Extreme Weather

ISSUE

You have scheduled a pick-up or delivery, but the truck cannot make it in due to extreme weather (e.g., heavy icing, deep snow, tornado, flood, hurricane) near or on the route to your location

Note: if the weather is the result of a major storm that has been widely forecast, we will attempt to discourage customers from shipping to or picking up from storm-threatened areas until the weather conditions have stabilized. .

ACTION

1. If we have not already called you to enquire as to conditions in your vicinity, please call us to let us know whether the shipping / receiving location will be open.
2. We tell you the weather and road status as we know it, we will tell you where the truck is and what its plans are for the next 24 hours, and we will ask the status of your facility in terms of loading a pick-up or accepting a delivery.
3. Based on our conversation and on weather forecasts, we will make a recommendation on what to request of the truck, and we will discuss this with the carrier.
4. If your facility is closed, does not have electrical service, will be unstaffed, is unreachable by road, has been flooded, or has been destroyed, we will give the truck alternative instructions.
5. As necessary, we will postpone pick-ups, and we will divert deliveries to a regional cartage company that is open. If we have to divert a delivery, will we advise you of the expected delivery delay, and of the additional charges related to the diversion.

EXPLANATION

When extreme weather happens, all bets are off. Trucks that are out on the highway seek safety and shelter, and trucks that are at their terminals remain at their terminals. And trucks that want only to pass through the area of the storm have to divert, creating delays and incurring extra expense. The limited service that we are able to provide to and from the storm area is offered in the context of the larger safety and operational environment.

IMPACT & TYPICAL RESOLUTION

Extreme weather always leads to service delays and extra charges. The nature and extent of each delay, and its attendant charges, is situation-dependent. (The longest delay we have encountered thus far is 2 weeks, when a truck arrived for a delivery at a warehouse that had 6 hours earlier lost its entire roof to a hurricane: the freight was delivered to and held at a cartage company 500 miles away until our customer located new temporary warehousing in the area.)

Because there is nothing typical about extreme weather, there is no typical resolution. We deal with each situation individually, with the objective of provided the best service possible in the circumstances, with an eye on cost control.