I can believe much of this, but the “trucker shortage” is hard to rationalize given the huge number of trucks on the road vs cars.
Unless they are transporting nothing but sailboat fuel, I cannot correlate what my eyes are seeing with the claims of trucker shortages.
I will agree something is seriously amiss in the distribution system and maybe my lying eyes are fooling me.
I do know there is a massive backlog of ships off Long Beach Ca waiting to be offloaded. It looks like a NASCAR parking lot for ships.
There were 73 ships waiting to unload at LA-Long Beach as of September 19th.
how many of our ports does chyna own? also both ends of the panama canal?
The picker shortage is nothing more than lazy stiffs getting paid by government not to work. That is turning around.
Personal experience. Usually haul bulk ag. But the offer to haul retail was hard to refuse. Problem is with union warehouses. Trucks are ready to load but the crew has reached their quota for the day, (6 Trucks) Have to wait for next shift. . A big waste of time. Like I said , not our usual routine.
Now, we had 104 loads of 28% and 34 loads of 32% from Benchmark, Cincinnati by 9/30. They’re out of product at that particular terminal. 2-3 weeks wait. ???? Never before
The trucker shortage is real. I am a former trucker and it is much worse now than what is was a year ago. The pay isn’t keeping up with inflation, and drivers are walking away. The “old heads” are retiring and the newer generation doesn’t stick to it— few want to make it a life-long career.
The signing bonus from my previous company doubled to 5K. In one year, and still can’t find drivers that will stick, even with guaranteed minimum paycheck.
What you will have is a push to get immigrants that do not read English very well, take over. To be fair, that has already been happening. But here is where it gets dangerous: SPECIALIZED FLATBED that requires a high degree of English proficiency (to read and understand permits), and a high degree of looking out for others so that you don’t kill them. The salaries have not stayed significantly higher that the more regular dry-van trucking, and drivers are walking.
It’s only a matter of time before the latinos, russians, and pakistanis take over that part of trucking— and things get real dangerous.
Costco just leased three container ships to try and prop up their supply chain.
As the post above stated, if people don't have product to sell, they aren't getting paid. Look at car lots; many are decimated. I drive numerous car dealerships on the way to work daily, and they look like ghost towns. I think the BMW dealership has a three new cars on their lot, and only a handful of used vehicles. The Mercedes dealership is pretty much the same, and the Hyundai dealership has maybe a dozen or so new models. No product to sell, means no revenue, but there are still those pesky bills to pay.
The port issues are only going to get worse as then there is also Chinese New Year to contend with which usually sees an increase in port traffic at the tail end of the year.
I've been inside both the ports of Ningbo, Tainjin and Shanghai multiple times. Those are the 5th, 3rd, and 1st busiest ports in the world respectively. On average they are loading and/or removing 3 containers a minute (through the use of multiple cranes) per ship. There is the possibility to move alot of cargo on a given day. The only time the Baltic Dry Index has been higher was from 09/2006 to 06/2008, during the last recession.
In California, there are thousands of empty containers building up with nowhere to go and the inability to offload awaiting ships. Keep in mind that truckers can only work a set number of hours; they may only stay on the road for up to 12 consecutive hours before a break, and then no driver may be on duty for more than 70 hours over a period of 7 days. The 7-day period gets restarted after a 34-hour continuous break. Many companies aren't allowed to hire anyone under 25 due to insurance coverage.
So there are supply chain issues globally, and then transportation issues within the U.S.; some self-inflicted due to regulatory constraints. If anyone thinks the mess is going to change soon; think again. The powers that be need the chaos to promote the concept that they are necessary, and only they can solve the problem. Once done, the majority of sheep will look at them with adulation.
All the talk of a great "Reset"...the way is being paved.
I flew over Long Beach and saw dozens of container ships and tankers waiting to enter port. I’m sure many have been out there for days.
“Unless they are transporting nothing but sailboat fuel, I cannot correlate what my eyes are seeing with the claims of trucker shortages.”
The other day someone posted that CA has enacted new regulations for big rigs that cost as much as buying a new rig, and this is one reason they can’t move cargo out of LA and Long Beach.
I read yesterday that there is a 62 container ship backup off Long Beach. This is all deliberate.