{"id":1158,"date":"2022-02-23T16:04:46","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/what-the-bridge-closure-could-mean-to-americas-distribution-hub\/"},"modified":"2022-02-23T16:04:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:04:47","slug":"what-the-bridge-closure-could-mean-to-americas-distribution-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/what-the-bridge-closure-could-mean-to-americas-distribution-hub\/","title":{"rendered":"What the bridge closure could mean to 'America's distribution hub'?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The closure of the Hernando de Soto Bridge is almost like the COVID-19 pandemic: it affects us all.<\/p>\n

In the case of the I-40 bridge closure, large and small trucking and logistics firms are feeling the supply chain strain. As one of the largest logistics firms in the Memphis area, Dunavant is having to adjust.<\/p>\n

Brandon Burnsed<\/a>, SVP of Dunavant, who oversees the firm\u2019s Memphis terminal, said the bridge closure just adds another kink in the already strained supply chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are coming off the pandemic; we are coming off a once in a 50-year blizzard in Memphis that shutdown transportation. So, [the bridge closure] is really just compounding the issues that the supply chain market has been seeing over the last 10 to 12 months since the U.S. opened back up off the pandemic,\" Burnsed said. \"What we are going to feel is really the bullwhip effect of this bridge closure as it ripples through the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dunavant, the bridge closure \u2014 like for many logistics companies \u2014 has made life even more difficult for its drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impacts we are seeing on the intermodal containers that we hauled is about an hour to an hour and a half [of] additional time from Memphis to the UP [Union<\/p>\n

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COURTESY DCA<\/p><\/div>\n

Pacific Railroad intermodal terminal in Marion] across the [I-55] bridge,\u201d Burnsed said. \u201cWe are already dealing with a driver capacity issue and a driver shortage in the U.S. It is compounding that problem as well because there aren\u2019t enough drivers to move the goods. And now, it is taking even longer to move the goods. But, it is always our job to deliver predictably. \u2026 More than ever, delivery on time is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trickledown effect of the bridge closure is now also hitting buyers in their wallets, Burnsed said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is taking longer to get to a manufacturing facility, so the cost to the consumer is going to continue to rise because we are having to pay extra to pull freight out of UP and extend that time for our drivers,\u201d Burnsed said. \u201cThey are having to go out of route, so it is burning more fuel and costing them more time. We are paying our trucks and we are passing that along to our customers, who in turn are going to pass that along to the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dunavant has eight terminal locations between the East Coast and Mid-South and two locations in Texas. But, Burnsed stressed that Memphis is a critical terminal because of the unique air, rail, water, and truck intersection, which makes it, he said, America\u2019s distribution hub.<\/p>\n

With the bridge's reopening date still unknown, Burnsed noted there could be even greater ramifications for local logistics firms if the closure is long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t know is what customers are going to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they are going to reroute out of West Memphis and UP because of the challenges of the bridge. And, are they going to route into other areas and find alternative routes? What we have seen in the supply chain \u2014 just in general from the pandemic \u2014 it tends to find \u2026 the path of least resistance. So, customers will look for alternative routes if it continues to increase their cost and [decrease] their \u2026 speed to market.\u201d<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Corey Davis<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Reporter, Memphis Business Journal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The closure of the Hernando de Soto Bridge is almost like the COVID-19 pandemic: it affects us all. In the case of the I-40 bridge closure, large and small trucking and logistics firms are feeling the supply chain strain. As one of the largest logistics firms in the Memphis area, Dunavant is having to adjust. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1300,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/1300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}