Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations • Hacker News Board

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#511

Post by ThunderSizzle » Tue, Oct 26, 2021, 9:21 PM UTC

aerosmile wrote: post #479

throwawayboise wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I laugh at the idea that the US military might be engaged domestically in helping Amazon and Ebay drop-shippers get cheap chinese crap to 5 year olds who will play with it for maybe a week before it breaks or they lose interest.

This comment explains all I needed to know about why so few people in this country are taking this crisis seriously. The understanding is that this is the Amazon drop shippers who are whining, so why bother? There are countless counter arguments provided by other commenters, so I will just add this - the analogy with Lehman Brothers is a gift that keeps on giving; when they failed, there were also people saying "it's…

On the military topic, why would the military do something humanitarian for citizens? It was pretty clear the industrial military complex was voted back in with Biden, and that's better for business than something altruistic.

Generals make a living from becoming lobbyists for the complex, and without a commander in chief keeping them in check, it's business as usual. And obviously they can walk over Biden all day to do this.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#512

Post by kmonsen » Wed, Oct 27, 2021, 6:19 AM UTC

Consultant32452 wrote: post #486

jpgvm wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but you asked if they are subsidizing them, the answer is no. Is it cheaper than waiting to load empty containers? It could be depending on the incentives, even if those short-term incentives are damaging to long term prospects you would be surprised how short-term most businesses think. Biggest influencing factor I can think of right now is that many importers/exporters are willing to pay exorbitant fees to get…

You've hinted at what I'm trying to understand. What incentives are actually in place that are impacting this behavior? My hypothesis was that the CCP decided it's going to flood the world market with containers by subsidizing them. Maybe that's not what is going on, fine. But what specifically is happening? It sounds like maybe you don't know either.

Turnaround time is by far the most important thing for ships, so the turn around at first opportunity instead of loading empty containers.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#513

Post by stevemadere » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:38 PM UTC

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #473

@Animats said > 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] Some facts: 1) Container Height: 8'6". Add approx 4" for the lift slots on the bottom. 2) Forklift with 22' lift available from Sunbelt = 3 Container Height / 50% increase in yard capacity https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/eq…

If you order one now, the factory in china will ship it to you as soon as they can get it through the port in Long Beach.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#514

Post by schainks » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

anonymouse008 wrote: post #339

schainks wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is someone paying for ships to do this or are they doing their own calculations and realizing it’s cheaper for them to leave fast?

This is the question that ties into mine — if the economic incentives have changed (i.e. there is no penalty for renters of containers to not get containers back to their primary shipper) then this is a perfectly reasonable response to the change from Covid to today — i.e. the new game is moving the ship as fast as possible with no downtime. If the demurrage is still incurred, then there’s some other alternatives tha…

I can’t help but think these decisions are being made on some assumptions from data produced by buggy software algorithms…

Hopefully we’re doing better than that!