I import goods from a European country, into an east coast port in the United States. (For 20 years prior, my experience was exclusively China to Long Beach so I have experience in both.) From there they are trucked to a third party warehouse/fulfilment center, and then onto to independent retailer stores (small parcels), and chain store DCs & Amazon (LTL shipments).
Everything is a mess at every step. I personally deal with this every day. Everyday more money is extorted from us at a vareity of place along the supply chain.
Just as an example, here is the email signature from trucking company I am currently dealing with:
Under the current market conditions we are experiencing rail delays, container & chassis shortages, port congestion, vessel delays, vessel bunching, and vessel schedule unreliability. As a result you may incur additional charges such as pre pulls, demurrage, port congestion, per diem, additional chassis days, yard storage, etc. Changes in the earliest port, terminal and rail return dates may result in additional charges such as, per diem, redelivery fees, port congestion fees, additional chassis fees, yard storage fees, etc.
Please know that we will continue to provide the best service possible under the current market conditions and will do everything we can to limit these situations and minimize extra charges.
Those are hundreds of dollars per day per issue that one must pay or lose your goods. As an example, Chicago - a common destination for containers going by rail from Cali - hit importers with storage fees up to $10,000 due to containers being stacked up awaiting the next train.
Like everyone else, I forgot about the homosexualist who is the Secretary of Transportation. Buttigieg continues to remain on paternity leave, but poked his head out of his shell to explain to CNN that the reason everything is backed up is due to a massive increase in consumer demand, and that the demand exists due to the successes of the Biden Administration in getting money into the hands of US citizens.
The press lauds him for juggling breastfeeding duties with making the decision to run the Long Beach port 24/7 in order to get containers off vessels so it does not look bad to the visible eye, seeing all those ships backed up. But what is going to happen is there will be more inaccessible containers, more containers without a chassis so it can be loaded on a truck, etc... and this will be paid from by the importer.
I am of the opinion that is is a deliberate destruction of our supply chain so that they can "Build Back Better." For an example, Maersk was the driver of the insane increase in container fees from roughly $5k to $25k to go from China to the US. They just sold their container manufacturing business to China, so do not expect price decreases. And now are buying e-commerce logistics companies in the US. (Maersk was instrumental in shifting the chassis business from ownership to rentals 10 years ago, another subject. In fact there are many examples dating back to the 90s that lead me to think this is a controlled demolition).
Of course we also have a massive truck driver shortage. And then also heavy equipment operators. I realize this post is scattered and couple be written better but I do have a decent amount of knowledge regarding the movement of consumer goods.
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