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TAPA AMERICAS - VIEWPOINT


CONTAIN YOUR FRUSTRATION


One of the most frustrating habits I seem to have recently formed is talking about events of what I believe to be the recent past, only to realize it was a very long time ago. And I don’t mean a few years, I mean decades. And then I have to accept the painful reality that not only am I getting older, but I am turning into one of those cranky, curmudgeons that never seems to miss an opportunity to tell the new generation of logistics professionals how much better everything was when I was younger. If I don’t watch it, I’ll find myself grabbing dinner at 4.30 and making sure I get home in time to watch the latest rerun of Matlock or Murder She Wrote before I hit the sack at 7pm with the rest of the angry old codgers.


I found myself struggling with this realization when I was recently talking to a friend about the latest global port congestion issues we are dealing with. My point to her was I can’t seem to remember a time in my (gasp) over 30-year career when we didn’t seem to have issues with port congestion. And I mean that – not ever.


Of course, some years, like this one, are worse than others. But, my point was that we have always managed to simply deal with the issue of congestion and the frustrating disruptions that it causes. When I was first at sea on ships and visiting the port of Long Beach, we complained then about congestion. We complained about the speed with which longshoremen discharged nearly twice as many ships that they had to deal with as they


do now. We were frustrated with the internal processes and containers and the chassis that were hard to find.


Come to think of it, sailors really do complain an awful lot.


Fast forward three decades later and global trade has exploded along with America’s need to consume practically everything as quickly as we can from oversees. The knee-jerk reaction seems to be to point fingers at the longshoremen unions, Port Authorities and regulatory changes. I take a different view.


We can start with what a train wreck, stuffed in a dumpster fire 2020 was for global supply chains. Pour into that the back pressure of a resurgent economic demand of a recovering


US and global economy and you get historic, unprecedented demand for ocean freight.


Let’s also keep in mind that a pause on air passenger traffic from overseas has artificially lowered air cargo capacity. Add in a delightful sprinkle of ocean carriers restricting capacity to take advantage of a returning market, and you get a quagmire of cosmic proportions.


Added to this is the desperate need for upgrades to infrastructure in our inbound ports and road/intermodal support system. Our ports, roads, bridges and rail are just a mess. For those of you who attended our latest Trade School session, you learned about the state of inbound infrastructure, the lack of overall support to repair it, and the lack of significant funding to make a dent in repairing


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