a tentative railway labor deal has been reached shippers are looking toward truckers as they work on contingency plans to keep freight moving. At CFI on Tuesday just one shipper was looking for help moving freight. By Wednesday morning that number had grown to 10.

As this deal is not yet concrete, shippers are preparing to move freight over the road by securing equipment such as tractors and trailers or assurance that capacity will be available. Greg Orr, president of CFI spoke to JOC and explained that  “there’s not enough capacity out there,” although there are “pockets” of capacity available in contract networks, including CFI, but the location varies from week to week.

Orr explained, “there might be additional capacity in the Pacific Northwest one week, but not the next,” he said. “It’s been a little more volatile than it’s been in the past.” Truckload capacity is more stable than it has been since the pandemic began, Orr said, but a rail strike could change that. 

Find out more about the ongoing rail negotiations and what that means for truckload carriers here.

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