Under and over a bridge are the two ways logistics companies used the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Now that the bridge has collapsed, short-term costs are focused on container ships blocked from the terminal, and long-term costs are focused on trucks having to find alternative routes.

With long and complicated supply chains, fragile to politics, natural disaster, and accidents, logistic companies are used to dealing with a crisis. The bridge collapse in the Port of Baltimore on March 26 tested the East Coast supply chain, and under pressure, Memphis-based logistics companies are finding intermodal solutions in the short term and looking to innovations in the long term.

Since the collapse, Memphis-based companies IMC and Dunavant have diverted cargo to other terminals along the East Coast, with Norfolk, Virginia, taking on the bulk of the volume.

These short-term adjustments are likely to horizon once the channel reopens. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates a partial channel reopening by May and the permanent reopening by June.

“Once the shipping channel opens, for the most part, everything is almost back to normal,” said Don Maier, a supply chain logistics professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's Haslam College of Business.

Not quite normal
However, after the channel reopens, trucking containers offloaded from the resumed ship traffic will likely induce long-term costs due to further congestion in the detours around Key Bridge while it is being rebuilt, which will likely take years.

“If I'm a truck driver, I want to take the Key Bridge, because I can bypass a lot of the regular city commuter traffic in and around Baltimore.” Maier said, “I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. That's why the Key Bridge was crucial.”

For Aaron Keen, SVP for Dunavant Sea Lane Express, the story doesn't end there. He anticipates innovation as short-term solutions are put in place.

“In any crisis, from a strike or war to a pandemic and, in this case, a bridge collapse, the impact on the logistics industry is incredibly tangible, requiring us to be ever-changing and always built on innovation,” he said.

The Key Bridge collapse is not the first and won't be the last crisis in logistics. Previous shocks have made the supply chain more prepared. In particular, ports are more flexible, according to Maier.

“When I talked to some of the port directors, they said things are moving.” Maier noted. “It's a little bit slower, but things are moving through the terminals better. So, from a supply chain perspective, the system is operating the way that it should.”

Trucks, trains, and barges
Other than the ships already en route to Baltimore at the time of the collapse, most ships already had many other East Coast ports on its itinerary. So, after the initial scramble to reroute the ships headed to Baltimore, it was just a matter of dropping off diverted cargo with the cargo already intended for that port.

Now, however, the cargo is at a port much farther away from its destination than the Port of Baltimore. This requires additional fuel, labor, and time, among other costs, to get the cargo back to the Baltimore area.

“Truck transit times increased due to greater length of haul from the other ports to recipient,” IMC CEO Joel Henry said. “There are also some additional delays due to volume surges at these ports that are, in general, greater than truck capacity, but we are not seeing these delays mushroom beyond one week.”

While trucking was the first port of call, IMC and Dunavant are using other intermodal solutions as well.

"An intermodal solution is mandatory for the extent of this port closure,” Keen said.

Norfolk Southern and CSX are offering more rail capacity between East Coast ports. This will lessen trucking needs for more diverted cargo to reach its intended destination.

In addition, plans are being made for barging through Virginia to reduce the reliance on trucks, Henry said.

“This allows more truck capacity to stay local, accomplishing multiple moves per day versus one load per day running from these ports to the majority of the Baltimore area,” he said.

With many solutions required to come to together after Key Bridge collapse, it could have been a lot worse.

Demand on the East Coast port had decreased in the past year, according to Maier.

This is due to companies moving volume back to the West Coast, after the West Coast port workers union ended yearlong negotiations last year, Maier said. Also, the bridge collapse happened during a post-holiday season, which typically has lower demand.

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