1. There’s a reason why Florida’s ports have no backlog: They aren’t well positioned to move cargo to the major U.S. cargo destinations in the Midwest and Northeast after the cargo is off-loaded from the ships.
2. Ocean carriers make port calls at terminals where they have contracts in place for handling cargo. If they don’t have a contract in place at a florida port then they don’t go there. Telling a carrier like Maersk to divert to an MOL or Evergreen terminal is like telling a truck driver making a delivery to Walmart to drop his load at Target if the road to Walmart is closed.
I think this is a play by Florida for a longer term solution, California ports are going to be chronic problem with the State’s environmental laws on trucks and laws governing contract truckers or sole proprietors....
Jacksonville has somewhat of a unique location, 2 major interstate highways pass right near the port....I-10 west bound and I-95 Northbound, and I-75 is maybe 60 miles away via I-10....so it can get trucks on the road to nearly anywhere in short order...
The City for years has been trying to lure air cargo carriers to setup operations in Jacksonville, Cecil Field is a former Marine Corp Jet base, it has a huge runway, with train tracks thru the property and I-10 and I-95 minutes away.....
Jacksonville could be come a major port of entry going forward....
Thanks for introducing some reality to the conversation
Surely there must be language in their contracts to allow for when a port cannot or will not allow a shipper to offload...?