Dear Valued Customers,
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, which has been declared a national emergency by many world leaders as well as many state and other local jurisdictions, has caused a time of great stress and uncertainty for all of us. As so many industries are experiencing the effects of this crisis and businesses scramble to respond to issues caused by it across the globe, we recognize how essential our logistics services and worldwide network is to you and other businesses. We are proud to be your partner in this and it is through the courage, sacrifice and extraordinary efforts of our employees that we currently remain fully functional across the U.S., including in “hot spot” areas like the New York/New Jersey area and California. We remain committed to being your logistics partner and taking strong actions within our power to continue to service you as we have in the past throughout this crisis.
While we have been able to move decisively to remain ahead of and to overcome the various unforeseeable challenges caused by COVID-19 so far and the situation is fluid, we can foresee, especially in “hot spot” areas, that challenges with providing the same scope and level of services at historical levels may not be possible. Our ability to warehouse and distribute goods, source transportation to or from certain locations, have a sufficiently healthy workforce able to work under applicable law or otherwise service you in the manner we have in the past could become materially impacted. As stated above, this has not happened yet and we are working diligently to do what we can within our power to avoid it, but the same proactiveness and forward thinking that has allowed us to stay ahead of the crisis so far, compels us as your trusted logistics partner to advise you that it reasonably could occur.
Fortunately, in addition to our own considerable efforts to prepare back-up plans, take actions to protect our employees and ensure they are ready and willing to serve you, there are things you can do to help avoid these potential adverse impacts. Many shipments that are currently transiting the supply chain may not be able to arrive at their final destination due to the consignee’s inability to receive them or for other reasons (e.g., governmental orders). These goods that cannot be so delivered will require warehousing, and space could quickly fill up and warehouses may be unable to accept additional goods until additional space is cleared. The inability of third parties to timely receive these goods could negatively impact our ability to free up space in our warehouses. We kindly ask that prior to arranging any new international shipments that you confirm that shippers, consignees and whole geographical areas where the shipment is destined or through which it will pass will still be open for business and ready to receive the shipments. It is imperative to do so and your immediate efforts in this area will help extend the time before any of these immobilizing effects might be felt and might help avoid them altogether. As you can imagine, no one can accurately predict exactly how long this situation will continue, or precisely when warehouse space might be totally consumed, paralyzing operations and supply chains, but it could come with very little notice. We will continue to provide you updates on material developments that we believe make it likely that these events are going to occur.
We thank you for your continued confidence in Nippon Express and we are confident that our partnership will allow both of us to weather this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Toshiya Abe
President & CEO,
Nippon Express USA, Inc.
