FreightWaves Today | October 9

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom.

Julie Van de Kamp (0:03)

For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one-year-old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Big or small, we're here for all of it.

SPEAKER_1 (0:21)

Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead.

Julie Van de Kamp (0:25)

Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and at nordstrom.com.

Malcolm Harris (0:55)

Welcome to another edition of the FreightWaves Show. Today, I am Malcolm Harris, of course, joined by the one and only Julie Van de Kamp. Julie, hello.

Julie Van de Kamp (1:04)

Hello, happy Friday.

Malcolm Harris (1:06)

Happy Friday. It is indeed Friday, October the 9th, and we are going to head into what seems to be a soggy weekend across much of the country, Julie.

Julie Van de Kamp (1:16)

I think Southeast will be rather wet this weekend, which honestly, I'm not super sad about.

Malcolm Harris (1:22)

No!

Julie Van de Kamp (1:22)

I would like to be out and doing fall things, maybe going to Pumpkin Patch, but also the idea of a quiet weekend at home where it's just rainy and we kind of stay home because there's not a lot to do because it's rainy, sounds pretty lovely.

Malcolm Harris (1:34)

Sounds pretty lovely indeed. I think it's going to be a lot of wet weather around the area, obviously. I said the name of the hurricane wrong.

Julie Van de Kamp (1:44)

We said Isaias because we're...

Malcolm Harris (1:47)

We're freight people, right?

Julie Van de Kamp (1:48)

Yeah, but it's Isais.

Malcolm Harris (1:50)

Isais, yeah. Isais is the pronunciation of it. So I saw it on the weather this morning and I was like, I cannot believe, I said, I say it. You know, it's crazy, but it's funny. Isais is officially what seems to be now a category three storm. So this is now taking shape. A landfall is expected between Mobile as well as Pensacola.

I'd say within what, the next 12 to 16 hours, we see probably tonight it'll touch down if so, if not early Saturday a.m. So expect there to be a lot of flooding, a lot of storm surge. Any thoughts, anything to add to what we were talking about?

Julie Van de Kamp (2:27)

So talk about it a little bit in the sonar update today. But I mean, yeah, we'll be watching what the impacts are and if there's any damage or road closures, certainly. So I did a little bit of a overview of the Mobile and Montgomery markets.

It's harder to do Tallahassee because it's not much of a freight market. Of course. So with it being relatively, you know, not super high population areas, I don't think we'll see a huge amount of impact, but I do think it'll affect the Southeast freight next week for sure.

Malcolm Harris (3:02)

Yeah, absolutely. I think that if you are, of course, in the broker side as well as, you know, shipper side, there needs to be conversations being had about early next week, pickups, deliveries, so on and so forth, to get ahead of what's to come. And then also natural disaster, stuff with FEMA. I'm curious to see how that's going to unroll as well.

Julie Van de Kamp (3:21)

Yeah, so we talked earlier this week that they did a reverse the rule where if a state emergency is declared and you're hauling those goods, hours of service are lifted and it had prior been for just 15 days. So now it's 30 So I think that will take some of the administrative work off, if any emergency is called and if any emergency relief supplies are needed. But yeah, we'll see how it plays out over the weekend.

I'll tell you, you never want casualties or loss of life or injuries, and really nor do we want a lot of infrastructure damage, but it is interesting to watch the effects of it. I was thinking this morning that I am not missing being in operations and thinking today about, okay, where are all of our trailers? Do we have them lined up as closely as possible to each other to avoid the wind damage? Do we have them in the highest parts of any yards that might be in that area to try to avoid flooding and not having to think about that? But certainly, I am thinking about the safety of any drivers who will be a part of this.

Malcolm Harris (4:32)

Thinking about the safety of everybody as you guys can see here on the screen. The trajectory so literally kind of to the east of Mobile and to the west of Panama City as well as I mean it's Pensacola is really the eye of where this thing is going to hit. So we will continue to monitor this and give you guys updates as they come about. And with that being said, speaking of updates and the headlines, let's get to The Morning Minute.