from Hacker News

Twenty-year truck driver: America’s “shipping crisis” will not end

by stephenboyd on 10/28/21, 3:40 AM with 72 comments

  • by ethagknight on 10/28/21, 11:57 AM

    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.

  • by rnkn on 10/28/21, 4:10 AM

    Once you see there is no connection between money and work it's like seeing the code of The Matrix.
  • by SkittyDog on 10/28/21, 4:19 AM

    Watching the port of Los Angeles & Long Beach, since the COVID pandemic began, the growing backlog of container ships waiting outside the port has been obvious. But this article helps explain the strange part, which is that the shipping backlog has been getting worse even as COVID cases & restrictions have steadily proved in California.

    I can't speak to whether this explanation is correct, but it's better than literally anything I've heard so far.

  • by ralph84 on 10/28/21, 6:39 AM

    Hopefully we can use this failure of globalization to finally take a step back and acknowledge globalization has been a net-negative for the majority of Americans. Instead of trying to band-aid globalization to make a minority rich, how about we reduce the need for so much international shipping in the first place?
  • by shapefrog on 10/28/21, 9:16 AM

    > It’s important to understand what the cost implications are for consumers with this lack of supply in the supply chain.

    The sea is full of ships with 1000's of containers full of goods.

    The port is full of containers with goods.

    The warehouses are full of goods and have containers sitting around in the lots or on the streets, also full.

    Where is the lack of supply exactly?

  • by totalZero on 10/28/21, 4:56 AM

    I get the feeling that the people in charge of the USA don't understand how markets work.
  • by putlake on 10/28/21, 6:33 PM

    From the article: "So when the coastal ports started getting clogged up last spring due to the impacts of COVID on business everywhere, drivers started refusing to show up. Congestion got so bad that instead of being able to do three loads a day, they could only do one."

    I could not make the connection from the first sentence to the second. If drivers are not showing up, congestion (in the lines for drivers) should go down, shouldn't it?

  • by etempleton on 10/28/21, 5:01 AM

    There are plans to fine companies for slow moving freight (https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/10/25/ports-of-los-ange...).

    Additionally the east coast has been ramping up capacity for years. The port of Baltimore is experience no such slow-down and just added more cranes. It is one of the fastest growing ports in the nation.

  • by mk81 on 10/29/21, 12:56 PM

    Make stuff closer to where it's used again.
  • by ryanmercer on 10/29/21, 12:47 PM

    I've been in international air freight for over 15 years, I don't see things getting even remotely "back to normal" until 2023, if it doesn't continue to worsen before getting better.
  • by yosito on 10/28/21, 8:21 AM

    Seem like the solution is simple: pay truck drivers to do the work that needs to be done.
  • by throwawayswede on 10/29/21, 12:23 PM

    Can't read because published on reader hostile platform.