Despite the extraordinary challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian National Railway’s (CN) essential railroaders focused relentlessly on their mission to deliver the goods that people rely on every day.
Given the disruptions that took place across the global supply chain over the past year, it is obvious that the effects of the pandemic are not over. Traditionally, freight moved through the complex international supply chain with relatively few bottlenecks, but COVID-19 caused a massive drop and surge in volume that the ecosystem was not designed to handle. Capacity issues at factories and ports in Asia, along with shortages of warehouse space, trucking capacity, and chassis in North America, caused vessels to back up outside major US ports as containers sat in terminals waiting to be delivered to already full warehouses.
The pandemic brought to light the need for importers to develop ready options to enter the continent via multiple port gateways. Some shifted their port of entry to the CN-served Gulf Coast ports of New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, where volumes have spiked 46 percent from 2020.
COVID-19 drove the need for creative import solutions to get goods to market to bypass the congestion. CN initiated a new “first-trains-off-the-ship” approach, with nonstop priority train service from the Port of Prince Rupert directly to Chicago and Toronto, providing an alternative route for imports from Shanghai to the US Midwest and Ontario. By collaborating with our customers and supply chain partners, CN is offering real alternatives to the West Coast port congestion.
For part of 2022, we should expect more of the same with regard to volume levels and supply chain disruption.
On a personal note, I would like to thank all our customers and the ecosystem of supply chain partners for their genuine support throughout my 25-year career as a railroader. I am honored to have led a remarkable group of people dedicated to CN and the shipping community. CN’s future is in the hands of the best railroaders in the industry as they have proven to have the ability to embrace change not only to succeed but to innovate for our customers and lead a successful organization for many decades to come.