The 24/7 labour ethos, of working around the clock seven days a week, is what’s helping shippers, suppliers, and public sector service providers to smooth out Covid-related supply chain snags in an attempt to deal with transportation lag.
An initiative by American news site Supply Chain Dive to track backlog solutions has revealed how private and public sector entities along the entire US freight network are doing everything they can to speed things up.
According to the portal, “an import surge throughout the pandemic laid bare the structural issues that have plagued businesses transporting products into and across the US for years”.
It emphasises that “in few places have the issues been clearer than in Southern California, where the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have at times seen more than 100 ships waiting to dock and unload their containers”.
Gap Inc, the clothing retailer behind brands such as H&M, for example, has endeavoured to increase by 15% the amount of cargo it moves during off-peak hours.
At toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker this figure is up to 33%, meaning one third of all its cargo movement will happen off-peak.
The US Department of Transport has also incentivised ports, announcing that port authorities can redirect project cost savings towards initiatives aimed at fast-tracking cargo movement.
One port that has answered this call is the Port of Savannah, serving the states of Georgia and North Carolina.
It has converted available land space into five pop-up container yards, with a combined handling capacity of 50 000 containers, curbing port side congestion through expedited box movement.
The Ports of Long Beach and LA have gone as far as waiving container dwell surcharges to be implemented from November 15, provided that the situation improves by the middle of the month.
Freight authorities in Long Beach and the Utah Inland Port Authority are also encouraging shippers to move cargo to Salt Lake City by train and not by truck, believing it’s an ideal way to speed up container movement out of the port.
