Philadelphia area ports, trucking companies to see more volume after Baltimore bridge collapse
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Andy Saporito, the executive director and CEO of the South Jersey Port Corporation, said he was about to leave his house Tuesday morning when his wife called him back in to show him the video of a cargo ship hitting the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
"I was like 'Oh my god, that's catastrophic,'" Saporito said.
Since that time, Saporito said the port has been reaching out to its customers, letting them know they're here to work with them through the closure of the port in Baltimore. And now, he said they're already taking on more cargo.
"We've already had confirmations from three different customers that they'll be bringing ships into Camden, probably over the next two weeks," Saporito said.
The temporary closure of Baltimore's port means companies will look to get their goods into other harbors up and down the East Coast. Saporito said they do have some capacity in Camden, around a million square feet of warehouse space, and that they'll likely see more than the ships already headed their way.
"People are still trying to figure out what they have coming in terms of cargo, and where the best locations to bring it," Saporito said.
But he notes this is a fluid time, with the collapse happening just a day ago. And there are several things ports and companies have to take into account before they can lock in on a single port.
"You have to look at what you have coming in, what your inventory is in your space, and how much you can accommodate," Saporito said.
Across the river in Philadelphia, PhilaPort officials said they have the capacity and already have several diversions scheduled from Baltimore. A spokesperson for the port says they stand ready to help in any way they can.
But it won't just be ports impacted by the temporary port closure in Baltimore. One local trucking company said they've been getting plenty of calls from concerned customers.
"It's been constant," Justin Parent, the terminal manager for IBV LLC in Philadelphia, said. "Emails, calls, it's been non-stop since it happened."
IBV has terminals in several major east coast ports, including Philly and Baltimore. The port closure will mean more work for drivers in the Philly area.
"We're going to have to uptick our driver count to be able to handle that volume. And there's going to be delays at the port that we're anticipating," Parent said.
Parent said right now, their Baltimore crews should have enough work to get them through the end of the week. After that, they'll likely bring those drivers north to work out of Philadelphia. And even though the collapse just happened Monday, IBV crews are already seeing the impact.
"We're starting to see a lot of the work that was coming out of Baltimore transferred to our Philadelphia port," Parent said.
Both Parent and Saporito said they believe the ports will be able to handle the extra cargo in the short term. But right now, it's unclear when crews in Baltimore will be able to get the harbor reopened. And the longer that stays closed, the more impact the Philadelphia region will see.
"If it becomes a long-term thing, then we're going to start seeing congested roadways, we're going to start seeing longer wait times in the port. And it's just going to kind of snowball from there," Parent said.
