Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 514 posts

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#241

Post by bobthepanda »

intricatedetail wrote: post #197
Animats wrote: post #85

Truckers are leaving containers all over Los Angeles.[1] Allowing stacking over 2 high is only useful if you have the equipment to stack over 2 high. A place that just stacks empty containers 2 high probably only has large forklifts. The special equipment for high stacking is far more expensive, and only bought if you need it.[2] A more useful proposal is a "peel pile".[3] This is a system which assigns outgoing truc…

> This is a system which assigns outgoing trucks an easily accessible container to deliver, rather than a specific container that has to be retrieved. This is such an obvious thing. Do they really have people so incompetent they didn't think of that? Wow

my understanding is that not all containers pay the same (since they are different weights, have different destinations, etc.) and so this mostly screws over the driver who loses the ability to select the best offer.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#242

Post by chowndown »

Kinrany wrote: post #202
asplake wrote: post #83

And in the middle of all that, Theory of Constraints in a tweet: “When you're designing an operation you must choose your bottleneck. If the bottleneck appears somewhere that you didn't choose it, you aren't running an operation. It's running you.” https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451543795045183490?s=2...

It's often said that ToC is a popularization of operations management knowledge that already existed at the time. Is there a better textbook that is more technical and not too dry?

I studied industrial engineering and don't recall "ToC" being covered outside of The Goal

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#243

Post by mdorazio »

foota wrote: post #182
mastax wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Shipping container prices have risen threefold. The transshipment companies who have to deal with the containers piling up don't own the containers, and can't sell them to you.

Could someone feasibly charge for storage of them offsite?

Yes, and they do. But remember this is in the middle of Los Angeles where property is insanely expensive and ordinances limit how high you can stack your containers. So in order to make any kind of real dent you either need an astronomical capital outlay or you need to get a bunch of containers to emptier land outside the city (i.e. 40+ miles away), and you need to do it without violating customer contracts on where their stuff (goods or the containers themselves) is stored.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#244

Post by icelancer »

aerosmile wrote: post #72

Everyone's focused on Ryan's comments about stacking, and the subsequent win there. Amazing job, Ryan, and thank you Robert Garcia for being a man to take one on the chin (for this solution not coming from your team) and for then doing the right thing. I am seriously impressed by not seeing any NIH (not invented here) behavior here. But why stop there? Ryan suggested 5 courses of actions, and made it clear that we ne…

I am no defender of government bureaucracy, but the fact we got the stacking rules changed in 48 hours is pretty crazy. I suspect more changes will come, but it may take some time. I'd let it play out over 1-2 weeks and re-evaluate.

Can't believe I am giving government delays a pass here... but I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth when we get near-immediate action from people who aren't known for solving problems with any sort of urgency.

EDIT: And I'm even a customer of Flexport!

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#245

Post by mechanical_bear »

GuB-42 wrote: post #171
polote wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Truckers are leaving containers all over Los Angeles.[1] There are so many of them, that they couldn't find a picture of one of them to illustrate the article

G/O media is particularly terrible with illustrations. They once had an article abut the ISS with a picture of Mir as an illustration. I think they have a contract with a stock image provider, no photographer, and no one to seek out and license original pictures. Writer are probably asked to select an illustration in their stock image library. I think it is a disgrace to journalism. The front picture is, with the tit…

You could have left it at the first five words.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#246

Post by throwaway9870 »

It is embarrassing for the country that a CEO from a company had to discover and report this rather than someone from the govt doing their job. When I see people write "late stage capitalism", I actually wonder if we aren't in "late stage US govt". They had it too easy for too long and have forgotten how to do their jobs.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#247

Post by mdorazio »

orangepurple wrote: post #139

Why are these blocked ships not diverting to other US ports? We have plenty!

Generally speaking, it's not allowed. The supply chain has a very long tail and there are all kinds of steps and contracts that are based on the destination specified when goods are first loaded on a ship. Unloading at a completely different port far away would be a nightmare. As for why ships aren't utilizing other ports more, see [1].

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-container-ships-cant-sail-a...

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#249

Post by acjohnson55 »

joecool1029 wrote: post #220
aerosmile wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy is a bad ass. If he wanted to run for President, he would win. I am really not exaggerating - I had a chance to meet him a few years back, and at that time he was the most impressive person I had talked to in person for an extended amount of time (not based on credentials or achievement, but simply based on clarity of thought and new ways of thinking). I also know that PG rates him incredibly highly. To give…

>The guy is a bad ass. If he wanted to run for President, he would win. It's interesting to note that we had a president like this, and that was Herbert Hoover. Hoover's claim to fame before being elected president was saving Belgium from starvation during WWI[1], the dude deeply understood logistics and had lots of connections so was able to negotiate with all the parties to get humanitarian relief and set up his ow…

A very interesting guy, for sure. People respected his acumen, but no one seems to have liked the guy. Like a surprising number of presidents, he basically lucked into the job.

I thought the humorous podcast American Presidents: Totalus Rankium had an excellent two-parter on him:

Part 1: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-64j34-f045e3 Part 2: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-zsqhc-f1a4af

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#250

Post by CalChris »

Animats wrote: post #85

Truckers are leaving containers all over Los Angeles.[1] Allowing stacking over 2 high is only useful if you have the equipment to stack over 2 high. A place that just stacks empty containers 2 high probably only has large forklifts. The special equipment for high stacking is far more expensive, and only bought if you need it.[2] A more useful proposal is a "peel pile".[3] This is a system which assigns outgoing truc…

> Allowing stacking over 2 high is only useful if you have the equipment to stack over 2 high.

These are empty containers that are getting unloaded and stacked in order to free up the truck and its chassis for another load. The equipment for doing that stacking/unstacking is called an Empty Container Stacker [1]. These are different from a Reach Stacker [2] which will have much less vertical reach and are also different from Container Cranes [3].

[1] https://www.goldbell.my/material-handling-equipment/port-han...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_stacker

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_crane

Post reply on HN