Port of Baltimore businesses pivot after Key Bridge collapse: ‘We’re already making alternative plans’

Soon after the container ship Dali struck and toppled the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, Paul Brashier was among many in the shipping industry who shifted into overdrive.

From Texas, Brashier turned his attention to the cargo — tires, dog food, home goods, cookware — packed into containers on ships headed to the Port of Baltimore and handled by his logistics company. At 3 a.m., after hearing about what ended up being a deadly collision, he rushed to wake up some clients and put contingency plans in place.

“Our largest concern once we saw that that bridge cut off the harbor for vessel traffic for containerized cargo, we started looking at possible diversion ports and what was going to happen to the freight and start working with clients,” said Brashier, a vice president at the Reno, Nevada-based ITS Logistics.

“That was the triage, and we’re going to be doing that here probably for the next five to seven days,” said Brashier, whose firm transports freight from ocean ports to distribution centers or stores in 56 markets, including Baltimore, one of its largest. The company also handles domestic trucking and brings cargo to ports for export.

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