b'6American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comACL AJOT_SailSchedule_2020_ACL2/27/209:33 AMPage 1(ISSUEScontinued fromtoincreasedlaborcosts,aOpage 4) adjustallowAmeri- phenomenonthatwontbeONNEESSHHIIPPthecontractsgoing away in the foreseeable coldtopricingwhenfuture,accordingtoChap-itcandemonstratethatcostpelle. I dont see labor rates increaseshavepersistedforreducing,hesaid.Idont over 60 days. The other halfsee that ever happening. C onCo nttaaiinneerrss,,RROORROO,,BBrreeaakkbbuullkkCCaarrggooofthetop-100contractsNor can he foresee when requiregood-faithnegotia- thefoodindustry,and,by tions to increase prices.extension,thecold-storage Asaresultofitspriceindustry,willgetbackto increases, Americolds ware- normal.Wereallyhavent housingrevenueduringtheset a time frame because we firstquarterofthisyearreallycantsaywhenthe increasedby11.2%,com- labor force will show up and paredtoagrowthrateofget back to work in the food 0.3% in the fourth quarter ofindustry,hesaid.Ithink 2021, and the company alsoeverybody in the food indus-managedtogrowitsbusi- try is surprised that its goneRORO Customer Serviceness with 80% of its top-25thislong.WewouldhaveA SERVICE AL1 SERVICE AL2 SERVICE 877-918-7676customersduringthequar- expectedtheworkforcethatCuto Friday Cuto Thursday Cuto Monday Export Customer Serviceter. Warehouse net operatingwas there two years ago to beFROM NEW YORK LOLO RORO LOLO LOLO 800-225-1235TO Transit Time Transit Time Transit Time Transit Timeincomeforthefirstquarterback by now. Its not. ANTWERP 1620 18Export Documentation 888-802-0401showed an increase of 0.1%,At the same time, Chap- DUBLIN 12Import Customer Serviceversusadeclineof5.8%inpelle is very confident theBELFAST 13888-802-0403thepreviousquarter,whichindustry will eventually recover.GTEBORG 21LogisticsHAMBURG 13 17 15 22suggeststhatAmericoldinTheresunmetconsumerLE HAVRE17 866-821-7449recent months has successfullydemand, he said, which isLIVERPOOL 9 13 Credit & Collectionsrecovereditscostincreasesreally what every food manu- LONDON GATEWAY20 19 888-225-7747fromcustomersthroughthefacturer wants to satisfy. ROTTERDAM11 20impositionornegotiationof price increases. For the industry to revert to its normal levels, food pro-duction companies will have torampupproduction,and for that to happen, they will have to find a solution to their laborproblems.Butsucha solution remains elusive.Idontknowofaway they can ramp up production withoutpeople,saidMarc Smernoff,Americoldschief financialofficer.Theywill have to find a way to get labor. Youve seen some pretty cre-ativeprogramsbeingdevel-opedbysomeofthelargest companiesin America.Ulti-mately, I think they will attract peoplebacktothatindustry andproduceatpre-COVID levels, if not higher, to capture as much incremental demand as they can.But, Smernoff added, we cantpredictwhenthefood industryrecoverstopre-COVID production levels.Americoldhasitself implementedseveralinitia-tivesinanefforttoattract newpermanentemploy-eesandtoincreasereten-tion. Thecompanyrunsjob fairsliterallyeveryweek and sometimes every day of every week, said Smernoff. Wereconvertingtempo-rary employees to permanent employees when they want to joinAmericold.Werevised hiringpracticessowecan hireonthespotandhave implementedsecond-chance programstoattractpeople that maybe we wouldnt have recruited as aggressively as in the past. Weve created part-timepositionswherebefore wereallywerentinterested inpart-timelabor.Were doing everything we can and were doing it every day.n ormal ?Thelaborshortageseen intheindustryandinthe economyhasnaturallyled'