Wheels Of Hope
Trucks not only kept America rolling, they provided direct relief.
DEBORAH LOCKRIDGE, SENIOR EDITOR
& JOHN BENDEL, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
America wanted to help. Doctors, nurses and EMTs rushed into the city from near and far. All over the country, people lined up to give blood. Donations of goods and money poured in, from the pennies in a schoolchild's pocketbook to millions of dollars pledged by corporations and celebrities. And the trucking industry was there in the middle of it, rushing emergency supplies to the scene, supplying free trucks and drivers to deliver donated goods, giving blood and money and whatever it took to keep America rolling.
Across The Bridge
"I do not know what this new era will bring or what will be asked of us,'' wrote Art Muglia, president of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association in his association's October newsletter.
"But I do know that in its early, dark hours the trucking industry responded with courage and generosity, freely offering its equipment, people and expertise to do whatever needed to be done.''
Muglia was talking about his home state in the days and weeks following the attacks. Many companies and individual drivers from around the U.S. and Canada responded to the crisis, but New Jersey had a front row seat to the disaster that unfolded just across the Hudson River.
In fact, the New Jersey Motor Truck Association became a kind of clearing house for truck-related information in the weeks after the attack. It began as Executive Director Gail Toth put out the word to members that trucks might be needed on an emergency basis in New York City. Almost without exception, New Jersey truckers stepped up to the plate, offering equipment and drivers. Flatbeds were among the first to be called to duty hauling out debris, said Toth.
Then, Toth and her staff began to witness an outpouring of spirit and generosity so unprecedented it caused a logistical crisis. Truckloads of donations were arriving with no more than "New York City'' for a delivery address.
"Every town, every church, every fire department, every police department, every school was doing a collection,'' Toth said. "They called here and said, where do we deliver it?''
As the tragedy of the Twin Towers played out on TV screens, individuals and groups around the country — and even in Canada — tried to help. If a TV reporter said that some rescuers needed gloves, people gathered gloves, put them on a truck and sent it on its way.
At one point early in the rescue operation, a reporter mentioned that rescuers needed fresh water. Truckloads of donated water began arriving in New Jersey. Another reporter said that hard-working rescue dogs needed booties for their unprotected paws.
"We got two truckloads of dog booties,'' said Toth.
As it turned out, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had most of the needs covered. According to Toth, the agency has cataloged and stored the donated goods at more than six New Jersey warehouses. Much of the material has since been donated to nearby charities.
Trucking and truckers were at the heart of the overwhelmingly generous response. For example, owner-operators were willing to forgo paying loads. Toth said that when the word first went out that trucks might be needed, owner-operators at the Petro truckstop in Bordentown, N.J., said they wouldn't take loads but would wait for word just in case they were needed.
Other trucks were donated by companies, which paid the drivers and in many cases, also made cash donations for the victims. At least one N.J. carrier matched its employees' donations dollar for dollar.
'This Is What We Do'
As the largest time-critical shipment carrier in North America, expedited trucking company FedEx Custom Critical was poised and ready to help in the wake of the attacks.
"This is what we do," says FedEx's Virginia Albanese. "We're an emergency carrier. So when the calls came in, we just swung right into action."
Even though the Federal Aviation Administration had grounded air traffic in the days after the attack, FedEx Custom Critical was able to get special permission for its charter air division to fly relief supplies. By 5 p.m. Sept. 11, they were flying serum and graft tissue from the West Coast to the East Coast. A fleet of FedEx Custom Critical trucks was waiting at the airport to distribute them to more than 50 hospitals.
On the ground, FedEx Custom Critical trucks crossed the otherwise closed George Washington bridge about 9:30 a.m., carrying blood bags, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.
They were able to ramp up phone support at a moment's notice, thanks to people in other departments, such as human resources and finance, who are cross-trained to man the phones.
When it became obvious that the nation's distribution system was going to be disrupted by the FAA's air traffic ban, Albanese says, many companies started to call asking for trucks to be put on hold for their products. "As a company, we sat down and agreed that our number one priority would be for the rescue effort," she says.
From Sept. 11 —27, FedEx Custom Critical handled 735 disaster-related shipments — 100 on Sept. 12 alone. And that's not even counting shipments that were indirectly related to the attacks, Albanese says. For instance, they handled a number of shipments of payroll checks that normally would have gone by air. When we spoke to Albanese in early October, there were still plenty of loads going into New York, such as equipment to fix interrupted utilities, firefighting equipment, cutting torches, face masks, and shoes for the rescue dogs. As displaced businesses from the World Trade Center struggled to get back up and running, FedEx Custom Critical delivered phone equipment, computers, and data tapes.
"It was great to see our folks swing into action," Albanese says. "Our folks on the phone felt so great being able to really contribute. And our drivers were just fantastic."
Comfort & Encouragement
O&S Trucking, Springfield, Mo., is a medium-sized dry van carrier with less than 300 drivers and about 80 other employees. The day after the attacks, President Jim O'Neal wrote his employees a note of comfort and encouragement. "I told them we have a job to do," he says, "that the nation depends in no small part on trucking; it's just as important as the military and intelligence."
