The Ongoing Pandemic
In A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit writes that disaster “drags us into emergencies that require we act, and act altruistically, bravely, and with initiative in order to survive or save our neighbors, no matter how we vote or what we do for a living.” This has been true for the team at Blue Eagle Logistics during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
No, the pandemic is not the first disaster we’ve experienced; however, in the case of previous disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, or tornados, the disruption lasts a few days or weeks, and then communities get back to building, repairing, and working together towards a future. In the case of COVID-19, we have been living with a grave situation for months. This is likely to continue into the unforeseeable future. This means more restrictions, and ongoing impact to our families, friends, and businesses well into 2021, if not longer.
Stepping Up the Blue Eagle Way
Times of crisis sometimes provide opportunities for good people to step up and shine. Here at Blue Eagle Logistics, we’ve experienced the strain of COVID-related staffing challenges combined with strong freight volumes.
During 2020, on several different occasions, the Blue Eagle team encountered significant staffing shortfalls due to the critical need to quarantine those who had been in close contact with an individual infected with COVID-19. At the same time, freight volumes were surging due to the growth of e-commerce fueled by the pandemic coupled with critical staff shortages in the industry at large.
The increased volume of freight along with the staff shortage creates a major challenge for our team to satisfy customer needs in the same premium fashion we achieved pre-COVID.
But we’ve got a team of dedicated professionals. A group of people for whom the crisis has been a catalyst for stepping up in a profound and inspirational way during the crisis. Each stepped into the breach and stepped up their contributions to keep us operating in December.
For example, two members of our driving team took over leadership of our dock each evening to process freight for our outbound linehaul. In another instance, one of our supervisors forfeited some badly-needed time off from his vacation to return to work and provide support.
In addition, our billing administrator morphed into Superwoman to handle EVERYTHING in the office from order entry and dispatching to billing and training new hires. Yes, it’s been an exhausting couple of weeks, but also quite satisfying to see how these team members have pulled together to support one another and to do their utmost to satisfy our customers’ needs during these trying times.
Moving Forward
When you work with Blue Eagle Logistics, you work with logistics professionals willing to go the extra mile. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been trying, it also shined a light on those for whom a challenge is just another opportunity to create new solutions.
No one knows what the future holds; however, we do know that here at Blue Eagle Logistics we will continue to serve our customers with attention to important details and the sort of safety these times require.