Atlanta’s snow and ice storm barreled up the coast Wednesday, leaving behind a patchwork truck-train distribution system, empty store shelves and a bruised logistics system that lost time, money and prestige.
By day’s end, the interstates in and around Atlanta had cleared and most truckers went cautiously on their way delivering groceries, chemicals, clothing and more to Orlando, Raleigh and Knoxville, and beyond. Norfolk Southern sent three-fourths of its usual freight traffic through Atlanta on Wednesday. Kroger restocked bread, milk and other storm-ravaged necessities.
Trucking company executives said it’ll be days, possibly next week, before long-delayed deliveries are made. Millions of dollars in perishable goods, unpaid wages and canceled contracts were lost.
Distributors and customers performed logistical triage to determine which industry or individual -- hospitals and the invalided, in particular -- received freight first. Just about every trucker or freight-forwarder ranked this winter as the worst in recent memory. And winter still has two months to go.
“Atlanta really is the transportation hub for the Southeast [because of] the confluence of the interstate system, the rail yards and even the pipelines,” said Ed Crowell, president of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association. “Georgia’s economy will suffer millions and millions of dollars of lost productivity.”
Eight-hundred dollars in lost pay already hurts Aaron Collins, a long-haul trucker from Texas who spent three nights in a Norcross motel waiting out the storm and delayed deliveries.
“Sometimes when we go into Wyoming we have this problem,” said Collins, “but never this long.”
The logistics trade is the moving-stuff industry, an interlocking web of roads, rail, runways and ports, and Atlanta sits at the nexus of the distribution system. Atlanta is one of the nation’s major trans-shipment hubs, relying on Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Interstates 20, 75, 85 and 285, and the CSX and Norfolk Southern rail yards that dot the region. The ports of Savannah and Brunswick also funnel goods to and through Atlanta.
In all, cargo in Georgia is a $16 billion per year business, according to the state’s Center of Innovation for Logistics. Fulton County, for example, trans-shipped roughly 13 million tons of freight in 2009. So, when a transit-crippling storm hits, Atlanta suffers. And the nation feels the pain.
“I don’t recall anything like this winter,” said Al Dallas, an Augusta trucking manager whose rigs travel through Atlanta many times daily. “Atlanta, from a logistical standpoint, has pretty predictable weather patterns. I hope this is the last storm of the winter season because it’s certainly presented a challenge.”
More than 140,000 Georgians work in the logistics industry, most in trucking. Crowell says 82 percent of all freight -- logs, computers, tissues, carpet, chickens -- travels on trucks. Not much of it moved in Atlanta this week.
“Seems like I was riding on a roller coaster of ice,” said Alabama long-haul trucker Eric Crha, who hit the state line on Sunday night. He finally left town on Wednesday with a load of paper products bound for Florida.
“They should prepare more for winters down here because it seems the winters are coming farther south every year,” he continued. “They need to go buy more salt trucks. This was an eye-opener.”
Crha, an independent contractor, drives for Averitt Express. Averitt, with 4,000 trucks, closed its west Atlanta distribution, near Fulton Industrial, all week. Its eastside facility, in Lawrenceville, reopened Wednesday.
RBW Logistics, the Augusta trucking company, had maybe two-thirds of its trucks back on the road Wednesday -- better than Monday, when only one-fourth of its rigs rolled. It’ll be the weekend, Dallas said, before freight flows freely.
Courier Express Atlanta, a Southeastern trucking company based in Marietta, was at three-quarter’s strength on Wednesday. Hospitals were the top priority.
“We’re really focusing on medical, hospital and pharmaceuticals mainly,” said David ReDavid, who runs the company’s mid-South region. “And we’re replenishing a lot of restaurants with dishwater soap, chemicals and cleaning supplies. We’re starting to get some office supplies delivered, too, because businesses are reopening and they need toner and paper.”
Norfolk Southern, which operates rail yards in Inman Park and Austell, ran 75 freight trains through Atlanta on Wednesday, down from the usual 100 trains. Only 55 trains traversed the city all of Monday and Tuesday. Icy roads prevented employees from getting to work, a spokeswoman said.
Even if trucks made it to distribution centers, there was no guarantee that their customers -- Publix, Home Depot and others -- could get the goods onto the shelves. Walmart, for example, couldn’t tap its usual distributors in Monroe and LaGrange. Consequently, warehouses in Alabama, Florida and North Carolina were summoned.
"Tuesday was the most difficult day," said Don Frieson, the company’s senior vice president for supply chain. "We just couldn't get trucks into here."
Staff writers Johnny Edwards and Matt Kempner contributed to this article.
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