White House says Walmart, FedEx, UPS will move to 24/7 model to address supply chain bottlenecks

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,244
10,818
136
Start paying truckers a decent living, and two things will happen. First, you'll get more truckers. Second, rail will become more attractive and hopefully upgrade to compete better. If we could make our rail system more efficient and cost competitive it would be a massive win for many reason.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,094
37,297
136
I don't know what power, if any, the feds have to divert port traffic but Oakland has ONE container ship berth in use out of a dozen and oodles of empty dock/yard space. Really a major part of the problem here is that basically ALL the shippers decided to use Southern California at the same time which you can't do. Savannah kind of has the same problem now.

Start diverting a half dozen ships at a time to Oakland and get BNSF/UP to rail the all the piled up empties in Southern California for pickup to clear the LA/LB yards so ships can unload. Reload with empties and exports in Oakland then head back to Asia.
 

Lanyap

Elite Member
Dec 23, 2000
8,185
2,232
136
Ya'll don't have to worry about getting Christmas presents anymore. Desantis is going to make sure everyone can go Christmas shopping this year.

“We have to make sure that people can go Christmas shopping as normal. We have to make sure that all the necessities are there,” DeSantis said. “We want to be part of that solution.”
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,225
10,878
136
I don't know what power, if any, the feds have to divert port traffic but Oakland has ONE container ship berth in use out of a dozen and oodles of empty dock/yard space. Really a major part of the problem here is that basically ALL the shippers decided to use Southern California at the same time which you can't do. Savannah kind of has the same problem now.

Start diverting a half dozen ships at a time to Oakland and get BNSF/UP to rail the all the piled up empties in Southern California for pickup to clear the LA/LB yards so ships can unload. Reload with empties and exports in Oakland then head back to Asia.
They are already parking ships in the Puget Sound, both Seattle and Tacoma have ports. Olympia also, but its relatively small.
 
Last edited:
Nov 17, 2019
12,259
7,377
136
How long would it take container ships in the Pacific to get to the Atlantic coast? Can the Canal handle the flow?
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,083
21,203
136
Ya'll don't have to worry about getting Christmas presents anymore. Desantis is going to make sure everyone can go Christmas shopping this year.


They should divert the cargo ships to FLorida, but have them ram into Florida at the top of their northern border with Georgia at full speed, hopefully we can knock off that state into the ocean and rid ourselves of that giant wart.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Ken g6

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,094
37,297
136
They are already parking ships in the Puget Sound, both Seattle and Tacoma have ports. Olympia also, but its relatively small.

Yeah seems about a dozen container ships in the sound waiting for berths to open at Seattle or Tacoma.

Savannah has 30 plus while the rest of the major east coast ports look lightly used. Nobody anchored waiting for Newark/Bayonne, zero ships berthed in Boston, berths not full in Norfolk/Baltimore/Charleston/Jacksonville. New Orleans empty. Houston not full either.

Shipping lines trying to slam almost everything through like 3 or 4 ports is not working out so good.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hal2kilo
Mar 11, 2004
23,280
5,721
146
It's disgusting how the CEO class has put the screws to the workers below them, increasing their own pay and bonuses in the process. Went into overdrive once Cadet Bonespurs stained the office. I'm finding it difficult to hold a grudge against people who are fed up with their treatment and seized an opportune time to strike and make their needs known. This kind of stuff doesn't happen when you treat your employees right. Having said that, this whole supply chain issue isn't just one bottleneck. No matter what happens with shipping companies and ports, this country is still really hurting for truck drivers.

We're used to throwing money at problems until they go away. Ok, so do the same thing with payroll and benefits, watch the human side of this disagreement evaporate overnight. Needing more port capacity, truck drivers, those will take longer unfortunately. Big Business is going to lose money no matter what thanks to where their greedy business culture has put them. Either it comes out of what goes to executive pay and bonuses (both having skyrocketed recently) or they get to keep losing employees and business until they sink into the red. Strikes right now seem more painful for the corps than the workers, but I hope they can work out some deals and let people get back to a semblance of normalcy, especially leading up to the holidays. Probably want to get this worked out before Moscow Mitch and the GQP create another financial crisis for Xmas.

