UK government looks to blame predicted Brexit chaos on logistics sector

Posted on September 23, 2020 by | 1 comment

Brexit is coming, and it’s clear that the government, which has been pushing Brexit along, has chosen not to invest or prioritize systems for logistics. The logistics community will be forced into dealing with a tangle of poorly understood rules and policies, documentation requirements and restrictions, that no one has bothered to foresee as a complete package. Logistics firms particularly trucking firms (though all sectors have their issues) hve complained loudly. Now it’s for a long time.

There has been ample warning for the government of the problems, despite a bit of uncertainty about whether and exactly how Brexit would happen. But The government all along has known that there would need to be massive change. They just have not bothered to assess and remedy the defects by making double sure that processes were in place and well understood, nor did they factor logistics, the ‘point person’ affected by Brexit, into the negotiations or the processes.

This article shows the laughable government response in Britain to logistics firms’ complaints. In a classic Trumpian moment, they blame the folks who are complaining.

It’s as though we were to blame the Chinese Communist party for coronavirus…

Oh, I think someone did that just recently.

By Alex Lennane 23/09/2020

Fury as UK government looks to blame predicted Brexit chaos on logistics sector – The Loadstar

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Posted in Logistics, Ports, Supply Chains, Trucking

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2M restores transpacific capacity, pleads for return of empty containers

Posted on September 21, 2020 by | 1 comment

Ocean carriers are suddenly waking up to the fact that supply chain disruptions for their customers are bad for relations. Now they’ve decided that they blanked too many voyages. And thehoarding of containers by customers who usethem to store goods they’ve already taken possession of has disrupted things further. There just aren’t enough containers and chassis to get cargo from China and to move it about.

They should have thought about the repercussions in the supply chains when they started out reducing service.

The main advantage of ocean shipping is the cost and large quantity; if the service becomes marginally reliable in terms of time of delivery, naturally people are going to look for alternatives like buying larger quantities, beyond storage space, and using the containers to help out.

Supply chain performance is about matching supply to demand, and ocean carriers should continue to remember that it’s not about them, but about their customers’ needs.

By Gavin van Marle 21/09/2020

Link: https://theloadstar.com/2m-restores-transpacific-capacity-and-pleads-for-return-of-empty-containers/

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Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Strategy, Supply Chains

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UPDATE – Felixstowe issues apology and rescinds container ban

Posted on September 21, 2020 by | 1 comment

Well, the media storm over the ban on receiving empty containers at Felixstowe got their attention at the port. Our earlier post on this subject explained the problem.

The apologies were for

“inconvenience”, “our service standards are not currently where we would like them to be”.

Source: The Loadstar, 9/21/2020

The port claims they are seeing a rush of container deliveries; perhaps it’s a presage of Brexit starting January 1, or simply a rush of winter orders. But this was entirely foreseeable. I guess their eye wasn’t on the ball for this crisis.

Imposing the ban was clearly a mistake, and a shock. It only took a couple of days for port management to realize they had screwed up the supply chains of everyone using the port.

By Mike Wackett 21/09/2020

Link: https://theloadstar.com/felixstowe-port-apologises-to-customers-and-rescinds-empty-container-ban/

By Gavin van Marle 18/09/2020

Link: https://theloadstar.com/chaos-at-port-of-felixstowe-worsens-as-carriers-refuse-return-of-empty-boxes/

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Posted in Logistics, Ports, Supply Chains, Trucking

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