The recent cyberattack on Estes caused some disruptions in shipment volumes, as reported by ArcBest and XPO officials; however, Estes has successfully bounced back from the attack and is operating normally once again.
In a video update to customers, Estes President and COO, Webb Estes, confirmed that the company has fully recovered from the cyberattack. Throughout the ordeal, the Richmond-based carrier worked tirelessly to ensure that freight continued to move for its customers, despite the systems, terminal phones, and company email accounts being compromised.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the hard work of our employees and the support of our customers, which allowed us to continue to keep America moving forward,” Webb Estes said in a recent statement. “Our systems are completely back online, and we are glad our focus is now solely on taking great care of our customers’ freight needs.”
Estes hired GuidePoint Security to safely restore its systems after a cyberattack. As a result, Estes’ website, “My Estes” program, and shipping applications are now back online. The company’s API connections have also been restored, allowing customers to integrate shipping functionality into their business applications and websites.
No specific details were provided about the size or duration of the freight diversions caused by the cyberattack.
Despite the cyberattack, ABF Freight, a carrier owned by ArcBest, experienced a 20% increase in shipments in Q3. This allowed them to haul lighter loads, with the weight per shipment decreasing by 6.4% compared to the previous year. Shipments per day also increased by 1.5% in Q3.
The disruption at Estes actually benefited XPO, another shipping company, as their shipment volumes in October exceeded seasonal expectations when compared to September. Shipments per day increased by 7.8% in Q3.
“If we tried to back out the benefit that we got from the cyberattack at another LTL carrier, October would have still been in line with seasonality for us, relative to September,” said Estes XPO Chief Strategy Officer, Ali Faghri.
Source: Trucking Dive
