Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Impact on Freight Navigating

It's been almost a month since a massive cargo ship crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, and the data is starting to roll in about its impact on the supply chain. In this week's Talking Supply Chain podcast, Supply Chain Management Review Editor-in-Chief Brian Straight spoke with Dean Croke, principal analyst for DAT Freight & Analytics, about the impact that bridge collapse is having on freight navigating through the region. Among the highlights:

Initial thoughts after the bridge collapse

My initial assumption was this is not a big deal, nationally, but it will be a very big deal, regionally. Very specifically, a lot of disruption for two categories. One was the specialized open-deck trailer market, including flatbeds, drop decks, and RGNs. The other was automotive. The reason we've seen flatbed capacity tightened so much is because it's such a specialized secteur.

Uptick in Savannah

The three-day rates were crazy because people were trying to process what the level of disruption would be there was a panic to try and get Freight out of there and that's why we don't see that. We don't see that as being unusual. That's typically what happens when you have hurricanes here. There's a there's a sort of a panic stage, but then the market settled down really quickly by the end of the week. The three-day rates had calmed right down they didn't drop, you know back to normal year over year.

Impact on dry van rates further north or south of Baltimore