Inbound Logistics | February 2026

THELASTMILE Logistics Outside the Box

ROCK SALT: Slippery Conditions, Rock-Solid Supply Chain

When snowstorms crystallize the need for salt, here’s how a major port cranks up operations to meet demand, keeping roads and sidewalks seasoned and safe.

I n a typical year, approximately and New Jersey by three salt providers: Morton Salt, Atlantic Salt, and Prieto Enterprises. While salt is available closer to demand from places like upstate New York, Canada, and the Midwest, the fastest way to move that much salt to the region without 2,500 dump trucks is to load it onto a bulk ship and send it up the Atlantic Ocean. It spends two to four weeks at sea instead of clogging up highways and roads in eets of trucks. Once the bulk ship arrives, the operation shifts from global to hyper 900,000 metric tons of road salt are imported to the Port of New York local. The salt is scooped out of the ship, sometimes by cranes mounted on the oceangoing vessel itself, and dropped into a funnel-shaped hopper on the wharf. A continuous stream of trucks park under the hopper, receive the load, then drop it off at a nearby salt pile. Between the three companies at the port, there’s space to store about half a million tons on site. All heaped together, it looks like a

small mountain range sprouting up along the waterfront, with piles reaching 40 to 50 feet high (pictured above) . Bulldozers shape and contour the piles to stay stable, like a high-stakes sandcastle. Distributors often cover these piles with massive tarps to keep out moisture. When the forecast takes a turn, the operation shifts into high gear. On an active winter day, up to 3,000 truckloads of salt leave the port for their nal destination. One major storm can trigger hundreds of orders. The salt providers and their customers usually include distribution in their

Where Does the Salt originate?

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BRAZIL

contracts. Most of the time, the providers contract independently owned and operated dump trucks to make deliveries. Orders are usually fullled in one to ve days. Customers plan proactively, since those trucks are often otherwise occupied plowing roads once the storm arrives. When capacity tightens, providers prioritize government contracts over commercial ones, making sure major roads and critical routes get treated rst.

Worth Their Salt The winter storm in late January 2026, when much of the region saw upwards of 8 inches of snow, put salt supply operations to the test. Forty-eight hours before the storm, about 275,000 tons of salt were on hand at the seaport. Distribution hours were extended from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m., as a steady parade of trucks loaded up and headed out to brine the region, an area home to some 46 million people who live within a 4-hour drive of the port. One distributor received 375 orders totaling more than 190,000 tons of salt.

Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, photo courtesy of the Port Authority

40 Inbound Logistics • February 2026