New York Carriers Still Rolling With Record Snowfall, Thruway Closure
“There’s actually some customers in Buffalo that are open,” said Todd Smith, vice president of sales at Leonard's Express, a mostly refrigerated fleet headquartered in Farmington, near Rochester.
“We’re able to take some of those northern secondary routes into Buffalo and serve those customers inbound and outbound,” Smith said.
UPDATE, 4:15 p.m. Nov. 21: The Thruway partially reopened at 3 p.m. ET today. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the Thruway will be open from Exit 46 in Henrietta to Exit 50 at the intersection of Interstate 290. And the highway will be open between Exit 51 near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport to the Pennsylvania border at Exit 61. However, many local exits will still be closed.
“The customers affected by the heavy snow, they’re not able to get to work, so they’re not receiving product or shipping product . . . it’s just a waiting game until they’re able to dig out.”
Oregon truck driver who spent 30 hours stuck in Buffalo snow: Nobody came to check on anyone http://t.co/pRf7SrCkwW pic.twitter.com/5Gs1ZzkbNU
— FOX 12 Oregon KPTV (@fox12oregon) November 20, 2014
Two of Leonard’s trucks are stuck in Buffalo, along with their drivers, though, not on the road.
“They were on their home time, so, the trucks are in Buffalo, but they’re not stuck in the truck.”
The carrier’s brokerage operation in Buffalo is closed due to the back-to-back storms, the first of which arrived late Nov. 17 and the second of which is not due to stop snowing until noon Nov. 21, the National Weather Service said.
“Those folks are just doing their best to work from home,” Smith said.
At Terpening Trucking Co., a petroleum hauler with terminals around New York, snow hasn’t stopped its fleet of 65 trucks.
The carrier’s mainstay is filling stations, but it also supplies bulk diesel and heating oil to public sector customers, meaning “we do have to roll,” operations manager Craig Terpening said from the Syracuse headquarters.
“The police can’t get around unless they’ve got gasoline,” Terpening said. “The hospitals can’t produce heat unless they’ve got heating oil.
“Emergency vehicles, the fire departments, they need diesel to be able to respond,” he said. “Unless we absolutely cannot 100% get there, we’re in business, and we’re going to get our work done.”
The Terpening family is no stranger to snow. Craig is a member of the fourth generation to run the company.
All eight of the carrier’s New York terminals are open and running, and deliveries to Pennsylvania are being made too, Terpening said.
“@kolt_pyknz: Buffalo, NY got 75 inches of snow ?? pic.twitter.com/Ep0x4VC4hS” this needs the massive plow truck from snow days
— Δndrew Upvαll (@Andrew___Upvall) November 20, 2014
Despite the Thruway closing that occurred early morning Nov. 18, some of the other state highways have been cleared, he said. “That’s the way we’re getting around.”
Only one Terpening truck, headquartered in the Lackawanna, New York, terminal, did not run in the worst of the first snowstorm, he said.
“We had a driver on his way to work that got stuck, and he was stranded for 20 hours . . . in his personal vehicle,” Terpening said.
“Thank God, he was one of those people who keeps his vehicle topped off,” he added, referencing the need for heat during the ordeal.
New York public works crews know what to do with snow, Terpening said by way of speculating that the Thruway, where stranded cars and trucks were being removed, could be open by the evening of Nov. 20.
“They do an outstanding job keeping our roads clean,” Terpening said. “It’s just when you get into a situation where you get snowfall of 6 to 8 inches an hour it’s virtually impossible to keep up with.”
