Who would have guessed that prices for the container to carry your goods would go sky high? This recent spike is discussed in this article which outlines many of the reasons for the shortages.
Learning about the management of containers in the US is always rewarding. Something is always going wrong. The problem is international right now, though.
By Mike Wackett 24/08/2021
Shortages, congestion and Covid delays push container prices sky-high – The Loadstar
I found the mechanics of this seafarer strike interesting. But for logistics students with little knowledge of the maritime environment, all of this will be new.
Many don’t realize that sailrs on many lines have been trapped at see by Covid. Their home countries won;’t allow them in without quarantines longer than their breaks, or perhaps not at all in some Asian countries. so they are trapped on thieir vessels with no breaks.
It’s a hard life; but maritimers are paid well– look at the wages, and these are for Korean-flagged ships. US flag ships would pay more.
By Nick Savvides 24/08/2021
Disgruntled HMM seafarers threaten pay strike and to join rival carrier MSC – The Loadstar
Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Shipping
Tagged container shipping, labor relations, Logistics, ocean shipping
It’s not possible to book shipments anymore with some LTL carriers. Their capacity is full, and they don’t care if they get new customers. OnTrak (which delivers my vitamin pills) and Fedex recently said they were refusing new customers. The claims are that they are out of capacity– not enough planes, trucks and drivers— to deliver everything. There are other less visible bottlenecks, also, such as a shortage of trucks for sale due to the semiconductor shortage. There’s been a sort of crisis in drivers for trucks for quite a while, exacerbated by the recent enforcement of rules to prevent people who fail drug tests from getting commercial driver’s licenses. We wonder why employers don’t pay drivers more, and take more care to create working conditions more favorable to drivers.
Still, common carriers have an obligation to carry the freight presented. It will be interesting to see how far this goes, and when regulators will start crawling through these carriers’ records to see if they are unfairly denying carriage.
Eric Kulisch, Air Cargo Editor Thursday, August 19, 2021
Viewpoint: 2021 is the year of the freight service embargo – FreightWaves
Posted in Logistics, Supply Chains, Trucking
Tagged common carriers, freight, Logistics, transportation, trucking
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