I'm having trouble understanding the premise here.
Why is there only one crane for every 50–100 trucks at every port in America? No ‘expert’ will answer this question.
Cranes should be THE bottleneck. They are massive, expensive and land intensive. Maybe LA needs more cranes, but it doesn't sound like that is the issue. The author states the problem is a trucker problem, "lines to get in, lines to get out" but that isn't a crane problem.
The author gets paid by the hour, others get paid by the job, job duration is variable and undefined, so wages are undefined. One solution is to pay drivers more, and pay them per hour. I've had containers full of goods waiting somewhere around the port of LA in the last year. If there were way to pay more to move them on through the system, I'd gladly pay, but its a giant black box.
My conjecture is that the REAL real issue is a very complicated and embedded union vs non-union vs contractor vs fed government vs state govt vs local govt pissing contest that could all be circumvented by federal government investing in alternative ports around the US border. Port of Louisiana, Port of Houston, Ports of Florida in the gulf. Lots of alternatives, and we are all sitting around like Port of LA is the sole option. Separately, I dont understand why Mexico isn't more prominent in container transport moved via trains into Texas.
It sounds to me like the bottleneck is wages paid to truckers, and probably other workers in the supply chain. The US has a ~$600 Billion trade deficit. It never really made sense to me that we could continue to massively import goods from rest of world (mostly China)...without eventually reaching some sort of labor parity where delivering those goods all the way around the world didn't make economic sense, and especially political sense, as the gains, whatever they are, mostly accrue to multi-national corporations profit margins and stock prices.
It seems, much of this is built upon a foundation of crappy wages and under-investment in the people and infrastructure it all functions on top of. Doesn't sound sustainable as structured, and for many reason we should invest in labor and domestic production more than we have been. Inflation, like in the 2008 oil price spike leading to domestic production, might end up being the catalyst to this change.
The impact on truckers is a side effect... At the core, he's saying that the problem is a lack of unloading capacity. There aren't enough cranes, chassis, and railcars to handle both the regular shipping traffic, plus the backed up traffic from the pandemic... And the throughput gets worse, exponentially, as the system becomes overloaded. So the lack of capacity is making things worse.
But in the short term, the demand for cargo shipping is relatively inelastic. As costs rise, most shipping customers will just bite the bullet and pay the higher fees, because they'll go completely out of business without overseas shipping.
If everyone knew the port cargo crisis was going to be a long-term phenomenon, the shippers would probably invest money in buying more cranes, chassis, etc. to increase capacity. But those capital investments cost a lot of money up front, so they don't make good business sense if you expect the cargo crisis to end relatively quickly.
So far, the cargo shipping companies have just been jacking up prices, expecting that their customers will keep paying... But since they're not sharing the wealth with their drivers, by paying more & investing in infrastructure to improve throughout, they're exacerbating the problem.
The impact on truckers is a side effect... At the core, he's saying that the problem is a lack of unloading capacity.
Right now that isn't even the real issue. The real issue is there simply aren't enough chassis to put containers on. Nott by a long shot, and many of the ones that are being used are barely usable.
The supply chain is currently impacted for umpteen reasons: lack of chassis, lack of drivers, a mass exodus of people out of the industry (customs clearance, handlers, drivers, dock workers, sort managers, maintenance, etc), weather, ongoing covid shutdowns at some facilities both foreign and domestic, etc.
It's nuts.
What's crazier is, after 15 years at my job, I make $4 more an hour than fast food is currently hiring at in my city... and I'm on like week 27 or 28 of 60-70 hour weeks with no end in sight. I haven't had a cost of living increase since 2008, TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.
You can't ask for a raise at most companies, that's not a thing despite what internet articles and people in tech circles think. Most companies have clearly defined, set in stone, pay scales for a position and the only way to move up that scale is via a merit increase. Our merit increases are always at or less than inflation, this year's merit increase didn't even cover the inflation we saw that month.
As far as finding other employment, they don't pay all that much better and I have 15 years of experience doing a very specific thing (air freight customs clearance, just writing the entries) which doesn't really exist a whole lot of places.
Then there is the fact I have a GED (I'm in a degree program but that's still a couple of few years out) when places like Flexport (which isn't even in my state) wants a 4-year degree to even talk to you. Here's a response I got from them when applying to a job before I got married and would have considered moving to Chicago (at the time I had 12 years of actual experience having written over 100k entries):
"Hope all is well, Ryan! I wanted to extend a virtual wave and thank you for your interest in joining our team. You obviously have many of the skills we're looking for. However, for the Customs Brokerage role we require a BA/BS degree as well as previous experience in a broker role doing entries and customs classifications.
Based on your background, there is no doubt that you will shine in your next career endeavor. In the meantime, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!
All the best,
REDACTED"
And, from what I could tell, that job would have been a pay cut AND required me moving to a higher cost of living area.
For what its worth (and I know it's not much...) you wrote an EXCELLENT article, here. It's a truly great piece, and you're a talented writer. You mentioned having a GED, but you write like somebody who has a lot of experienced... You have a great voice.
You clearly have a lot to offer the world, so fuck Flexport. You'll find someplace that values you, properly. Keep your chin up, man.
Appreciate that you took the time to reply. I would absolutely apply again to Flexport and other logistics firms if they have any remote roles you could even be adjacent to with your current skill set and the fact that most people can grow and adapt into similar roles. The market has improved, clearly, and corporations are absolutely desperate for talent. Rejection sucks, but asking is free.
Lack of cranes means lack of operating cranes, I think. Most ports are still operating at reduced capacity due to COVID. So they can't run as many cranes as usual.
