Frustration at LA-LB delays go beyond local importers
Beyond the forwarders, brokers, truckers & the importers now in Shenzen, China also expressing frustration at the delays experienced at
Los Angeles/Long Beach ports.
Information sourced mostly through JOC
The TPM Asia Conference in Shenzhen last Thursday, showed shippers upset for delays taking weeks it can take to free ocean containers. how ironic for these largest ports in the Americas.
“I don’t care about how long it takes a ship to cross the ocean. When it gets to the other side, I want my cargo. I don’t want to be told, ‘Oh, it went to LA.’ And then it might be 17 days before I get it off the docks,” said Rick Smith, vice president for global transportation at Sears Holdings.
At the TPM Asia Conference questions from the audience shows frustrations over the gridlock experienced at LA-Long Beach in many years.
Going from reliable to uncertain
Daily phone calls placed by forwarders, the custohouse brokers, the truckers to pressure the carriers to advise chassis status.
LA-Long Beach dellays grew gradually worse this year and beside the unresolved West Coast longshore negotiations. Called “almost a perfect storm” by Maersk Line North Asia CEO TIm Smith, the problems are blamed on a combination of lack of chassis and drayage drivers who have been leaving the trucking industry because of the inability to complete enough trips in a day to earn a living.
Larger mega-ships
In the trans-Pacific offloading thousands of containers at a time, lack of terminal automation and alliances that call multiple terminals. Completing the “perfect storm” is recent slowdowns by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, who have been working without a
contract since July 1 but until recently had not disrupted cargo movements.
at TPM Asia, INTTRA Chief Marketing Officer Sandra Moran presented data derived from millions of carrier status messages showing that it’s taking significantly longer this year to move import containers from the ship to the gate than it did last year.
In the U.S.
The rail network are also a factor, with the railroads recovering from last winter’s storms withlower-profit intermodal freight with higher-paying energy and other cargoes. Rick Smith said the situation had
deteriorated to the point that in the upcoming contract year he may negotiate into contracts penalties on carriers to ensure cargo is delivered on time, or incentives for the achieving the same result. This would be for a percentage of Sears’ cargo that is time sensitive, he said. He complimented the Matson trans-Pacific service, which is faster than most carriers and uses a dedicated terminal that isn’t experiencing the same level of congestion as other LA-Long Beach terminals. But the Matson service uses small ships. Smith said, “To my Matson friends in the audience, if anyone asks you if you have space, you’re full.”
The import BCO said Savannah, the primary port where he diverted goods, has performed “flawlessly,” to the point that some of his goods are being shipped via rail back to the West Coast. The costs are higher than shipping through the West Coast — 30 percent higher, he said, not counting the westbound intermodal — but it’s worth it to keep the product flowing.
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Opinion: As pointed out above the very large importers (Sears) have to re-route via other ports & on-carriage back to Los Angeles where their goods are needed incurring 30% increase.
Our forwarding company ETC International Freight System is witnessing issues with smaller importers that end up in quick sand & without the same ressources as Sears or the margins. For straight containers already on the water, it is sometimes hard to sell the idea to the small importers of re-routing their full container load (FCL) shipment with all the costs & time associated against the prospect of gridlock at the Long Beach / Los Angeles ports. To that end, it does nothing for our inbound container consolidated cargo with multiple consignees consigned to one break-bulk agent. No re-routing option on those containers with a bunch of importers' shipments in there waiting to be dispatched to 30 different locations, incurring storage.
As a rule of thumb, should you import or export, please take special time to discuss the present gray areas to prevent your shipments being delayed. Please call us at 1-800-383-3157 or email us at Sales@etcinternational.com www.etcinternational.com
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