Weather Delays

Weather delays are a common cause of delays in freight transport year-round. Poor weather doesn't just delay pickups and deliveries, but also causes many issues across the entire supply chain.

These include:

Capacity Limitations – During periods of poor weather, carriers have less capacity to move even their normal freight volumes. The more equipment that is stuck in transit, the fewer trucks that are available to make pickups and deliveries.

Inbound Delays – Shipments coming from areas affected by weather and other natural severities could be delayed due to service centre shutdowns, lane delays, power outages, in addition to existing capacity constraints.

No Guarantees – One of the most obvious problems with weather delays is that the carrier can no longer guarantee that your shipment will arrive on time, even if it is an expedited shipment. Your shipment could be sitting in a terminal on its way to its destination until the lane is clear and driving can resume. One benefit of expedited or guaranteed shipments is that once the weather event passes and things begin moving again, those shipments are prioritized to move first.

While weather delays can create significant operational inefficiencies and stress on all ends of the supply chain, carriers do their best to operate safely in these conditions. It is always a good idea to be aware of the weather across the lane you plan on shipping, and potentially changing your ship date if you see any weather issues. FreightSimple allows you to get quotes within a month, and book shipments quickly and easily, so you can remain flexible during times of inclement weather. Your FreightSimple dashboard also shows detailed tracking, including weather delays should your shipment be impacted. It you have any questions, you can always open a live chat and reach out to our team.