Someone thought so much of the memo that they sent it to a local radio station, which asked O'Neal to come to the studios and tape a message along with other local business leaders. While he was at the taping, the station's manager got a call from their counterpart in New York — both are owned by media giant Clear Channel Communications. The New York station said rescue workers needed hard hats, safety glasses, socks, respirator masks, work gloves, 5-gallon pails and the like. While the station manager said they'd be happy to do a drive for donations, there was no way to get it there. O'Neal was in the right place at the right time. By Thursday, an O&S trailer was located in the station's parking lot to act as a collection area for donations.
Saturday afternoon, with the help of several strong young men from a local fraternity, the trailer was unloaded, the load segregated, palletized and inventoried according to FEMA instructions. A complete manifest NEWtured as the last item: "One truckload of prayers, thoughts, love, concern and best wishes from everybody in southwest Missouri."
And indeed it was. Banners and posters that had been plastered on the inside of the trailer were carefully folded up and put in a box for delivery along with the relief supplies. Many of the 5-gallon buckets to be used to pass debris out of the World Trade Center site had messages of support and encouragement written on them.
On his way to New York, driver George Purdy (chosen out of many volunteers because he regularly runs to the Big Apple) looked through the box of banners, poems and gifts, most sent by school children. "One little girl sent her allowance in a little pink purse, there were like 300 pennies in it," Purdy says.
The 20-year trucking veteran called the trip "the most emotional and most important load" he has ever hauled. He put banners in the windshield and on the back of the truck reading, "New York City Disaster Relief" and "Springfield, Mo., helping our friends in New York City," making for many thumbs-up along the way.
When Purdy got to New York, he discovered, as many truckers did, that the city was being overwhelmed with donations. The load originally was supposed to go to the Jacob Javitz Center. But when he contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to let them know he was arriving, they diverted him instead to a nearby Air Force base. Both the Javitz Center and Yankee Stadium were already full of donations, they told him.
When the load was delivered safe and sound to an appreciative FEMA representative — who immediately pulled some items out of the load to be taken to Ground Zero for the rescue and recovery efforts — Purdy called the radio stations that had spearheaded the donation drive for an update. "I had to pause a couple of times," he said. "I just got so choked up about it."
O'Neal says being involved in the rescue effort had a much-needed psychological effect on his employees. "Everybody felt so helpless," he says. "It's not like an earthquake where people need food, shelter, water. It was a tonic for us, that we could do something positive, to have an outlet for our emotions."
A Hop, Skip And A Jump
Headquartered in Delanco, N.J., Jevic Transportation is located right in between New York City and Washington, D.C. So when the terrorist attacks hit, they immediately contacted the Salvation Army. The next day, they were moving emergency supplies to both cities.
By early October, the company had hauled nearly 2 million pounds of disaster-related supplies, including milk and food to the Pentagon; yellow caution tape from Addison, Ill., to a staging area in Secaucus, N.J., for New York delivery; t-shirts and sweatshirts from Grand Illusion in Chicago to New York; and five skids of computers to New York's financial district. They also helped move Salvation Army donations that had come in from all over the country.
"We ended up taking stuff into warehouses the next week from all over the place," says Pete Robinson, Jevic's senior director of corporate communications. "Socks, blankets, water, food, you name it. You're basically helping rebuild the city. You can't just walk down the street and buy a sandwich at Ground Zero. We even sent sandwiches to ground zero, from a company right down the road from us."
Robinson notes that New York City is only about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Jevic's headquarters. "That's a hop, skip and a jump in trucking terms," he says.
Not only Jevic's proximity, but also its early response led to the less-than-truckload carrier staying in the relief transport business even after New York City was overwhelmed with donations. Just a week after the attacks, the word went out for trucking companies across the nation to stop bringing in relief loads. Only designated carriers would be allowed in, and Jevic was one of those, as the Salvation Army was handling logistics for the Red Cross.
Jevic also circulated a "Sympathy Journal" among its employees. Actually three blank journals, one for each region, were filled with words of encouragement and forwarded to three organizations or companies that were directly affected by the events of Sept. 11. "These are meant to let someone know that we, fellow Americans and employees of Jevic, care and are thinking about the victims of this senseless violence," Robinson says.
Light From Nebraska
The sun may rise in the east, but there was a lot of light heading to New York City from the west on Sept. 12.
Cornhusker Motor Lines, Omaha, Neb., was called on by customer Coleman Powermate to transport generators and handheld lanterns and batteries to the East Coast for use in the search and rescue efforts at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Because of the chaos in the immediate wake of the attacks, Coleman didn't initially know exactly where to send them. So about half a dozen Cornhusker drivers were told simply to head East.
"They left here having no clue exactly where they were to go or what they were to do," said Paul Turley, Cornhusker director of operations.
They got more specific destination information the next day via Qualcomm. Some loads went to the Washington, D.C., area, others to the New York City area.
One trailer load of handheld lanterns was delivered right to Ground Zero, said Turley. "The load was being handed out from the trailer right at the dig site, where they were digging tunnels to try to find people," Turley said.
When the American Trucking Associations informed members that properly documented relief loads were exempt from hours of service regulations, Cornhusker contacted the drivers. Although they shouldn't drive unsafely, if drivers felt alert enough to drive past their maximum allowed hours, they could.
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