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When salt supplier DRVN was working off of the New London State Pier, all Rick Whittle had to do to get salt for his Mystic-based Allied Snow Removal was send a truck over the Gold Star Bridge.
With the pier shut down as it’s redeveloped to support offshore wind projects, and Steve Farrelly forced to relocate DRVN to a railyard in North Haven, Whittle’s drivers now have two options: drive an hour to New Haven to pick up salt at Gateway Terminal, or drive an hour to Providence.
“Steve was so convenient, you just drove right under the bridge, there was never a line, the scale was right there at the site, you were in and out,” Whittle said. “When you go to those other big places, the scale is half a mile away. You get in line with 25 other trucks, get your weight – drive across town, get behind 25 trucks again, get loaded – drive back across town, behind 25 trucks again, and get weighed.”
“Imagine the closed down the Hartford and Providence airports, and now you have to go through a four-hour traffic nightmare to get to JFK when you need a plane,” Whittle said. “You see that difference in planning and aggravation? That’s exactly what it is.”
The process takes “forever,” Whittle said, on top of the hour and 15 minutes added on to the drive to and from the facilities. With DRVN gone, it costs about $300 more per truck load – about $1,000 a day on average, he said. And it makes it much more complicated to coordinate his trucks to pick up salt and bring it to Allied Snow’s strategic salt piles around eastern Connecticut.
“Imagine the closed down the Hartford and Providence airports, and now you have to go through a four-hour traffic nightmare to get to JFK when you need a plane,” Whittle said. “You see that difference in planning and aggravation? That’s exactly what it is.”
Contractors encountered long lines at Gateway last winter after DRVN was pushed out of the New London State Pier, and between a major blizzard last weekend and forecasted ice storm this coming weekend, some are saying DRVN losing access to the port is still causing issues for their businesses.
Brian Luby has been picking up salt for his Middletown-based Forest City Landscaping from DRVN’s new location in North Haven, but issues on the railway from New York have kept Farrelly from getting salt in this week.
In a bind to re-stock so he can plow and treat his customers – mainly apartment complexes and shopping plazas – this weekend, Luby called Gateway. Typically, he said he calls Farrelly in the morning and gets salt delivered the same afternoon, but Gateway said there would be a five-day delay. There is salt available, but no trucks available to get the salt up to Middletown, Luby said.
Luby said he’ll find a way to get enough salt for the weekend, likely buying from other contractors at a higher price. If he couldn’t, it could be catastrophic for his business.
“At the end of the day, if I don’t provide the appropriate services and somebody slips and falls, they could sue me and I could lose my business,” he said.
A public safety issue
Last week, ahead of the major snowstorm, Whittle said Morton Salt in Providence warned contractors that its supply was running low and it may have to limit sales to state and local government plows so they could treat priority highways. Morton didn’t cut off the contractors – and the company told CT Examiner they have enough to meet demand for its municipal customers – but the warning was concerning, Whittle said.
Allied Snow is a key piece of cleaning up after a snow storm in eastern Connecticut. Its 160 employees serve about 220 different sites across 67 towns – including the Coast Guard Academy, New London courthouse, Backus Hospital, Windham Hospital and Pfizer, as well as commercial plazas and a half-dozen Stop & Shop parking lots, Whittle said.
“A few storms back to back, and suddenly it’s a five-day wait,” Luby said. “It’s a public safety issue. Why would you give one company control of all the salt in the state?”
Whittle said he understands that government plows will get priority from the salt companies. It’s more important to clear Interstate 95 than a shopping center in the first hours after a storm, he said – though hospitals should have some priority too.
In a worst-case scenario, Whittle’s family farm has a sand and rock quarry, and he could turn to sand in a pinch. Sand won’t melt the ice like salt, so it won’t make a parking lot look clear, but it would at least get something over the ice to make sure people don’t slip, Whittle said.
Luby in Middletown said he was a regular customer at Gateway before, but when Farrelly opened DRVN in New London in 2014, it made getting salt easier. With another company bringing huge piles of salt in from across the ocean, everything was good for several years, and people seemed to forget the difficulties they had getting salt during the harsh winters of 2011 through 2013, he said.
“In 2013 when we had the blizzard, I just had to call my customers and say, ‘We can’t salt the properties, let everyone know the conditions are dangerous,’” Luby said.
That was the last time that there was a run on salt, he said. With DRVN at State Pier, things were smoother. Now with salt only coming in through one port, and Farrelly reliant on the railway, contractors are having issues even in a relatively mild winter, he said.
“A few storms back to back, and suddenly it’s a five-day wait,” Luby said. “It’s a public safety issue. Why would you give one company control of all the salt in the state?”
Missing DRVN
“Everyone 30 minutes in either direction of New London misses Steve [Farrelly] terribly,” Whittle said. “It’s not just that he was close, it was the convenience of purchase, his scale, his billing system.”
Whittle said he knows Farrelly well, and most of their business could be done with a handshake. He knew cash flow was tough in the winter, and didn’t have a problem waiting until April for a check, Whittle said. Now business is handled by emailing central offices in Chicago – “You can’t even call,” Whittle said. Emails get lost or mixed up, adding aggravation to the process.
“Now I’ve got trucks sitting on the side of the road trying to get through to Chicago,” he said.
The bigger companies also require contractors to predict how much salt they will need to use in a winter, and want contractors to guarantee using at least 40 percent of that amount, Whittle said.
“Let’s say it never snows, they’re going to send you a bill for what you didn’t pick up,” he said.
And while contractors must guarantee they will buy a minimum quantity of salt, there’s no guarantee the salt will be available when they need it. If buyers exceed their predicted usage, they can be capped out of buying salt, he said. And if there’s a run on salt, municipalities get first dibs, he said.
“You could essentially be cut off from the supply unless they get another shipment,” Whittle said. “But that’s a big gamble for them in February to spend probably $5 million on a ship, and then it never snows again. It’s not easy for anyone.”
It’s especially hard for the smaller contractors who used to buy from DRVN, many of which have just started buying from Allied Snow Removal since it’s not worth the trip to Providence or New Haven, Whittle said.
“They could wheel into DRVN and get 5 or 10 tons,” Whittle said. “You can’t go into New Haven asking for 10 tons – they only want to sell big amounts.”