Posted on 11/01/2021 10:02:48 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
They ( Free Traitors ) have been bought off or they profit indirectly from America's economic demise. I hate them passionately. Despise is a better word.
Turn the ships around, solve the problem. Next, buy US-made products instead of enemy Communist Chinese products. Yes, that means a bit of pain to set up US manufacturing but the benefit will be freeing ourselves from funding our enemy.
LOL We have more than enough shipping capacity for exports. Marketing empty shopping containers is a cottage industry.
Build Back AMERICAN.
Why are we importing so much?
This goes back to Nixon, opening up trade with enemy Communist China. Every president since has carried forward this surrender and sell-out.
He is right of course. The math is easy if you know the numbers to put in.
Number of containers
Number of containers per hour loaded by a crane
Number of trucks that can be processed through the terminal per hour
Time to remove the containers
Plugs and his commisars can crap in one hand and dictate in the other and see which fills first. Meanwhile the lunkheads continue to throw up obstacles to getting the job done.
We do not see eye to eye all the time. However sometimes you and I are in complete agreement. This is one of those times.
I’m with you. I had countless arguments with them years ago, as I’m sure you did. Only their arrogance prevents them from acknowledging the massive mistake these deals have been, and continue to be.
It's labor cost driven.
In the auto parts sector, which I'm familiar with, the progression was
USA >> Mexico >> China
But now that China has moved up the wage scale, a lot of stuff is coming from Vietnam, India, and Indonesia.
If it was real Free Trade, you would not have these trade agreements, or they would just contain one sentence: "We mutually agree to not interfere with free trade." The trade agreements are a complex web of allocations, tariffs and restrictions by which the government parties to these deals put their politicized thumbs on the scale and steer money to favored groups in their respective countries.
This guy doesn’t need to drive. He’s a phenomenal writer and could easily take that craft “on the road”!
Thanks for this informative post!
Manufacturing labor cost in the USA is about 7% of retail. Using 3rd world labor saves about 3%. We are destroying our country for a few pennies on the dollar. Tariffs keep that obvious and destructive short sighted naked stupid greed from happening. We need much higher import tariffs NOW!
Wait, they tariff us we don’t tariff imports much at all. the revenue raised form tariffs even with Trumps increase is VERY small. Get that straight.
I’ll get economics advice from the next MAGA advisor, not some truck driver.
Did not read article because opening “hook” question was stupid. Why 1 crane for 50 to 100 trucks? How many containners can a crane pick up per day to load on a truck (dunno, but more than 1). How many containers can a truck carry? 1.
Thanks for posting...good one.
There is an intentional slow down at the ports, and they will just blame the unvaccinated - like they do with everything else
This is the first article I've seen on this subject that actually mentions what is probably the single biggest factor in the supply chain fiasco in the U.S.: an insufficient supply of container chassis at our ports.
The guy's solutions are too simplistic. What the heck is the point of adding more cranes at a port terminal, for example, if other parts of the process aren't working efficiently enough to handle the volume of container traffic anyway?
I'll focus on a few general points here ...
1. If a trucker complains that it takes 3-4 hours (or even longer) to pick up a loaded container at a port terminal, there's a good chance the trucker is part of the problem. Most terminals I've dealt with professionally publish average truck processing times of 25-30 minutes for a single container move (i.e., dropping off a container at the terminal and leaving with no load, or arriving at the terminal with no load and picking up a container) and 50-55 minutes for a double move (i.e., dropping off a container at the terminal and leaving with another one). Port truckers laugh at those numbers because they don't include the waiting time to get into the terminal, but we'll get to that next.
2. Much of the time a trucker spends in line waiting to get into the terminal is completely unnecessary. These drivers line up early in the morning because they want to get in as early as possible, but if you go to these terminals in the middle of the day you'll often find that there are no lines. In other words ... a port truck driver who arrives at 7:00 AM when the gates open, finds himself in line behind 25 other trucks, and doesn't get into the terminal until 10:00 AM could save himself a lot of time and effort simply by arriving at 10:00 AM when the huge queue that built up before 7:00 AM is processed and dissipates.
3. Related to the previous point ... for most of these terminals, the massive queue that builds up before the gates open is no different than the long lines of nitwits who used to camp out for hours or days waiting to buy tickets to concerts or sporting events. Before the days of online ticket sales and secondary markets for these tickets, box offices eliminated these lines by handing out numbered bracelets that guaranteed the holders a specific place in line when the tickets went on sale. Port terminals can deal with their truck queues the same way by implementing appointment systems where drivers don't show up until the terminal is ready to process them.
4. Guess which group in the supply chain has historically been the most strongly opposed to an appointment system like this at a port terminal? Port truckers -- seriously. I've worked professionally on behalf of clients in the freight transportation business who have grappled with this problem for years. In one ludicrous case, a terminal operator at a major U.S. port implemented a change in their container handling process that was designed to help the terminal -- and the port truckers who did business there -- operate more efficiently. The local port trucking association sued the terminal because they said this new process violated the terms of the operating agreement for that particular port. It did, but suing over it was preposterous because the port truckers could not demonstrate that they were being harmed in any way. And here's the real kicker: After the lawsuit was settled and the terminal went back to the "old" way of doing business, the port truckers realized how much less efficient they were and begged the terminal to implement the "new" operation again. You can't make this sh!t up.
The general problem here is that a supply chain for international cargo is like a dozen different lengths of hose that are linked together to move water from one place to another. Putting length of a larger hose anywhere in this chain of hoses doesn't do any good unless ALL of the links are replaced with sections that are the same size as the biggest one.
Aren’t longshore unions famous for featherbedding?
It will end at some point, but probably not with the same systems for transport, and not very soon.
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