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Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

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

#221

Post by jljljl »

hammock wrote: post #55
remarkEon wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I agree with the conclusions in this thread. >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 s…

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…

Does “Very New” match with “10 years old”? 10 years is the average or target lifespan of a tractor-trailer and you can still drive them up to 2023.

AB 5 might have a bigger impact though

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

#222

Post by margalabargala »

thesimp wrote: post #200
graton wrote: post #60

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

Wait what? They are/were only stacking 2 containers high? When I google on how another big port is doing it, or example Rotterdam, I get a 5 year old video of 5 high stacks and a fully automated system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Fz5gZRX9c . What's going on in Long Beach?

As I understand it, the two-high rule never applied to the Port of Long Beach, it applied to various other intermediate container depots throughout the city. These are not owned by the Port, but by various trucking companies, and it is these trucking yards where containers are now allowed to be stacked higher.

This is important because the Port is not receiving empty containers, but trucking companies that have empties on truck chassis need somewhere to put that empty before they can get a new container. Allowing additional buffer for empty container storage may allow the current traffic jam to resolve itself.

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

#223

Post by mensetmanusman »

dexterdog wrote: post #172
postingawayonhn wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't this exactly what makes Silicon Valley so effective? A willingness to challenge the status quo and rapidly iterate.

Move fast and break things doesn't work so well with things like the supply chain. We don't have a good qa env.

Breaking chains of stupid decisions is great.

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

#224

Post by mensetmanusman »

zbrozek wrote: post #184
seoaeu wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allegedly, the 2 stack limit was put in place for aesthetic reasons. On the ships they're stacked way taller than that!

Checks out, this is CA after all. NIMBYs are all about their sight lines. Couldn't possibly let a stack of containers diminish their view.

Not In My Expansive Front Yard View Of The Ocean Untouched By Globalization

NIMEFYVOTOUBG

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

#225

Post by syngrog66 »

chrischen wrote: post #180
hammock wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does the empty container have to be taken back to long Beach? Couldn't it be taken literally anywhere else?

Apparently the containers are not fungible; maybe they should be.

its surprising. I thought that was a key point of them. Granted the standardized sizes and construction standards is probably the most important thing. But once you have that the next logical benefit is to treat them as fungible commodities, like digits in an account.

Perhaps in normal times they are, but when the flow equilibrium is disrupted suddenly the discretized reality pokes its head through.

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

#226

Post by twright »

This was an odd read after this Ed Zitron piece[1] which included a tweet[2] mentioning how truckers aren’t paid when waiting in line to load up only when they are actually moving something are they paid.

I’m going to hypothesize that there’s an enormous and possibly unfair labor requirement for moving these containers so the ships can be unloaded. As long as companies involved with these logistics are optimizing for profit bottleneck improvements won’t significantly change.

[1] https://ez.substack.com/p/there-isnt-a-labor-shortage-theres

[2] https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1451163926780076032

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

#227

Post by jliptzin »

mcrae wrote: post #216
jliptzin wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the reason for limiting it to 2 when clearly it can be 4 or 5?

The area around the port of long beach is rather dense residential, so in order to preserve views the city limited the height of container stacks. > "These provisions, which have been in effect for many years, were established to address the visual impact to surrounding areas of sites with excessive storage." https://longbeach.gov/press-releases/city-of-long-beach-stat...

Makes sense thanks

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

#228

Post by sneak »

xxpor wrote: post #143
sneak wrote: post #53

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

Because "apartments bad" >With particular reference to apartment houses, it is pointed out that the development of detached house sections is greatly retarded by the coming of apartment houses, which has sometimes resulted in destroying the entire section for private house purposes; that, in such sections, very often the apartment house is a mere parasite, constructed in order to take advantage of the open spaces and…

This is one of the most astoundingly antisocial things I have ever read.

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

#229

Post by hammock »

jljljl wrote: post #221
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…

Does “Very New” match with “10 years old”? 10 years is the average or target lifespan of a tractor-trailer and you can still drive them up to 2023. AB 5 might have a bigger impact though

>Does “Very New” match with “10 years old”? 10 years is the average or target lifespan of a tractor-trailer

If 10 years is the average then you are eliminating 50% of trucks on the road. Do you think that could have an impact?

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

#230

Post by lkbm »

drak0n1c wrote: post #197
ta988 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some systems that don't have a capacity for self-regulation, and this is not solved by believing really hard that if left alone they would. This will need intervention if we don't want to just burn money to let time solve it.

Given that the described root cause is city port regulations and zoning ordinances, I don't see how such a deeply regulated and forcefully handicapped system is an argument against self-regulation. If anything, the opposite. Yes, the current mess of conflicting piecemeal regulations and dissonant incentives will need additional state intervention and reform to untangle ASAP - but that does not rule out the possibilit…

It doesn't sound like there's a single root cause. Yes, allowing for higher stacking expands the buffer, but proper coordination could have kept the buffer from hitting capacity in the first place, and is necessary to prevent the new, bigger buffer from filling up as well.

As best I can tell, there's a memory leak, and we've "solved" it by doubling our RAM. We need to fix the leak before we hit deadlock again.

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