Will trucking issues impact Georgia agriculture?

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - With the ongoing driver shortage, inflation and other issues in the trucking industry, will those issues impact Georgia’s agriculture business for the rest of 2023? WALB’s Jim Wallace sat down with an Albany-based trucking official for more on the topic.

We understand the trucking shortage is not really solved right now.

“As are you saying, it’s getting worse. The trucking demand. Shortage has helped somewhat with the economy slowing down, the problem remains the cost of things,” President of Southern Ag Carriers, Hugh Nall said. “For us, the cost of insurance has gone out of sight, you know, with all the, you know, every time you turn on the TV, you see somebody want to sue a trucking company. And then the supply chain side of things. For forest parts and. Getting things fixed, you know, trucks being down and and then of course there there’s still a driver shortage. That has eased a little bit with this slowdown in the economy, but but overall it’s still not a good picture for the for the trucking industry.”

One thing people might not realize is that there are trucks used in agriculture, especially you know the harvest, getting food products to the suppliers, getting them to the processors. And is that going to be an issue this coming year?

“Well, I think it can be once again if we continue to see. Shortage in the parts, especially for the smaller guys, you know, we run 260-something, trucks. So if we have a truck go down, we you know, we we have another truck. Hopefully, we can get moved in there but a lot of them companies, especially individual truck owners, you know, I’m really concerned about them. If they have a truck go down and and it takes two or three weeks to get it fixed. It’s going to really create a shortage, another and a shortage, but a a big financial burden on those guys. So you know, really concerned about that once the harvest starts. You know, as you know this. Everything gets harvested around the same time because corn is always earlier. Then you get into the peanuts and then into the cotton and you know, soybeans or whatever. But there, there is a concern, you know, with, you know, as the season. The harvest season begins. You know, we’re we’re concerned with the availability of running trucks.”

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