Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

>It seems that everyone now agrees that the bottleneck is yard space at the container terminals. The terminals are simply overflowing with containers, which means they no longer have space to take in new containers either from ships or land. It’s a true traffic jam

This seems like definitely not the real bottleneck. You have to ask yourself, "why is there no space to put new containers" and the answer is (probably) "well we don't have enough trucks to move the ones we have off the docks". Why don't you have enough trucks? This is where the root cause for the bottleneck probably splits. I'm speculating here, but we either don't have enough physical trucks (I doubt this) or we don't have enough labor to load the containers on the trucks and actually drive them off the dock.

Which is probably the most important question: why don't you have enough labor? I can venture a guess[1].

>Port truckers are typically independent contractors, without the benefits and protections of unionized transport sectors or even major companies with shipping divisions, like Amazon.com Inc. Their jobs require them to line up for hours to pick up cargo, and they’re paid only when they move it. [Emphasis mine]

>“The port truck driver, for decades now, has basically been the slack adjuster in the whole system,” said Steve Viscelli, an economic sociologist with the University of Pennsylvania who studies labor markets and supply chains. The entire system, he said, is built around free labor from truck drivers as they wait for containers.

Cut checks to these people, and get those containers off the docks. I feel like we're living through some Black Mirror version of The Wire Season 2.

[1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-21/biden-tac...

Edit: added the larger context for the Bloomberg article quote

Just 20-25 years ago we were still making a lot of things in the US. But the American worker, and economy, was sold out to cheap, high-polluting, IP-stealing, yes-lets-ship-it-2000-miles-instead-of-making-it-in-the-US Chinese labor and manufacturing at the benefit of the CCP but everyone else’s expense.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This wasn’t even a direct supply chain disruption and it’s hitting us hard. Imagine if we ever had one, and there’s no evidence to suggest we won’t again. We’re dependent on… China of all places for everything?

Why can’t we focus our brainstorming sessions on bringing manufacturing back to the USA? Why is this not a major talking point? Americans have been polled and across the aisle people prefer made in the USA.

Let the CCP take care of its own people. It certainly thinks it’s system is the right way.

It’s madness and it’s sad. Every corporation and politician that had a hand in this ought to be ashamed. Every media outlet that ignores it ought to be ashamed too.

- Bring the military and National Guard container chassis to relieve the ports. That works, unless there's a situation where the military or National Guard need them, in which case it could be catastrophic.

- Force railroads to haul to this one particular new site. First, I kind of bristle at the word "force". That's not how it works in a free country. Second, there is no unused facility available that has the rail bandwidth to handle the traffic level that he's talking about. Third, the containers were intended to go to Dallas (the example he used), not to this new site 100 miles from LA. How and when do they get from there to Dallas?

There's an ongoing world wide (minus some regions) container shortage going on at the same time.