Author Archives: just2bruce

Gig driver for a day. Here’s what we learned making deliveries for Veho

Posted on August 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here we see a day in the life of a package delivery driver for Veho, which seems to be an enlightened last-mile delivery company that is actively trying to make work friendlier to the driver. The system they have developed tries to take into account driver needs as well as those of the customer and the shipper.

One of the major factors involved in keeping a workforce today is giving workers input and making the workplace friendly for them.

Veho seems to be using that principle to drive their business. Let’s hope it is successful for them.

One downside of this approach is the need for a depot where the packages are brought before the routing is done. That’s a capital expense that not all services will want to implement. It also slows up expansion into new markets, since the warehouse sites must be found and built out. However, the depot is key to the optimization for all the involved parties, including the driver.

Brian Straight Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Gig driver for a day. Here’s what we learned making deliveries for Veho | Modern Shipper

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Trucking

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New container imbalance fee to minimise congestion due to excess empty containers

Posted on August 3, 2022 | 1 comment

Port Authority of NY and NJ have announced a new container fee payable by ocean carriers. The fee will be levied when the outbound containers don’t exceed inbound containers by 110% in the same period. The port authority also plans to find additional space to store containers near the port, and already has identified 12 acres on the port.

It seems that these two measures are what works to reduce congestion. The same two kinds of measures were invoked at the Port of LA and Port of Long Beach to get ocean lines to start moving empties out. In California, though, the container fees were just threatened; they never were begun. that alone was enough for ocean carriers to start moving containers out.

Perhaps we have found a credible set of options to get container carriers to move those boxes.

Kim BiggarAugust 3, 2022

Port Authority of NY and NJ announces new container imbalance fee to minimise congestion due to excess empty containers – Splash247

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Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

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Carriers ‘must commit to berthing windows’

Posted on July 31, 2022 | 1 comment

Terminal congestion in Europe is high, even though there are fewer containers being handled than a year ago.

Ocean carriers handle congestion by skipping calls, and landing the containers at smaller ports, then sending them by land to their final destination. Skipping calls fouls up schedules for everyone, and makes it impossible to plan for increased capacity. It’s a nightmare situation for port terminal scheduling and for much of the hinterland service logistics, such as barge, rail and truck.

Another source of congestion is containers sitting in ports, often empty, awaiting movement elsewhere.

Almost everyone believes ocean carriers ought to improve on keeping schedules and sailing when they planned, meeting commitments made in advance to the terminals they intend to stop at. When there’s little excess capacity, altering schedules throws all the downstream logistics plans out of whack. It is like a bullwhip effect; when a ship skips, all the efforts planned to handle those cargoes is wasted, and has to be reorganized as best it can for what is believed to be the next round of deliveries. Keeping entire supply chains in a quandary does not lead to efficient logistics in the hinterland.

Ocean carriers are averaging about 30-40% ontime deliveries right now, and their on-time percentage has been excruciatingly low for a couple of years. No land-based logistics service could stay in business with these kinds of numbers.

In order to get ocean carriers to commit to scheduled berthings, ports are going to have to share information about berth window schedules. If this data were more public, comparisons could be made and carriers that routinely missed their slots could be penalized by getting deferred when they wanted to berth elsewhere. Getting liners to commit to berthing schedules requires cooperation among ports.

By Mike Wackett 27/07/2022

Carriers ‘must commit to berthing windows’ as N Europe ports see volumes fall – The Loadstar

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Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

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