07 May The COVID-19 Logistics Roller Coaster
Joseph Landry, Logistics Specialist – DTS Logistics
Joseph Landry, a Logistics Specialist for DTS Logistics, authored an article for Frozen and Refrigerated Buyer magazine. Joseph highlights the positive changes in transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic, how customer and carrier relationships have grown, and where personal priorities fall.
Results of Panic Buying in Logistics
Joe did fantastically well explaining how panic buying has impacted the logistics industry. The COVID-19 crisis upended industries top to bottom across a wide array of verticals. There were demand-side shortages and drop-offs, and freakish supply-side surpluses. Manufacturing, too, saw some markets being pressed nearly to extinction as pandemic austerity gripped the nation, while other operations couldn’t get raw materials fast enough to meet demand.
As Joe shares:
“Our company serves mostly LTL contracted rates and spot market work. We still have our regular shipments and some new lanes, but there was a big drop — especially for our customers serving restaurants. Restaurant suppliers account for about 30% of our business, and we’re down about 10%-15% as a whole this month. Most meatpackers around us have been running full bore, and some carriers have cut out LTL to only run truckloads because they’ve been so busy with meat.”
DTS Logistics was positioned to leverage our carrier relationships and help everyone weather the storm.
“Our carriers are experts at delivering to difficult locations like New York City, Los Angeles, and other challenging cities. Because of that, our rates to those areas are stable.”
The Pandemic and Personal Life
We’re not all business, and Joe has a personal life, too. Life in these United States has been strange the last couple of months. Everyone is having to constantly adjust to what we keep hearing referred to as “the new normal.”
“I find myself with all this “time” I have been dreaming about. Here is my previous self-talk: “I will clean my house as soon as I have ‘time;’ I would love to learn another language, if only I had ‘time;’ I don’t have ‘time’ to work out. Of course, now that I have “time” I have done none of these things! I learned that it was my priorities that were not in order. I now appreciate all the extra time that I have to self-reflect. I’m confident we will all come out of this better people.”
DTS Logistics is grateful that Joe took just a little of that extra time to put together this outstanding article. Hop over to this month’s issue of Frozen and Refrigerated Buyer Magazine to check it out.
Meantime, everyone, please stay safe out there. All our best to you and your families!
Special thanks to Warren Thayer, Editorial Director & Managing Partner of Frozen and Refrigerated Buyer Magazine.