Blog Posts Saddle Creek Helps Home Improvement Retailer Prep for Hurricane Season
The month of June marks the start of hurricane season.
When a hurricane heads your way, it’s time to batten down the hatches. Typically, that requires a hasty trip to your local home improvement store.
To ensure that shelves are stocked with the supplies its customers need, one leading home improvement retailer teams up with Saddle Creek to operate its hurricane relief distribution center. Every spring, approximately 175 truckloads of hurricane supplies are housed at Saddle Creek’s Lakeland, Fla., facility, so they can be distributed with optimal efficiently when and where they’re most needed.
At the beginning of hurricane season, Saddle Creek associates load trailers with pre-hurricane essentials such as generators, chainsaws, wet/dry vacs, tarps, extension cords, etc. When storms are forecast, the trailers are ready to hook up and hit the road. Saddle Creek works closely with the retailer to coordinate multi-store deliveries. Needs can change day-by-day, minute-by-minute, as the storm path changes.
Last year’s severe, record-breaking storms kept the team busy. Saddle Creek sent approximately 30 loads to the Houston area in advance of Hurricane Harvey and additional truckloads to help in the storm’s aftermath. The remaining supplies shipped out at a rate of 17 truckloads per day to help Floridians prepare for the onslaught of Hurricane Irma.
Recognizing that supplies are critical to those in the storm path, Saddle Creek’s team flexed to accommodate the unscheduled shipments – shifting associates, working extra hours, doing Whatever It Takes! to get the job done.
Experts are already predicting an “above average” hurricane season this year. The Saddle Creek team is prepared to help handle whatever Mother Nature sends our way.