To be sure, the impact of Yellow’s bankruptcy on the auto industry is uncertain. It could be quite limited, said Dan Hearsch, managing director at AlixPartners.
“I suspect that there are some blips that are specific to models or maybe something to do with a particular carrier,” he said, referring to broader transportation concerns. “But otherwise, we’re not hearing much disruption on things getting moved around.”
Still, suppliers have been rattled by heightened uncertainty in recent years, Harbour said. Shortages of truck drivers and rail cars and backups at ports have all forced parts makers and tool and die companies to re-examine their supply chains, she said.
“In some regards, you think logistics is just sort of a given, that you’d be able to find someone to move something,” she said. “That should be easy, but it’s not so much the case.”
Premium freight became a “massive problem” for suppliers and automakers during the early parts of the pandemic, especially as supply disruptions such as the microchip shortage made production schedules less reliable, Robinet said.
“Those costs have come down, but that’s something suppliers have had to deal with,” he said.
How much of a dent logistics issues have made to any given supplier’s bottom line depends in large part on its physical footprint.
“For some, logistics are a small portion of their total costs, but for others whose components are larger or they have subsystems coming from Mexico or other lower-cost locations, logistics could be a higher cost,” Robinet said.
Those costs could be a factor in suppliers re-examining their manufacturing footprints and their supply chains, Harbour said.
“This is going to drive a lot of discussion about where you’re located as a supplier in relation to an assembly plant,” she said. “If I’m across the street, that’s different than if I’m 100 miles away or 1,000 miles away.”
