California Port Truckers 'Drowning' in Supply Chain Inefficiencies (freightwaves.com) 96
Despite recent reports that congestion issues are easing on the water at California's major ports, drayage truckers claim this isn't the case for them -- as long wait times, a flawed appointment system and other efficiency issues continue to plague marine terminal operators in the state. From a report: As Port of Oakland officials are urging ocean carriers to add direct services to their port to help relieve supply chain bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, truckers whose livelihoods depend on how many containers they can turn in a day are bracing for possible extra capacity if steamship lines skip Southern California and head to Oakland.
"All we hear in the news is the lack of congestion on the waterside and we can confirm that, but we are drowning on the landside by long lines and staffing issues at the terminals," Bill Aboudi, president of AB Trucking, told FreightWaves this week. An unreliable appointment system has drayage companies checking day and night to find open slots and vessel schedule changes -- which Aboudi compared to playing musical chairs -- have truckers concerned they won't be able to handle a container volume increase if some of these issues aren't addressed soon. A group of trucking company owners, each with about 30 years of drayage experience under their belts, are working with port officials in Oakland to create a task force to air their grievances and open the lines of communications with marine terminal operators.
"All we hear in the news is the lack of congestion on the waterside and we can confirm that, but we are drowning on the landside by long lines and staffing issues at the terminals," Bill Aboudi, president of AB Trucking, told FreightWaves this week. An unreliable appointment system has drayage companies checking day and night to find open slots and vessel schedule changes -- which Aboudi compared to playing musical chairs -- have truckers concerned they won't be able to handle a container volume increase if some of these issues aren't addressed soon. A group of trucking company owners, each with about 30 years of drayage experience under their belts, are working with port officials in Oakland to create a task force to air their grievances and open the lines of communications with marine terminal operators.
The Time For Action is Now Unionize Now!!! (Score:1, Insightful)
The Time For Action is Now Unionize Now!!!
Re: The Time For Action is Now. Commit Suicide No (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: The Time For Action is Now. Commit Suicide No (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd add that it really makes no difference if the union or the container terminals are manipulating the situation for further gain (you expect me to believe companies don't do the same?), but the fact a port is a chokepoint. Whom ever has authority can dictate terms.
I find it suspicious when business charge an arm and a leg, it is merely charging what the market can bear, but when it is workers, it's corruption of the highest order.
The organization of the port should probably change, but this notion of a noble invisible hand that never abuses its position is a joke.
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I find it suspicious when business charge an arm and a leg, it is merely charging what the market can bear, but when it is workers, it's corruption of the highest order.
Tribalism. As long as it's the OTHER tribe doing all the wrong (guess who gets to define wrong) then one can point conscious free.
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but this notion of a noble invisible hand that never abuses its position is a joke.
In the book Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, the Invisible Hand only arises when there is an active market for a product or service, and the government is actively regulating to protect the newcomer from the entrenched industrial powers.
So by Adam Smith's definitions, a shipping port is not a Capitalist market, and government should consider more direct involvement or competition in order support the overall needs of the economy.
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Alternatively, the invisible hand of the market has a strong incentive to ensure prices are kept artificially high, so any new port will be run in a manner that makes it just as inefficient as, if not more inefficient than, the existing port.
Remember that the invisible hand of the market exists to maximise shareholder revenue, not to make things run better.
Everyone talks about the invisible hand... (Score:1)
But no one ever mentions invisible handjobs.
Thus, laws of nature dicktating for handjobs where there are hands or other means to achieve handjobs - either the invisible hand doesn't exist OR those invisible handjobs are being kept hidden from US.
I.e. THEY took our handjobs! Invisible ones.
Or, you know, invisible hand is just a masturbation fantasy invented by people who prioritize money over all biological, social or emotional needs.
You know, psychopaths.
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As I was saying before several new age puritans, to afraid of their own hands touching their wee-wees tried to censor the discourse on the non-existence of the "invisible hand"...
Everyone talks about the invisible hand... But no one ever mentions invisible handjobs.
Thus, laws of nature dicktating for handjobs where there are hands or other means to achieve handjobs - either the invisible hand doesn't exist OR those invisible handjobs are being kept hidden from US.
I.e. THEY took our handjobs! Invisible ones.
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Nice fantasy there, but the invisible hand always seems to drive costs down. Without the force of Government behind them, entrenched players cannot artificially protect their turf and must compete. Costs always head down - unless a Government intervenes.
