Senators spooked by ‘truck driver shortage’

No surprise at who those senators represent.

 

Or maybe because Port of LA has done 8.1 million containers in the first 3 quarters of 2021. Record is 9.5 million in 2018. Container Statistics | Port of Los Angeles

Or maybe is has to do with the fragmented chassis system?

Or maybe it's because there are 1000's of containers that receivers don't want - yet.

Removing the bottleneck in one area doesn't solve the problem. Walmart, Target, and Home Depot have all restricted when loads can drop at their DCs in recent years. One of our customers want's a half truckload of product - every day. They don't have/want to pay for the space to store more than that. Another was slated for having 5 trailers on their property, and between November and June they were really good about getting inbounds unloaded. Their busy production months are August to November. In July we started having to bobtail out; at one point we had 25 loaded trailers on their yard. That created problems for the shipper and for us because at some point we would have to bobtail drivers back in to get the empties out.

Since 2008 companies have worked hard to keep inventory on hand at the lowest level they can. If it's sitting in a container - be it on a ship, in a port, on a train, or in a trucking company's yard - they don't have to pay for it. Shippers and receivers don't care about how long a load is in transit, so long as it gets to the consignee 'on time'. I guarantee you that if 5 years ago we started making companies pay for each day they held up a trailer/container we wouldn't be seeing the issues we are.

I'll also lay money that if FMCSA had implemented better training standards when they were supposed to in 2008, we wouldn't have seen the massive driver churn we have for the last decade. Or if wages in the industry had kept pace with both inflation and shrinkflation over the last 2 decades.

This has been a problem long in the making - the root cause is maximizing profits at any cost.

 

covid did this.....that's the excuse for this on-going "shortage" that has been going around for decades.

there is also a shortage of McDonald workers. i can get into a Burger King, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts, but because Mc Donalds has a shortage of workers i am forced to use the drive thru window, burning up my gas.

there is a shortage of hospital workers, tropical fish store workers, supermarket workers, why just the other day, the Mrs had to bag her own EXPENSIVE groceries.>>!!!!!

enough of the so-called trucker shortage, tell us something we don;t know.......

like which is better the left side or the right side of a Twix bar.....

 

https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-left-twix-and-right-twix/

 

I KNEW IT....I KNEW IT.....

good thing Snickers and Milky Way are my favorites

i don't need an argument in my stomach..>!!!!!

 

man, i thought that was animation....

 

And it's still backed up

Waiting to Unload
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/c...st-ports-experience-unprecedented-congestion/