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Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

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Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#351

I love how these commenters think they know something about shipping that the CEO of Flexport doesn’t (I’m referring to the person you replied to, BTW).

When is the ceo of a company the real expert on anything? The ceo is the celebrity that makes the big decisions but rarely ever the actual ground level expert

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is G/O media?

> G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that runs Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Jezebel, The Root, The A.V. Club, The Takeout, The Onion, and The Inventory - Wikipedia

> G/O was formed in April 2019 when Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm, purchased the websites from Univision for $20.6 million.

Is it just me or is that a shockingly low amount for those websites?

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#353
post #351

I love how these commenters think they know something about shipping that the CEO of Flexport doesn’t (I’m referring to the person you replied to, BTW).

When is the ceo of a company the real expert on anything? The ceo is the celebrity that makes the big decisions but rarely ever the actual ground level expert

A lot of the time when they found the company I find the CEO knows a lot about it

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#354

I love how these commenters think they know something about shipping that the CEO of Flexport doesn’t (I’m referring to the person you replied to, BTW).

Most of them are usually the top comment on a thread like this, too, because there are a large number of people who consider them authoritative (or like what they say, or dogpile, or who knows). When it’s my industry being discussed here, I can usually predict who will be in the top spot (it’s only a few), and how wrong they’ll be. It’s a real problem but it’s also the immediate amnesia thing whoever-that-was talked…

If you have subject mastery often you aren’t allowed to talk it because you might get fired or make your company look bad

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#355

Is this related somehow to China refusing to take USA's recycling material? IIRC shipping recycled material was super cheap. So many empty containers. Might as well fill them with something. Why aren't empty containers shipped back to China? Boat has to go back anyway, right? Did the empty containers pile up because no one was willing to pay to ship them back?

As I understand the shipping fee from China to the US is very expensive right now, so ships don't want to wait for ports to load empty containers on. They turn around ASAP to catch another shipment from China, leaving all these empty containers at destination ports.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#356
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

There are truck driver shortages too. It’s a crappy deal for a truck driver to take a load which they don’t know it’s risks/payout or how long of a drive they will be taking, what they’ll do at destination, or if they’ll have a return trip. Odds are you could offer truckers a special premium flat rate to clear the blockage - but it wouldn’t be sustainable.

They don’t get paid if they are waiting too so it makes the job even less lucrative

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#357

I am a member of ILWU 13. A couple thoughts after reading the comments: The zoning change is for TEU storage outside the port. The port itself was not subject to that rule. The Port of Los Angeles is a landlord and is not directly involved in operations. Private companies, such as APM, EverPort, and others, rent piers/berths and are responsible for the actual operations and logistics. Some speculation: recently I’ve…

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?

If a single extra trip is lucrative enough and at current rates it’s 5-10 regular prices that would make sense to forgo loading in the us and just hurry home

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one of the officials appointed to fix the situation Genuine question: Are there actual officials appointed to fix the situation? If so, who are they?

At the highest level, Pete Buttigieg as the DOT Secretary. Unfortunately his qualifications for the role are... not great... https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/1...

Buttigieg is broadly responsible for this sector on a national federal level.

My question is if anyone is specifically working to solve the current acute port clogging situation, ideally someone who has authority to implement solutions.

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#359
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... recently I’ve heard of some ships not even waiting to load empty TEU’s as they normally would and instead they are immediately leaving for China, literally empty. If this is happening, what would be the consequences of allowing even more TEUs to be stored on the US side?

Shit is going to take longer and be more expensive to come from China because when there isn't a TEU available you have to wait for one to be fabbed and pay for it.

Yeah but the ship operators don’t pay for this so everyone is optimized for personal profit not system efficiency

Re: Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations

#360

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…

> If he wanted to run for President, he would win Yes. It would be great to have non-ideological leadership focused on solving practical problems instead of waging culture war.

> waging There's nothing wrong with pushing back, though.
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