That "invisible hand" you fear is simply Government overreach and authority being used by the rich to ensure no one else becomes rich. The solution is not to "kill the rich" - that will never work. The solution is to bind Government such that it does not
Humans need to quit (Score:2)
As far as abolishing union contracts goes, the phenomena known as the great resignation would like to have a word with you. Unions cause their share of problems, itâ(TM)s true, but blue collar jobs are bleeding people as it is. You want to make life even more miserable for them? Theyâ(TM)ll just quit in even greater numbers.
Resignations aren't something to fear in this case.
All major ports on the US west cost are controlled by the ILWU, which has a monopoly on labor. If those ports were automated to the extent the ports in Europe or Japan are automated, there would be fewer workers needed, and the workers would not need to be replaced. Automation has been stymied by union contracts that prevent automation at the cost of human workers. As such, the efficiency (in terms the time needed to offload containers) is much worse at the
Re:Humans need to qui (Score:2)
However, I see no reason that blue collar workers should voluntarily suffer because short sighted executives made boneheaded supply chain decisions and went 100 percent just-in-time. Workers hav
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No No No. Fuck the poor. That's our mantra here in the USA. Only *I* deserve a good life, fuck those plebs.
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Is it really because of the unions the ports aren't upgraded or is it because the owners prefer not to spend a dime on upgrades when this way they can jack up the price with no investment?
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Watch Oakland port go on-strike until the new San Pedro port follows the same union rules of go-slow and inefficiency. Being back to one port again, the San Pedro employees can set the terms, which will be very similar to what the Oakland port does, even if they don't unionize.
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Watch, as the invisible hand of the free market all but practically reaches down from the sky and gets containers moved[...].
I guess you need special glasses for that or something? To see the invisible hand?
I believe in invisible things! (Score:1)
Like that man in the sky.
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Why would anyone construct and open a new port when they know its barely going to break even due to existing competition.
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LOL, all these companies are having life time high revenue. They do not give a FUCK how long it takes to fix because their profits are through the roof. Good luck getting anyone in the ports to do anything about speeding any of this up. They hold the monopoly and have already bribed their politicians.
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I can’t see anything wrong with that. Every company in the supply chain does that right now to make more money. Yet the working class are the only one supposed just to take it and stay obedient. Gotta keep those goods rolling in so Bezos can make another billion today.
More Luckyo nonsense. (Score:1)
American ports are just less efficient compared with European and Asian ports. Having longshoremen working more just moves the bottleneck to the next link in the chain.
Re:The Time For Action is Now Unionize Now!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
the ILWU has been using the supply chain crunch [latimes.com] as a tool in their contract renewal negotiations.
And why shouldn't they? Do you think they could get better terms if they had negotiated when there was no shortage at all?
Oil and commodity prices shot up sky high during shortage and it is lauded as the Free Market at work. So why shouldn't labor cost and labor contract prices shot up during labor shortage?
Welcome to Capitalism and the Free Market.
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Fuck the people living around the port. They can sleep when they're dead.
Fuck the people in the port, living around the port, and driving around the port and beyond. Put 16 year olds at the wheel of 80,000 pound trucks.
Fuck the people in the port and living around the port. Diesel exhaust has a sweet, sweet smell that doesn't kill you at all [newscientist.com], especially when concentr
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It's a port, like an airport, if you decide the low property cost surrounding it is worth it, you have to deal with the consequences. The port was there before the current owners moved in.
Regulation on who is allowed to work, I mean, you HAVE to be in a union and you HAVE to be vaccinated.
Again, you decide to live around the port because of low living cost, you make that decision, the US is very large and has wide open spaces.
So nice seeing that simple solutions are rejected because 'mah cheap property is i
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Sorry, that hasn't been a valid excuse for pollution under American law for the past century or so.
Boo hoo. Let's get rid of that right away so that half the port can be out with COVID-19 three weeks from now. Productivity will soar.
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Modder: I can repost more times than you can mod. Gather some courage and reply if you disagree.
Fuck the people living around the port. They can sleep when they're dead.
Fuck the people in the port, living around the port, and driving around the port and beyond. Put 16 year olds at the wheel of 80,000 pound trucks.
Fuck the people in the port and living around the port.
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Don’t know what rock you have been living under, but the whole problem is the longshoremen’s union sold the truckers down the river in the 00’s. The solution is automation and not unions; the work cannot be done efficiently with drayage truckers in a central location where they are paid by the container.
The ports only have a vested interest in drayage truckers when they become the bottleneck, which may or may not happen this time around.
Re: The Time For Action is Now Unionize Now!!! (Score:1)
Unionize Now!!! There is power in a Union [youtu.be]
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> Doesn't it seem wrong that unions aren't subject to anti-monopoly laws?
