CSX - Baltimore Port Closure Puts Truck Drivers Who Haul Autos In a Bind | Benzinga
But Baltimore is not a major intermodal port, with estimates that its share of U.S. intermodal traffic is in the low single digits.
What the Port of Baltimore is, however, is a huge gateway for automobile imports and, to a lesser extent, car exports. And that fact is likely to shake up the niche truck segment of auto haulers.
Guy Young is the general manager of the Auto Haulers Association of America. Reached by phone Monday, the day of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, he assessed his members' industry as it suddenly deals with the loss of its biggest import point.
"What car haulers need that not necessarily any of the other types of container shippers need are places to store the cars until the auto haul trucks come in and pick them up" Young said.
That means parking lots — big ones — and not every port has them. And if they do, there is not necessarily spare capacity beyond what they are utilizing now.
"Containers require a space to put them, too, but you can stack them" Young said. That obviously isn't possible with cars.
He noted that the East Coast also has a significant auto import site at the Port of Brunswick, Georgia, not far from Savannah.
In an article published in Forbes, Ken Roberts, who analyzes trade data, said he believed that the Georgia port would be the best location to take in auto carriers diverted from Baltimore. In the article, Roberts said the leading import partners at Brunswick "align most closely with those of the Port of Baltimore."
Movin' out?
But that raises a question. Drivers of auto haulers who are located in the Baltimore region to service that port would need to move their base of operations at least temporarily to Brunswick or other ports — Roberts and Young both mentioned Newark, New Jersey, and Jacksonville, Florida, as leading car import sites — to make the increased operations there work. Will they make that move?
Most auto haulers are home at night, Young said. Companies that specialize in auto hauling "probably have drivers that are based in Baltimore or live close by. You can't necessarily just send them out anywhere because they don't have a home to get back to."
Auto hauling is "not really like over-the-road driving" Young ...