We analyze truckload market data for assessing the impact of natural disasters on freight movement. Our focus is on North-Atlantic hurricanes that make landfall in the contiguous USA. Quantifying the impact of natural disasters on the truckload industry can help shippers know what costs to expect, what routes to avoid, how to procure and position relief goods. Carriers can decide where to position trucks to get relief loads, what prices to expect, and how to budget for longer routes and capacity hold-up. And 3PLs can provide reliable info to their customers and know how to price the lanes during natural disasters. Moreover, government agencies that deal with natural disasters can minimize disruptions by identifying critical nodes that should be served first. Our goal is to create a generalizable model that can be extended to various disruptions in commodity networks.

Research Publications

• The impact of special events on the freight spot market, SCM Thesis 2019

Research Team