Amazon blinks as transport costs surge and pushes use of collection points

Posted on October 15, 2021 by | 1 comment

The last mile is problematic for customer delivery. Amazon’s enthusiasm for ever faster delivery is causing some pain for the company. Maybe it’s the driver shortage?

The Amazon lockers, or collection points, are one way of reducing pain. The customer needs to do the last mile, and there is only one stop for the delivery van. Offering an inducement to use one is one way to get customers to try them. It might work for customers who are out and about every day, and probably drive by one. For stay-at-homes, especially during the pndemic, maybe not.

There’s no easy solution for last-mile delivery.

By Ian Putzger, Americas correspondent 15/10/2021

Amazon blinks as transport costs surge and pushes use of collection points – The Loadstar

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President Biden challenges private sector to tackle supply chain logjams

Posted on October 14, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Apparently the main action so far is to jawbone LA and Long Beach to open for more hours. The Executive Directors of the ports are in line with this.

But port governance gives them little actual power to open the terminals for longer hours. Ports are basically landlords, and have no operational control over the terminal operators, which are several different firms. It’s not clear what the Directors can do to change operations at these private firms.

Some announcements have been made, and it will be worth watching to see if any of the terminals do actually lengthen their hours of service. Doing so would help move cargo quicker, and that is certainly needed right now.

By Nick Savvides 14/10/2021

President Biden challenges private sector to tackle supply chain logjams – The Loadstar

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OECD says shipping freight rates are driving G20 inflation

Posted on October 13, 2021 by | 2 comments

In case we didn’t notice it, shipping freight rate increases are the source of significant inflation throughout the 20 most developed countries. If you are complaining about inflation, point here.

The firms involved are passing the price rises on to consumers, resulting in higher prices. We may not be close to the end of the rises, either. We have not seen much to encourage a belief that the supply chain snafus will not continue and be disruptive for at least a year. No one seems to know what to do.

I fear even the choice of very large shippers to lease their own ships and avoid the traditional ocean container lines will not be all that easy. The extra ships will add to port delays, since they must load and unload just where the ocean shippers do. Ports are backed up, and also are running out of space for containers; and of course the driver shortage is preventing containers moving out fast.

Do we have to turn to rationing of scarce resources to get out of this dilemma, to make delivery predictable?

By Nick Savvides 13/10/2021

OECD says huge increases in shipping freight rates are driving G20 inflation – The Loadstar

Another source by Sam Chambers has some nice graphs: https://splash247.com/oecd-tracks-how-much-container-shippings-sky-high-freight-rates-are-contributing-to-global-inflation/

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