- Shipping companies realize that they can make more money by sailing empty back to pick stuff up in China, rather than wait to load up with goods leaving American ports
- American warehouses get unusually full with stuff that can no longer get onto an out-going ship
- Firms who have goods arriving at the port don't have warehouse space to receive them (or trucks to move them), so they linger in the yards at the port
- Shipping companies are then slowed down waiting at the ports
... and perhaps there's also a whiff of tragedy of the commons between shipping companies, in that even if they realize that this is the impact of leaving goods piled up unable to leave the US, any one firm doesn't benefit from choosing to wait to load up before sailing back?
“We went to the Port to ask the workers why there was a backlog and learned it’s other people that are the problem.”
Great PR by Flexport though and smart to placate the Union. No way you can get anything done without greasing the right skids.
1000+ likes! I need to hire this guy to explain to my boss why our prod deployment failed!
Would love to know more about that. Appointments are full but no one is showing up for them? Companies just can't get drivers?
1. California passed a law that all trucks older than 10 years old had to have expensive modifications (I believe for pollution control). Well, the average age of trucks is 14 years. Surprisingly (not), trucks became in short supply in California.
2. They passed this law that Uber drivers were employees, not contractors. Surprisingly (until you think about it), this same law hit owner-operators of trucks. That confuses the legalities of hiring owner-operators, which is a fair number of trucks.
From what I heard, for both of these reasons, trucks and drivers are less available than they used to be in California.
Are you talking about AB 5? Because if so, it's nowhere near that simple.
"The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, after hearing the case, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing AB5 .....The court noted that carriers likely would have to reclassify all independent-contractor drivers as employees for all purposes to comply with the California labor law.... California officials and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit. The appeals court reversed the district court's order...."
I'm not a lawyer, but to a layman it looks like a legal fustercluck.
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/...
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/19/facebook-p...
> industry experts said that some owner-operators sought work elsewhere. Some fleets, too, chose to stop doing business with owner-operators in California.
where "stop doing business" is a link to an article about people doing just that.
And the "exemption" you mention is a temporary injunction that may be lifted at any time, which is not conducive to a stable business relationship.
https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forc...
All the immigrants that were abused for the job are gone due to covid.
They might be right about the impact, they might not, it is a complicated system that is fudged up. I doubt there is a single cause. But, if you believe the OP, that lack of trucks is big part of the problem today, then the fact checkers are most likely wrong and should update.
From their own "fact check":
"Industry experts said the rules certainly impact the availability of drivers and trucks, but acknowledged that many other issues are impacting the movement of goods through U.S. ports."
Their paragraph contradicts their own conclusion.
>Industry experts said the rules certainly impact the availability of drivers and trucks, but acknowledged that many other issues are impacting the movement of goods through U.S. ports.
Diversity levels at colleges were increasing under the non affirmative action.
Property tax cap keeps taxes reasonable and does not allow for straight up highway robbery.
Uber contractors were able to set their own hours and work when they wanted. Not having to listen to the man on when they wanted to turn on the work sign. I get it, there needs to be a balance, but think about the benefits these laws have had. The Uber situation was great for some, and bad for those who could not do maths.
Price controls always distort the market. Property tax cap simply gives earlier residents an advantage versus newer residents for a highly in demand land like California’s. It is a blatant wealth transfer from newer land owners to previous landowners. I guess there could be some benefits from that, but I am not convinced of the long term, societal benefits of it versus the drawbacks.
California would do well to discard more failed experiments, and get more creative.
The rest of the country would do well to stop thinking doing nothing ever is a good long-term plan.
Removing tipped wages
Allowing employees to sit while working
Paid sick leave and parental leave
Overtime after 8 hours in a day
Non compete ban
Legal cannabis
Assisted suicide
So maybe, just maybe, they know a good bit more than you are willing to give them credit for because you are unable to see reality through the haze of your politics.
They are #19 in standard of living. Seems fine.
"The only people allowed to live in the Vatican City are clergy (religious people) and the Swiss Guards who are the Police force of the country."
Lets pretend we don't have a deep dark issue with port trucking
Flexport is a great place to work and this makes me proud to work here.
https://mobile.twitter.com/typesfast/status/1450904056365404...
Seems there's a bottleneck because trucks aren't picking up containers from the port. They're running out of room in the yard to unload the container ships.
The tweet explicitly says that the Port is not slowing anything down and that they want more shifts.
Rail deliveries are on schedule.