What would the law do? Imagine there is only MacDonald's in your area, can the law force Burger King to open a restaurant?
I live in Europe and I am really missing something here on how US works. I looked on the internet and in a country well known for unions like France, there are at 5 nation-wide unions plus local ones, and you can adhere to any of them in any factory. They can be socialist, conservative, Christian, liberal, etc.,
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It is one union or no union. That's true. The members don't ask their employer but rather they hold a vote. Everyone that would be part of the union in question gets a vote. If enough vote yes, a union is formed.
The company could close down operations at this point or accept the union and figure out a workers' contract.
In some states, like California, you have union shops that require everyone working there to belong to the union, minus management. They pay union dues which goes to supporting the people tha
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> Doesn't it seem wrong that unions aren't subject to anti-monopoly laws? What would the law do? Imagine there is only MacDonald's in your area, can the law force Burger King to open a restaurant?
Here in the US, the union exclusion effectively bars Burger King from ever opening a restaurant. It squashes competition.
Re: The Time For Action is Now Unionize Now!!! (Score:2)
It's time for the trucking companies, independent owners and owner operators to organize themselves to improve the rules.
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Nah, each one of those individuals thinks they are next to God in their ability to drive a truck. They don't need no one but themselves because they are just so awesome.
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Considering that the majority of the goods imported to the US from southeast Asia goes through LA it's going to be quite a shakeup - and force even more strain on the Suez canal.
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I find this hard to understand (Score:1)
I was promised we are in the game-changed post-brick-and-mortar 3D printed downloadable parts future?
Houses? 3D printed! Cars? 3D printed! Food? 3D printed!
So what do we care about shipping and containers and factories?
Can someone please explain this to me?
I am also being told we will colonize Mars by 2030. How's the schedule on that?
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3D printed food - Star Trek replicators. "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot"
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More like: "Yecch, the fats cartridge needs to be replaced."
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It's not that hard to 3d print food.
But making all the ingredients into a paste takes more time than cooking.
And the cleanup takes even longer.
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"Can someone please explain this to me?"
Yeah, stop believing everything you read on the intertubes, bad for you.
Re: I find this hard to understand (Score:2)
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misread (Score:3, Funny)
No automation (Score:3, Interesting)
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Other cities around the world have this difficulty. It's exacerbated by the corruption of various unions which have sometimes engaged in criminal abuse of "scabs" and of businesses that increase automation.
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Unions are not any more corrupt than corporations or politicians. If you want to get rid of all corruption, then kill all humans.
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What kind of automation did they fight against?
I wonder what would happen if someone tried to build an automated terminal using cutting edge technology. What would the solution look like? Something tells me it would not have a 2 mile long line of trucks on the highway, something more like Elon Musk's casino taxi hub. A lot of the words used in the article sound like wierd human error, "I don't get math" type issues. Which is fine, humans are not just about math.. unless you are the weak point in everybody's
Re:No automation (Score:5, Interesting)
Nevermind, it's all over Google. Seems they paid the longshoremen $800m in 2018 for the right to automate but still fighting it..
https://www.joc.com/port-news/... [joc.com]
Re type of automation:
https://lbbusinessjournal.com/... [lbbusinessjournal.com]
"Marine terminal operation involves replacing manually operated stacking cranes, yard tractors and other cargo-handling equipment with driverless machines. Pier T would become the fourth automated terminal at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, including the Long Beach Container Terminal, one of the most advanced facilities in the world."
Re:No automation (Score:4, Interesting)
The interesting part is that automation is good for the the truckers who are not unionized. TFA says they are often immigrants, and end up waiting in line while dockworkers take 2 hour breaks, etc.
https://www.latimes.com/busine... [latimes.com]
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> union has fought tooth and nail again st any automation in the ports
On the upside, humans are less resistant to hacking. I suggest we don't put all eggs in one basket, and have a mix of automation and humans. This is until we learn how to make secure software.
Correction (Score:1)
Correction: "humans are more resistant to hacking"
Drowning in support chain inefficiencies now... (Score:2)
Just saying. #truckerdreams
I Used to Drink Monkey-Plucked Tea. (Score:1)
Port drayage truck driver problems (Score:4, Interesting)
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Port drayage truck driver is the only CDL (Commercial Driver License) driver job of which I am aware that is available to a new CDL holder/driver with no work experience as a truck driver.
There's also city bus driver, or log truck operator. They hire guys with CDLs and no experience, or so their ads say.
What "steamship lines?" (Score:2)
I don't think they need to worry about steamships rerouting these days.
Seriously, who refers to container ships as steamships?
