Please see below update from Saia on the current weather situation:
Dear Customer:
The purpose of this communication is to continue providing you with the latest updates as it relates to Saia’s operational response to the historical weather event impacting the United States. Our goal is to keep you informed on our strategy and actions underway so that we are in the best possible position to return to normal, safe operations as the weather breaks. Noted below are a few key points:
– First and foremost, the safety of our employees and the motoring public remains a priority. We will only deploy drivers and employees in markets where it is safe to operate equipment.
– 75% of the lower 48 states are under snow cover and as of this morning, there are still over 2 million people without power in Texas. The president has declared a state of emergency in the state and we expect our Texas operations and Memphis, TN city operations to be impacted into next week.
– Houston Region – As of this morning, we have limited operations in the region with four terminals closed. Widespread power and water outages are reported in Houston and the surrounding areas.
– Dallas Region – All terminals are closed with the exception of our Albuquerque and Farmington, NM facilities. An embargo, which remains in place, was issued on shipments destined to Texas.
– Memphis and Nashville – These terminals are closed and an embargo is in place for shipments destined to the terminals’ delivery areas.
– Chicago and Cincinnati Regions – These are open with some limited service areas. The key in this market is resetting our linehaul operations.
– Northeast Region – Terminals in this area are all operational.
– Linehaul – A significant linehaul operation is planned this weekend using both city and line drivers to begin resetting the network and pushing as much freight out as possible to destination.
– Plans are underway to deploy a large city operation Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 in all impacted markets.
– Pool Distribution – Please see the included “pool distribution” map, which highlights an alternative for movement of LTL shipments. Essentially, multiple shipments are consolidated into one trailer moving in long-haul lanes that end up in a regional distribution model. This model allows a bypass of impacted terminals. For example, a customer in Salt Lake City loads a truckload of multiple LTL shipments to the Southeast. A truckload carrier moves the freight over the road directly to our Atlanta break terminal for shipments destined to Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina. Shipments are than delivered by Saia in one to two business days. This is just one example of several options.