Why are Short-term Storage & Warehouse Solutions Increasing?

It cannot be overemphasized just how much many businesses have had to shift their focus and priorities in order to meet the changing needs of their customers in 2020.  The same is certainly true for Daryl Flood Workplace Services.  Throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen the significant challenges facing different industries, and so we continue to work diligently with our customers to provide the solutions that they need when they need them most.

 

 

Storage & Warehousing solutions is an area where we have seen a sharp increase in demand.  And although there is still a high need for long-term storage, 2020 definitely brought about the increased need for short-term and medium-term warehousing solutions. This need was created as a result of both supply chain disruption and construction project delays.  

So, as we begin the new year, we want to highlight those shorter-term warehousing and storage options, as well as our capabilities and space availability throughout the State of Texas.

What is Short-term and Medium-term Storage?

As we look at short-term and medium-term storage, it’s important to first differentiate between the two.  When we talk about short-term storage, that could be anywhere from a one-day cross-dock, to a six- or nine-month period.

Medium-term storage generally refers to a timespan of six months to a year.  This is opposed to what we consider as long-term storage, which could be for a number of years.

What’s Driving the Need for Short-term and Medium-term Storage?

As a direct result of the pandemic, businesses have had to endure supply chain disruption and construction project delays over a vast spectrum of industries.  This has led to the need for both short-term and medium-term storage solutions.  

Supply Chain Disruption

On the supply chain side, there have been significant disruptions, which have caused a delay in the speed at which products are being delivered to the market.  Likewise, companies that rely on items that are manufactured overseas are having trouble getting those products into the U.S., thus causing further delay in them reaching their final destination.

There is also a container shortage, as well as an international freight shortage, which has resulted in huge price increases for international freight forwarding. 

Construction Delays

As for construction delays, there are many projects going on in cities across Texas (and throughout the country), but due to the pandemic, a lot of those construction sites have been shut down.  At the same time, there are still products that have been ordered and are on their way inbound to those sites.  So, the problem is that these products will be arriving, but unfortunately, no one will be there to receive them.

Additional Factors

Meanwhile, the truck lines are pushing to get the products off of their trucks as quickly as possible, because they are in high demand and need to move on to their next job. There is also a driver shortage, which has further compounded the situation.

All of these factors have produced the need for short-term, cross-dock, and then final mile delivery services, which is an area where Daryl Flood really shines.  We see this need quite a bit within the healthcare sector, construction management, and even office furniture, where construction has been delayed, but furniture is already in-bound from the manufacturers.

So, the good news is, not only do we provide warehousing, cross-dock, and final mile delivery services, but we have warehousing space available across Texas, which includes the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, and Lubbock.

Short-term Storage for the Healthcare Sector

As mentioned above, the healthcare sector is one of the main industries where we are seeing an increased demand for short-term and temporary storage solutions.

For example, a hospital might be adding Operating Rooms or Emergency Rooms to its facility and have equipment and beds on order. In most cases, they are having to order those products early on in the process, because it is taking longer to get products in from overseas. So, if the construction of those projects gets put on-hold, that means that the equipment and beds are often already en route to the site. And, once the products arrive, they will need someone to receive them, as well as a place to store them temporarily.

That’s where we come in.  Daryl Flood is the ideal resource for these types of situations, because we can provide short-term storage solutions to consolidate those products and then ultimately distribute them to the final mile, whether that’s a construction site, a hospital, or any industrial or office site.

Daryl Flood Solutions, Processes and Facilities

At Daryl Flood, we pride ourselves in being able to offer the most robust solutions and processes that are customized to suit the unique needs of our customers.  This starts with our Warehouse Management System (WMS), which is a sophisticated system that gives our customers access to the tracking of inbound freight, and visibility to that freight, so that they can see it as soon as it hits our docks.

We utilize a two-tier WMS, whereby our tier-1 system is used for more complex projects, and our tier-2 system is more of a locator system that we implement for cross-dock operations.

Our tier-1 WMS manages the customer’s inventory electronically. For example, if you have an order management system and you send us the initial inventory, we preload that into our system, scan it into our system as it arrives, and then you would have access to that information, showing that we received that product. Then you would have access to that inventory.

Here’s how it works…

Let’s say you had a certain SKU for 300 hospital beds.  We would scan that into our inventory, and you would be able to see when those 300 beds were received into our warehouse. Then, you would be able to request the pulling of those beds through the system. So, if you wanted 150 beds delivered to your facility, you could put in a work request through our tier-1 WMS. We would scan those beds out, and you would have access to the visibility of them being delivered.

Class A Warehouse Facilities

Finally, all of our facilities in Texas are considered Class A facilities, which means that they have fenced-in yards, exterior and interior cameras, and secure access points. We know that these are important factors to our customers, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

At Daryl Flood, we continue to watch the trends in the marketplace, and look for ways to best assist our customers and provide the solutions that they need today, tomorrow, and into the future.

What can we help you with today? Please contact us anytime for more information about short, medium. or long-term warehousing and storage solutions!