A rare Louisiana snowstorm shut down I-10 for days. What does that mean for truckers?

After a rare snowstorm moved through south Louisiana on Tuesday, state transportation officials were forced to shut down the Interstate 10 corridor between Texas to Mississippi, a stretch that spans more than 270 miles along the Gulf Coast.

Schools, grocery stores and government offices closed in the lower part of the Bayou State. And many Louisianans burrowed into their homes, waiting out blizzard conditions and icy roads.

But truckers who move goods across hundreds of miles of Louisiana highway have their own calculus in the face of a snowstorm.

“Weather, road conditions and the closure of interstates have a significant impact on trucking,” said Renee Amar, executive director of the Louisiana Motor Transportation Association, the state trade association representing the trucking industry.

“The local challenge is that many truckers are unable to move their loads at all,” Amar said around midday Wednesday, when the majority of I-10 was still shut down.

“If those loads weren’t already on the road a few days ago, they simply can’t be moved now. Drivers were essentially in a holding pattern, waiting for conditions to improve.”

That wait time can translate to dollar figures.

When trucks confront road closures, there are two primary ways to respond, said Dan Murray, senior vice president at American Transportation Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization that collaborates closely with American Trucking Associations.

One is to find an alternative route that could be “much longer, farther and costlier,” adding additional minutes or hours to the trip, he said.

The other is to park — an option that brings its own challenge: the lack of safe, legal truck parking.

“In a good day, with good weather, the lack of truck parking is a crisis for truck drivers,” he said.

As a result, trucks can be forced to wait on interstate shoulders and on- and off-ramps, which is dangerous for both trucks and other drivers.

Either way, Murray said ATRI data shows the average cost to operate a truck is about $91 per hour. And that doesn’t include profit margins, which are typically slim in the trucking industry.

The extra cost from longer trips, he said, is ultimately passed on to the end-consumer.

“It’s sort of weather-related inflation,” Murray said.

Other routes

In New Orleans, snow accumulation from Tuesday’s winter storm tied an 1895 record of 10 inches. And subsequent overnight below-freezing temperatures meant snow and ice lingered.

Interstates and other major roadways there were shut down for days, from Tuesday through late afternoon Friday.

But Interstate 12, another east-west corridor that lies north of Lake Pontchartrain, helped mitigate the impact to truck routes.

“Most truckers traveling from west to east prefer to take I-12, which has played a crucial role in preventing negative economic effects,” said Daniel Gitlin, a DOTD spokesperson for the New Orleans and Northshore areas.

Gitlin said crews worked hard to keep I-12 open to traffic throughout the storm.

“They were out there while the snow was pouring down,” he said. “The same can be said about the crews south of the lake, but they were just outmatched. The amount of snow that came through the I-10 corridor was incredible.”

Gitlin also said Louisiana’s other state highways, although slower, are still designed to accommodate large trucks.

Murray, of ATRI, said the recent snowstorm can be leveraged as a learning opportunity.

“It’s an economic setback for the trucking industry,” he said. “But it’s also an opportunity for government and industry to work together and recognize that it will happen again, and next time we’ll be a little better prepared for that sort of thing.”