Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis • Hacker News Board

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#121

Post by swiley » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:18 AM UTC

afuchs wrote: post #104

hammock wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Owner-operators are actually not completely allowed in California. And trucks for the most part must be very new to comply with California emissions requirements. The "labor shortage" is in part aggravated by these regulations. >Danielle Inman, a spokesperson for the National Retail Foundation, which has lobbied for California to overturn AB 5, told PolitiFact that the state’s regulations on trucking impact the avail…

> Owner-operators are actually not completely allowed in California. And trucks for the most part must be very new to comply with California emissions requirements. The "labor shortage" is in part aggravated by these regulations. ... Both of these claims have been disputed by fact checking organizations: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/19/facebook-p...

Because we all know how those don't need to be fact checked.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#122

Post by m0zg » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:18 AM UTC

eightysixfour wrote: post #116

m0zg wrote: post #87

Buttigieg should have been on that boat. But, as has become a custom lately, he's MIA, just like VP is MIA at the border. Not the worst outcome though - he could also be actively harmful like, say, Mayorkas.

People should be able to take family leave, it is the responsibility of the organization and his “manager” to make sure the job is getting done while they’re on leave.

Too bad the "manager" is a vegetable who doesn't know where he is half the time.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#123

Post by CalChris » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:21 AM UTC

fny wrote: post #97

drcode wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird to me that thousands of people work at the docks or with the trucks, and likely understand these problems quite well, but only after a silicon valley guy rented a boat to take a look and tweeted about it did it come to attention of the larger world. Is it just that these other people don't want to "rock the boat" at their place of employment?

I guess you've never been paid some low multiple of minimum wage. You have no incentive to make anything efficient.

Longshoreman make an average of $147,000/yr + benefits in the Bay Area.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/dock-workers-u...

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#124

Post by OldHand2018 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

Sparkle-san wrote: post #101

digikata wrote: post #43

Why isn't the solution to put empty containers back on unloaded ships to be sent away? BTW for fun reading on operations logistics and identifying and attacking bottlenecks see "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_%28novel%29

They've been doing more of that recently actually and it's causing some other effects. American soybean farmers would rely on those empty containers coming by rail for their exporting chain, but that's no longer happening. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019496567/farmers-have-a-big...

That’s a really interesting article, but it also points to a different answer. Instead of shipping low-value raw specialty soybeans to Asia where they will be transformed into a high-value product, they should be creating the high-value product in North Dakota and exporting that. If it is valuable enough, you could even ship it by air and skip the cargo ships altogether.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#125

Post by bsder » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

thephyber wrote: post #107

bsder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Erm, then pay some truckers to haul empty containers to some space in the middle of Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Idaho, Iowa, etc.? If the problem is empties clogging things up, move the empties. America isn't exactly short of empty space without zoning restrictions. In a week, the yards will be empty. This seems like a problem that money can solve. The fact that money isn't solving it is extremely suspicious. Either it m…

This was already one Rx from the Twitter thread. Also not all “capitalists” have aligned incentives. Everybody wants shipping to be efficient except those who profit from this inefficiency. Specifically ship companies are making huge profits by racing to the big East Asian ports right now. So much profit that they don’t want their ships to wait in US ports for empty containers to reload. This asymmetry makes it even…

Not at all Tragedy of the Commons.

In 40 days (one round trip from US to China), the system clogs and the boats can't go running off because they can't unload at all (happening now). At this point the system stabilizes. Sure, it's not a stable point that the shipping companies want, but it is stable.

Capitalism has a way to deal with this. It's called "rising prices". However, business managers have gotten far too used to never suffering any consequences for their decisions. The moment actual responsibility comes down the pipe they all start whining and running home to Daddy (the government) for help.

Let the ships sit. When the shipping companies lose more money with a sitting ship that can't be unloaded than they gained racing back without empty containers, it will correct.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#126

Post by ceejayoz » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:29 AM UTC

Danieru wrote: post #56

ceejayoz wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just pump a bunch of salt water into the cargo hold of a container ship, I suspect.

You can into the ballast tanks.

Sure, but the tanks will be sized on the assumption the ship will be under a normal load, not completely empty.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#127

Post by thephyber » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:34 AM UTC

drcode wrote: post #63

graton wrote: post #60

Related: The mayor of Long Beach has increased the stacking limit. https://mobile.twitter.com/RobertGarcia/status/1451679404757...

It's weird to me that thousands of people work at the docks or with the trucks, and likely understand these problems quite well, but only after a silicon valley guy rented a boat to take a look and tweeted about it did it come to attention of the larger world. Is it just that these other people don't want to "rock the boat" at their place of employment?

They are most likely all blind men feeling an elephant. They can all see some inefficiency but they don’t necessarily have a great view of what upstream problem is causing it or who to call to fix it.

I would imagine most companies don’t sufficiently reward low level employees pointing out and proactively fixing inefficiencies.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#128

Post by fieldcny » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:35 AM UTC

qeternity wrote: post #33

jljljl wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this matches what the thread is saying. Longshoremen are highly unionized, but they are not the bottleneck -- they are blocked because they have nowhere to put the containers they unload. Fixing the problem requires identifying somewhere to place the empty containers, and arranging transport to move those containers out as quickly as possible

I’m not saying it’s the problem now. I’m saying it’s been a problem in the last. But the current problem is absolutely not due to truckers being non union.

Seems like your comment was just an attempt to dunk on a group of people you seem to believe are over paid. You have no real facts or information about how much port workers make and you present no evidence that rules that you may deem to be “inefficient” aren’t in place for safety reasons. You also seem to ignore the fact that most manual labor jobs have to provide enough income for a worker while they are able to physically engage in the work to provide for the significantly longer period of time their bodies won’t be able to do the work.

Everyone in this country seems to think they know exactly how much everyone else should make and surprisingly they always think others are over paid.

It’s especially comical when it’s coming from tech folks where an L7 sitting at FB can be pulling down seven figures and could sit in their aeron chairs working till they are 80, we should all recognize the privilege we have in that regard

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#129

Post by kposehn » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:40 AM UTC

(Cross posted this reply to the twitter thread)

RE Railroads: This is much harder than it seems. Most of the railroads are also stuck with thousands of intermodal platforms that have loaded containers they can’t unload, or empty containers they can’t reposition.

Trains are stacked up outside intermodal terminals. UP has miles of them outside chicago. There are no ways to get them off trains and it snarls the system even further.

If we need to get containers off trains, we need to get to them and unload. The trip to Dallas isn’t the issue, instead we need to focus on shifting empty platforms to where they’re needed.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#130

Post by lostdog » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 3:46 AM UTC

You could also set fees to fix the problem.

Dropping off an [empty?] container at the port? Pay $1000. Loading an empty container onto your ship? Get a bonus of $900. Now you have a feedback loop that brings the empty containers back to where they are needed. It's sort of a recycling fee.