Comments
I'm having trouble understanding the premise here.
Cranes should be THE bottleneck. They are massive, expensive and land intensive. Maybe LA needs more cranes, but it doesn't sound like that is the issue. The author states the problem is a trucker problem, "lines to get in, lines to get out" but that isn't a crane problem.
The author gets paid by the hour, others get paid by the job, job duration is variable and undefined, so wages are undefined. One solution is to pay drivers more, and pay them per hour. I've had containers full of goods waiting somewhere around the port of LA in the last year. If there were way to pay more to move them on through the system, I'd gladly pay, but its a giant black box.
My conjecture is that the REAL real issue is a very complicated and embedded union vs non-union vs contractor vs fed government vs state govt vs local govt pissing contest that could all be circumvented by federal government investing in alternative ports around the US border. Port of Louisiana, Port of Houston, Ports of Florida in the gulf. Lots of alternatives, and we are all sitting around like Port of LA is the sole option. Separately, I dont understand why Mexico isn't more prominent in container transport moved via trains into Texas.
It sounds to me like the bottleneck is wages paid to truckers, and probably other workers in the supply chain. The US has a ~$600 Billion trade deficit. It never really made sense to me that we could continue to massively import goods from rest of world (mostly China)...without eventually reaching some sort of labor parity where delivering those goods all the way around the world didn't make economic sense, and especially political sense, as the gains, whatever they are, mostly accrue to multi-national corporations profit margins and stock prices.
It seems, much of this is built upon a foundation of crappy wages and under-investment in the people and infrastructure it all functions on top of. Doesn't sound sustainable as structured, and for many reason we should invest in labor and domestic production more than we have been. Inflation, like in the 2008 oil price spike leading to domestic production, might end up being the catalyst to this change.
The impact on truckers is a side effect... At the core, he's saying that the problem is a lack of unloading capacity. There aren't enough cranes, chassis, and railcars to handle both the regular shipping traffic, plus the backed up traffic from the pandemic... And the throughput gets worse, exponentially, as the system becomes overloaded. So the lack of capacity is making things worse.
But in the short term, the demand for cargo shipping is relatively inelastic. As costs rise, most shipping customers will just bite the bullet and pay the higher fees, because they'll go completely out of business without overseas shipping.
If everyone knew the port cargo crisis was going to be a long-term phenomenon, the shippers would probably invest money in buying more cranes, chassis, etc. to increase capacity. But those capital investments cost a lot of money up front, so they don't make good business sense if you expect the cargo crisis to end relatively quickly.
So far, the cargo shipping companies have just been jacking up prices, expecting that their customers will keep paying... But since they're not sharing the wealth with their drivers, by paying more & investing in infrastructure to improve throughout, they're exacerbating the problem.
Right now that isn't even the real issue. The real issue is there simply aren't enough chassis to put containers on. Nott by a long shot, and many of the ones that are being used are barely usable.
The supply chain is currently impacted for umpteen reasons: lack of chassis, lack of drivers, a mass exodus of people out of the industry (customs clearance, handlers, drivers, dock workers, sort managers, maintenance, etc), weather, ongoing covid shutdowns at some facilities both foreign and domestic, etc.
It's nuts.
What's crazier is, after 15 years at my job, I make $4 more an hour than fast food is currently hiring at in my city... and I'm on like week 27 or 28 of 60-70 hour weeks with no end in sight. I haven't had a cost of living increase since 2008, TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.
sigh
Real talk: Why haven’t you demanded a raise or left for other employment?
You can't ask for a raise at most companies, that's not a thing despite what internet articles and people in tech circles think. Most companies have clearly defined, set in stone, pay scales for a position and the only way to move up that scale is via a merit increase. Our merit increases are always at or less than inflation, this year's merit increase didn't even cover the inflation we saw that month.
As far as finding other employment, they don't pay all that much better and I have 15 years of experience doing a very specific thing (air freight customs clearance, just writing the entries) which doesn't really exist a whole lot of places.
Then there is the fact I have a GED (I'm in a degree program but that's still a couple of few years out) when places like Flexport (which isn't even in my state) wants a 4-year degree to even talk to you. Here's a response I got from them when applying to a job before I got married and would have considered moving to Chicago (at the time I had 12 years of actual experience having written over 100k entries):
"Hope all is well, Ryan! I wanted to extend a virtual wave and thank you for your interest in joining our team. You obviously have many of the skills we're looking for. However, for the Customs Brokerage role we require a BA/BS degree as well as previous experience in a broker role doing entries and customs classifications.
Based on your background, there is no doubt that you will shine in your next career endeavor. In the meantime, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!
All the best,
REDACTED"
And, from what I could tell, that job would have been a pay cut AND required me moving to a higher cost of living area.
For what its worth (and I know it's not much...) you wrote an EXCELLENT article, here. It's a truly great piece, and you're a talented writer. You mentioned having a GED, but you write like somebody who has a lot of experienced... You have a great voice.
You clearly have a lot to offer the world, so fuck Flexport. You'll find someplace that values you, properly. Keep your chin up, man.
Appreciate that you took the time to reply. I would absolutely apply again to Flexport and other logistics firms if they have any remote roles you could even be adjacent to with your current skill set and the fact that most people can grow and adapt into similar roles. The market has improved, clearly, and corporations are absolutely desperate for talent. Rejection sucks, but asking is free.
Lack of cranes means lack of operating cranes, I think. Most ports are still operating at reduced capacity due to COVID. So they can't run as many cranes as usual.