https://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2021/10/05/shipping-containers-ports-los-angeles-long-beach-waiting/
A number of factors are blamed for the bottleneck – the surge of the Delta variant throughout the world, lack of access to vaccines in some countries, a shortage of shipping containers, and another of truck drivers.
Here’s another article with more details:
All this talk about store shelves being empty for Christmas is ridiculous.
This is a good opportunity to take a step back and reduce the over commercialization of Christmas. Focus on family and want Christmas is really about.
It’s an opportunity to step back from the latest overhyped plastic toys from China that are broken within a week. There are plenty of good local arts and crafts, and quality goods produced in America. There are lots of thrift stores with many good secondhand items, not to mention eBay.
Remember the good old days when quality wooden toys that lasted for generations were built with love in Grampa’s workshop? When quality new clothes came from Grama’s sewing machine.
We don’t really need all this non essential crap from China. We do need to become more self-sufficient.
The way to solve the port congestion problem is to stop buying unnecessary Chinese crap. More people need to learn to stay away from stores like Walmart.
Ok, we are totally dependent on many nevessary Chinese products, let save our overburdened supply chain and port infrastructure for those items.
Our thirst for cheap gadgets made in China is insatiable. When covid broke out in 2019 and the PPE shortage was critical, it seems like everyone was on the same page in terms of reducing our reliance on Chinese manufactured goods but the resolve soon evaporated. Like in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack when the country was united and world support peaked. That too evaporated quickly. The US suffers from collective ADD.
Hey, if the world wants to get rid of dependence on China, it’s easy: just permanently ban container ships. The number of American jobs for sailors, longshoremen, factory workers, and warehousing would all skyrocket. As would inflation, as the price of goods doubles.
We’d better start making something here. We’ve got to create jobs for millions of néw refugees and illegal immigrants.
With all the Help Wanted/We’re Hiring signs posted on just about every business I see; there are jobs for those refugees and illegals now.
We have a lot of multigenerational welfare recipients. That’s for sure.
With all this COVID aid money we are training millions more that work is optional.
Listening to the news tonight, and I was surprised to hear that the Port of Long Beach does not operate 24/. Apparently they only work daylight hours?
So what is wrong with this country, that we can’t operate ports?? Somehow we have managed to progress from “can-do”, to “can’t do”, and fill in the blank for whatever reason.
Even if the port were to go to 24 hour ops, there isn’t enough support to move the boxes out of the terminal quick enough to support 24 hour ops.
I see cranes and trucks moving at all hours. Ships move at all hours too with 24/7 support as well.
I could be wrong but I think the 24/7 thing is in relation to allowing trucks in and out of the ports to grab containers? the ports and longshoremen are definitely working around the clock
I can assure you that they will slam the hell out of containers that they are loading/unloading all night long. I don’t even plan on sleeping during that port stay.
Maybe so.
Apparently the port WAS NOT 24/7.
But as mentioned by the “mariners on the ground”, maybe the boxes are being unloaded 24/7, but not transported out. . . The following article isn’t clear.
Here’s another question: Why not off-load the boxes from the larger vessels into ‘feeder type’ vessels, and ship them to other ports, like Port Hueneme, SF/Oakland, or SEATAC?
Good idea. Thats one way the port of Virginia alleviates congestion of containers. They send a barge with containers up the James river to a small port in Richmond.
Watching the morning news of 14 October, and Noel Hacegaba, spokesman for the port of Long Beach, is saying that they are now running three shifts, not two at the Port of Long Beach.
So referencing my prior post: whiskey tango foxtrot? Why the hell wasn’t the port running 24 seven? Especially since the economy is percolating post pandemic with demand. It isn’t rocket science to realize, when 50+ ships are anchored outside the port, and waiting 10 days to get to the port, that you might want to bring more people to work. Un f’kg believable:confounded:
Is this a union thing? Is it a port thing? Like I said before, we have become a nation of “can’t do”.
Yes it would be a good idea, but it would take some time to implement.
It would require J.A. compliant feeders to operate between US ports, though.
Preferably the feeder should be geared and able to load/discharge without occupying wharf space and STS cranes that would be better used to handle mainline ships.
For inland waters/river transport it would be feasible to use ships/barges that could be loaded/discharged by mobile wharf cranes.
PS> Not a novel idea, since this is how it is done in most parts of the world.
It’s what’s called in the trade “a conveyance thing”. Mariners usually focus on the water side of transport. They figure once a container is landed at the terminal a magic carpet carries it off. In reality, you need conveyances: tractors, chassis, railcars, locos, to haul those containers away. Also: drivers and engineers.
The ship is just one part in the logistics chain. If there are problems in the rest of the chain, then the containers just fill up the terminal until there is no place left to put them.
Where I work we use chassis, trailers, and boxcars to move freight. I’m updated daily about the availability of these. Chassis in particular are in short supply. Super chassises, in particular, were in short supply in before the pandemic. Drivers are in short supply. Truck drivers skewed older before the pandemic. A lot of them retired, rather than face exposure to C19. So the hauling companies can’t find enough drivers.
Even if the container inequity got sorted out magically overnight there would still be shipping slowdowns, because the conveyances and manpower needed to move the containers from Point A to Point B are in short supply.
Isnt one of the big problems the lack of truckers carrying boxes out of the port? I understand that only union trucking companies are allowed to pick up containers and that Cali has all but banned owner/operators and also has a law that does not allow trucks over a certain age to be used at all. These things alone would cause a back up. O/Os are the backbone of US trucking.
I wonder how long before shipping companies start bypassing the west coat and start bringing ships through the Panama Canal and call at east coast and gulf coast ports or even Mexican ones? Doesnt the big port (An APM port) in Ensenada have rail lines that go right up into the heartland?