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The assumption that Oakland can replace Long Beach's shipping terminal is laughable. Oakland is a very small port in comparison.
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>Seriously, who refers to container ships as steamships?
Clippers & schooners, of course!
pesky little upstarts that think sails are obsolete . .
Here's an editorial from a 20 year trucker. (Score:2)
I saw this posted on an investment subreddit (not WSB, a real one) last week and thought it was an interesting perspective. [medium.com]
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FTA: "There is no extra capacity to be had, and it makes NO difference anyway, because If you can’t get a container unloaded at a warehouse, having drivers work 24/7/365 solves nothing.
What it will truly take to fix this problem is to run EVERYTHING 24/7: ports (both coastal and domestic),trucks, and warehouses. We need tens of thousands more chassis, and a much greater capacity in trucking."
He explicitly says in the article that a large part of the problem is that the destination warehouses aren't op
inefficiencies are good (Score:2)
Inefficiencies are good -- that is what creates jobs and keeps them around. "Inefficiencies" is another word for "unions," although unions do have a few other effects.
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Fashion and fads are the same way: change for the sake of change. If most of a car model stayed the same from year to year, robots could build the vast majority of a car. It is possible to have a world where machines do most the work, giving humans more free time, but we'd have to change many aspects of life and compensation.
NAFTA (Score:2)
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Trucks are a very expensive means of transport for containers, per-mile.
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Ensenada is only about 90 miles south of the border. I think it's the only deep-water port in Baja. But, I doubt if Ensenada can handle much volume.
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Mayhem lurking (Score:1)
Imagine if hackers mucked up the systems at this fragile time. I'm sure enemy nations are trying.
Further info with insight (Score:2)
There is a youtube channel "What is going on with shipping" that fills in the background for some of theses problems.
The subject seem to have a lot of "yes that's so , but".
For instance: reports of fewer ships drifting off LB/LA. True , they moved them further off shore.
Terminals say they are running 24/7. but scheduling shows "closed" on sunday.
Long Beach has imposed (sort of), a levy of $100/ day for sitting containers on the dock. Levied on shipping companies who have little control of what happens after
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Long Beach has imposed (sort of), a levy of $100/ day for sitting containers on the dock. Levied on shipping companies who have little control of what happens after they leave the ship.
The inability to get containers out of the port area in a timely manner is a major problem,
The most profound choke-point is the finite amount of space to unload containers off ships - when the immediate area around the cranes is filled-up, the unload process has to stop until space is available.
The second choke-point is the fact that containers come off the ships in a random order (since they were put on the ship in random order), but are each called for specifically by a particular truck driver - when a dr
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The second choke-point is the fact that containers come off the ships in a random order (since they were put on the ship in random order), but are each called for specifically by a particular truck driver - when a driver shows up they are only interested in one particular container that must be found and placed on a trailer, very time consuming.
Wait, what? I thought the whole point of drayage trucking was to get the containers the hell off the dock as rapidly as possible and haul them off to a sorting and dispatching center where you then start caring about who picks up which container. Drayage is by definition short distances, meaning purely local, so even if there's more than one dispatching center, drayage drivers should just be given a container and a destination and off they go as quickly as possible, with all the destinations being short t
This would not have happened under Trump (Score:1, Troll)
We also would not have the open-border crises, or the Afghanistan withdraw disaster, or the high inflation with especially high fuel costs.
Leftists think Trump was an embarrassment? Brain dead Joe cannot put two sentences together. Everybody was working against Trump: intel agencies, media, courts, congress, and everybody else. Yet, Trump had the economy humming before China dropped the covid bomb. Trump had a series of one remarkable achievement after another. Under Trump the border was secure, there were
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> Because Trump unconditionally surrendered to the Taliban.
No, that was Biden. Trump had the Taliban 100% under control.
> Trump tried to also surrender to covid and hope it would too just go away. But the virus wasn't so easily appeased.
Again, 100% backwards. Vaxxines were created under Trump administration. Democrats criticized vaxxines while Trump was in office. Trump instituted travel bans, Biden screamed, over and over again, that travel bans were "racist."
CA seems at fault (Score:2)
Here's what I know for sure. Shippers are moving ships with cargo through the Panama Canal to US East Coast ports. Marinetraffic.com . I can see more traffic on Chesapeake Bay heading to Baltimore.
What I have seen reported but can't confirm: CA environmental regulations on OTR trucks are having a major impact on the number of tractors that are allowed to pick up loads.
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Are their times when their are no trucks waiting to get into the port? If not then more trucks will not allow more containers to leave the port.