Page 51: of Marine News Magazine (August 2020)

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one hundred out during these times. acute but short term. A problem with turn, but I feel that might be the only

CO: From a business perspective, the pandemic is that I don’t know how comparable period. Other macro-eco- we are managing well through the long it is going to last for. It’s been nomic reasons or recessions account downturn staying focused on those months since we were told it would for those cycles, this pandemic is dif- things we can control: our operational be a few weeks and that we were go- ferent. It was not a slowdown it was a performance, our customer service ing to ? atten the curve and it would shut down. The speed of business in- and our cost structure. Cost con- be done with. That hasn’t happened. terruption was shocking. If you look at trols are not enjoyable but necessary We’re hunkering down for the long historical downturns I think the big- and the team has embraced that as a haul. Even high or low water events, gest lesson learned for the industry is challenge. Operationally I must give lock outages, forces of nature issues, don’t “get over your skis”. Kirby takes a high praise for the Kirby team’s abil- hurricanes do not last for this length long term disciplined view of its busi- ity to adapt to these unprecedented of time, and usually there’s a known ness and its capital investments. Given conditions. Crew changes are more timeline associated with them. we continue to see the disruption of complicated, it’s a little more dif? cult This thing is invisible and you can’t COVID-19, at this point, the biggest to get “boots on steel.” We have in- physically ? x it, you don’t know how lesson is patience, discipline and focus.

novated quickly to do more remotely, long it’s going to last for and we don’t DK: I would put it up in the top communicate better. Our commercial know what the end game is. two or three due to the pace at which team is staying engaged with the cus- CO: I have survived and witnessed it happened. The only thing I could tomer even though we can’t spend as multiple cycles and downturns over compare it to for a Columbia-Snake much time face to face. This business the years. In 2019 and early 2020 River operator are instances when is tough on a normal operating day, the industry seemed to have emerged the lock chambers have gone down. with hurricanes, high water condi- from the prior protracted downturn The river system doesn’t have redun- tions, hazardous cargoes, big horse- which was principally due to industry dant sets of locks, so when the locks power and big steel. I think our cul- reaction to crude volumes, initially go down, our highway is shut down. ture, which is deep and ingrained to moved on water and then found their We have seen small outages over the attack these normal challenges every way over time to pipeline. The indus- years, and they obviously have a direct day, has paid off in a challenge like try suffered from those that had spec- impact, but this one is right up there. the pandemic. We don’t ? inch, we ulatively built in on the assumption We did get a lot smarter, and I won’t don’t panic we just do what we do those volumes would remain. say we’re experts on it, but now we have even though we accomplish it a little I was not in the business during as good a plan as possible to manage it. differently today. Our team embraced the ’80s which was a lengthy down- Whether or not we’re having a second the challenges of COVID-19 and has worked tirelessly to make it feel like a non-event to our customers.

Put in perspective this black swan business interrup- tion event compared to any other you have seen in your

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