Where I work relies on a shipping container of product to be delivered every few weeks. These deliveries are typically “just in time” restocking because we don’t have the warehouse space to keep months and months of inventory. Yesterday at work, I learned from my boss that we can’t schedule a container for delivery in the month of may at all.
We have one container that just got in the country, that would usually be delivered 1-2 weeks after it clears customs. And 2 more waiting for pickup in china to be put on a boat. We can’t get anyone to schedule delivery in may at all. We can’t get anyone to schedule a pick up of the other two containers.
And they won’t even talk about June.
It’s as if the shipping companies are shutting down may first, and won’t schedule after it. And they won’t tell us why.
Is it customs or shipping issue? As I understood there are a lot of ships waiting to be unloaded in usa, maybe something to do with that?
It’s shipping. The container just cleared customs yesterday and we would normally just call and start to finalize the delivery date. But when we did they said nope. To be specific they said “We cannot scheduled delivery for the month of may.”
They didn’t say the usual “we can not guarantee delivery for the month of may, but we will begin the shipping process.”
Usually, they tell us it’ll be a few weeks, set a date for delivery, and give us updated tracking info. That has been the case for years. And rona hasn’t actually had too much of an impact so far. It’s made deliveries late, it’s made shipping slower. But they will still take the delivery.
But not this time. This time they said no. And they wont even talk about our other two containers in China.
Okay so my friend in logistics got back to me:
******** do you still work in logistics?
Just curious if you are seeing any weird activity in May/June, like no available int’l (freight) shipping being able to be scheduled at all and no reason being given?
Actually the problem might also be with domestic shipping as well
Hola hermano, I still work in logistics.
This has been the hardest but most profitable period of my logistics career
The ocean liners won’t give me bookings less than 4 weeks out
Airlines are booking me 3 to 5 days out
I used to get same day or 1 day delay bookings
Ocean bookings used to be a week out only
The logistics carriers didn’t keep building and improving
They’ve just tried to handle volumes with what they have and leave it to the goddamned boomers to build something and then let it run itself into the ground lol
lol
what do you mean by building? you mean like manufacturing capacity stateside or something?
Yeah
The harbors only have like 12 slots and they only have enough crew to unload around 2 vessels a day which is also bottle necked by lack of cranes
We need more harbors north and south of LA.
SF/Oakland is too small and restricted by bridges
LAX is over burdened by traffic Ocean traffic and land traffic
If you look at China they have a major harbor every 200 miles of coastline
And they’re still backed up too
oh damn
is the rona and the suez thing also coming home to roost, or is this just a decaying system on its own?
All of it together
But it’s definitely covid restrictions holding up port operations more than before
Suez was a hiccup that would have been more noticeable if we werent in such a backlog at the ports
So it was a big deal but No one noticed because the whole system is on fire haha
There is a global shipping container shortage, I assume it is mostly due to that?
Could this be some sort of bottleneck catching up from the Suez canal blockage?
I just texted an old friend who works professionally in logistics, if they get back to me I’ll report back
It’s caused by the global lack of shipping containers, as covid buying has changed purchasing/shipping trends, and there are now some fields which have necessary products available to purchase/sell, but are having delays in buying enough amounts of shipping containers to send them out
I honestly don’t know. All of our stuff comes across the pacific to LA. And I know LA and other west coast ports have been overwhelmed with traffic. But this is the first time I’ve ever had anyone simply tell us no.
I’d expect them to take the delivery, and tell us it’s going to be slow. Or that they can’t guarantee when it’ll get here, but they will still take it. Because that’s how it’s been for the last year. Fedex and UPS refusing to even schedule a pick up is so weird to me
I will take this opportunity to get yet more beans
