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

#161

Post by pmorici » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 4:55 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?

It’s almost certainly because the tweet caused a bunch of people to call their elected representatives and exert political pressure. A couple dock workers aren’t going to be able to drum up that kind of publicity.

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

#162

Post by shusson » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 4:56 AM UTC

Stupid question, why isn’t simple capitalism working on the port? This solution while admirable, reminds me of the USSR trying to set the price of bread.

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

#163

Post by ta988 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:01 AM UTC

OldHand2018 wrote: post #115

thephyber wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empty containers are worth a lot in East Asia right now, just not in US ports or distributor points. It’s a misallocation, not a global oversupply problem

If they’re so valuable to people in East Asia right now, then people in East Asia have an incentive to take a more active role in getting them back. How much is a train ride up to the Port of Oakland? Less than $5k per rail car? Probably a lot less. So some enterprising person in Asia could organize that and get them on a ship heading back faster than their competitors, reducing their cost and gaining a competitive a…

How would you load them on rail car? If there was a working railroad system connected to the docks maybe. A working railroad system would solve a lot of issues in the US. But it is impossible to get a discussion on infrastructure as it gets abused by both sides only for political reasons.

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

#164

Post by seoaeu » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:02 AM UTC

OldHand2018 wrote: post #124

Sparkle-san wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, it is better for North Dakota to make high-value products there, but why would it benefit manufactures to be there (except during rare global logistics disruptions)? Transporting cargo by ship is super cheap during normal times

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

#165

Post by thephyber » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:02 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #53

Once again zoning is the enemy of efficiency. Why did we ever agree to this?

If you are in a democracy (or democratic republic) your continued citizenship is tacit approval of things like local zoning approval.

I dislike NIMBYs as well, but they come with citizenship. China has very few NIMBYs (or at least few visible ones).

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

#166

Post by thephyber » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:07 AM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #34

Does this person actually know what the problem is? For example see https://news.yahoo.com/lazy-crane-operators-making-250-20010... . The symptom might be not enough space for containers, but the root cause could be something a few degrees removed, or a combination of things.

This person is the CEO of FlexPort, a startup that has been watching the efficiencies of the ports and the transport industry that interfaces with them slow to a crawl for months now. He has been tweeting out the size of the parking lot of ships outside of LA/LB port complex for months.

I think he has a pretty good understanding of the issues at least one or two degrees removed, but I think he is also just trying to unblock the critical path (the large cranes at the ports).

The other issues like “fully loaded cargo trains in North Dakota blocking the tracks because they can’t unload” need to be solved by others.

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

#167

Post by BurningFrog » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

Ajay-p wrote: post #44

What about a temporary, emergency suspension of the Jones Act for select flagged vessels? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920

The Jones act it's terrible and should always be repealed!

But it's hard to see that it affects this problem much.

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

#168

Post by ta988 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

fieldcny wrote: post #128

qeternity wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

I don't think FB will last that long. I believe they reached high tide, same as Google and probably Amazon...

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

#169

Post by derekjdanserl » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:10 AM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #108

fny wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Longshoremen make a lot of money!

And bless them they deserve it.

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

#170

Post by ta988 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

neilparikh wrote: post #152

akvadrako wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would quitting your job enable you to get UBI?

Because in many countries (like the Canada example mentioned above), "UBI" was conditional on being unemployed.

So it is not Universal, just using the name.