Nah, what's disgusting is how many of the worker class support the CEOs doing that. I constantly have to deal with dipshits I work with talking about how the rich are fucking us over and then turn around and say that raising the minimum wage will ruin society and that we shouldn't raise taxes on the rich. I even had one try to argue with me that trickle-down economics works (this literally immediately after he complained about huge corporations having too much control, followed by him defending Turmp).

These people will go "follow the money" then turn around and say that billionaires have the right to personal privacy and freedom with their money. Its so baffling that I cannot even have a discussion about it because within literally the 1st or 2nd comments in the conversation they'll say something that doesn't even follow its own logic, and trying to explain that to them they simply refuse to understand it.
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,280
5,721
146
I remember the CEO of Costco saying how Wall Street criticizes him for treating his employees well for that industry, because it takes away from profits.

@ponyo is those critics. Treat labor as shitty as you can so the stock holders and executives can take all the money.

Shitty people.

I can only imagine how badly he'd lose his mind if strippers unionized.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: hal2kilo

uallas5

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,479
1,658
136
Yeah seems about a dozen container ships in the sound waiting for berths to open at Seattle or Tacoma.

Savannah has 30 plus while the rest of the major east coast ports look lightly used. Nobody anchored waiting for Newark/Bayonne, zero ships berthed in Boston, berths not full in Norfolk/Baltimore/Charleston/Jacksonville. New Orleans empty. Houston not full either.

Shipping lines trying to slam almost everything through like 3 or 4 ports is not working out so good.
Do you know if this has anything to do with the size of the ships and what ports can handle them?
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,225
10,878
136
Do you know if this has anything to do with the size of the ships and what ports can handle them?
They are just waiting to unload. Not sure if it's the same sort of trucking problem, or rail. Relatively few humans are involved in unloading Conex boxes from the ships onto rail cars or trucks due to automation.
I keep wondering if the elephant in the room regarding truck driver shortages is our draconian invasion of the 4th amendment against illegal search and seizure.
This is in regards to UA testing for CDLs.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,094
37,297
136
Do you know if this has anything to do with the size of the ships and what ports can handle them?

Very few of the waiting ships would be unable to fit in these ports. Most of them are well below Neo-panamax size.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,225
10,878
136
The Port of Seattle just put 4 new large cranes in to handle those ships about 6 months ago.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,120
10,946
136
They are just waiting to unload. Not sure if it's the same sort of trucking problem, or rail. Relatively few humans are involved in unloading Conex boxes from the ships onto rail cars or trucks due to automation.
I keep wondering if the elephant in the room regarding truck driver shortages is our draconian invasion of the 4th amendment against illegal search and seizure.
This is in regards to UA testing for CDLs.
It's shitty working conditions. I listened to a talk by a sociologist on his analysis of the trucking industry through the years.
His points were basically that unions kept wages high (around 100k today) and had strict control over what went where. So the flip side is truck freight was more expensive, but the work was easier. Pay per mile existed at the time because there was no good way to track vehicles in real time, and port offloading was not as good. So pay per mile was beneficial for drivers, because they might be held up onloading or offloading. Good drivers were also very fuel efficient.

But now, trucker unions are non-existent, freight companies can track vehicle progress in real time (but still pay drivers per mile), and computer systems and automatic or DCT transmissions have simplified driving quite a bit. So the skill barrier to entry is much lower for drivers, pay per mile now encourages companies to run their truckers harder/longer, and there's a lot less employee say in what happens. That's why there's 90% turnover.

There are a lot more CDL holders than it sounds like. No one wants the shitty conditions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hal2kilo
Nov 17, 2019
12,259
7,377
136
Anybody else see a report of a container ship on fire off the coast of BC?


Had to be pretty hot to melt and collapse several containers:

d21a8ec_tor500-canada-ship-1024-11.jpg





.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Ken g6