ECON Inside America’s Broken Supply Chain How industry failures to collaborate and share information left the system vulnerable

[Knoxville's Joker]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

America Is Short A Whopping 80,000 Truck Drivers

THURSDAY, NOV 11, 2021 - 09:20 PM
America is short tens of thousands of truck drivers as supply chain woes increase at ports, creating shortages and pushing inflation higher. Truckers haul an astonishing 72.5% of all freight in the US and account for 6% of the full-time workforce.

Bob Costello, the Chief Economist for the American Trucking Association (ATA), told 6 News that the US is short a whopping 80,000 truck drivers, up from an estimated shortage of 61,500 drivers before the virus pandemic. He said the industry needs to recruit over a million drivers this decade to replace an aging workforce.



Costello said several factors contribute to the shortage of drivers, including age demographics, ongoing COVID pandemic, drug testing, trouble recruiting, pay, age restrictions (commercial drivers must be 21), and infrastructure issues.

He told Fortune that "there is no single cause of the driver shortage, that means there is no single solution, adding that "the solution to the driver shortage will most certainly require increased pay, regulatory changes, and modifications to shippers', receivers' and carriers' business practices to improve conditions for drivers."

However, there is some good news as labor markets recover and increasing job transitions are underway, which is an uptick in applications for commercial driver's licenses.

Sunny Truck Driving School in Queens, New York, has added new training trucks to keep up with a flood of new applicants, according to BBC. The wait times to take the test have jumped from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. Some of the new applicants are former taxi and uber drivers, seeking higher pay after the pandemic left them jobless.

In Texas, the state government has expanded truck-driver license testing to six days a week (instead of five) in response to the nationwide shortage that has resulted in supply chain snarls. The pay is so good in The Lone Star State that one transportation company is offering drivers $14k per week.

Big trucking companies warn that driver shortages will persist into next year and pressure freight rates higher. An effort is already being made to process new drivers and get them on the road, but it could take years to attract new drivers and clear up the shortage. That's why companies are pushing towards automation and robot trucks.

Actually the cause is due to the fact they screwed the truck drivers with the lock downs. Many threw up their hands and quit for lack of access to food, showers, and diesel. Most truckers do not carry a trip worth of food with them and do not have alternative plans in place if they lose access to public facilities.

This is pushing the automation ahead, ahead of its prime time readiness. There are already tests underway of autonomous trucks on routes from distributions center to distribution center. Once those catch on mainstream, the driverless car push will follow next.

Forestry service and construction/heavy equipment/truck industries usually implement the cutting edge stuff after the military has had it for a decade or so to get costs down. Then a while after that it flows down to the consumer markets.

What I really want to see that I have seen in skid steers is the use of hydraulic oil in place of radiator coolant(water). The nice thing about that? No rust. No HOAT/Dexcool malarkey eating up your water pump and bricking your engine. Thing is the electric cars will come into play before that catches on. And I really think that is why they want to switch to electrics in part, the technology on ICE (internal combustion engines) is at a point now where a few tweaks can literally yield substantial torque/hp and fuel economy gains along with legetivity. They switched to the electronic fuel injection from distributor and old school throttle body setups as folks could make a few hacks and get 50-100 miles a gallon with the right setup easily with no electronics in the way.

 

[marsh]

Truckers Face Mounting Threats From Government Regulations that Could Collapse Already Strained Supply Lines | Worldview Weekend Broadcast Network

www.worldviewweekend.com

Regulations that Could Collapse Already Strained Supply Lines


By Brannon Howse, Leo Hohmann, 12 November, 2021

What's going on with America's truckers? Will the shortages starting to show up on grocery-store shelves soon end, or should consumers expect them to get worse?

Trucking company executive Mike Kucharski answered those questions and more in a Nov. 10 interview with Brannon Howse Live.

Audio https://cdn.jigg.cloud/MichaelKucharski/mp4/MichaelKucharski_audio.mp3 24:20 min

Kucharski is one of the family owners of Chicago-based JKC Trucking Co., which specializes in climate-controlled shipping and is Chicago's largest specialized contract carrier of LTL [less than load] freight.

Howse asked Kucharski to help his audience of more than 1 million viewers understand what is going on with America's critical infrastructure and strained supply lines.

"It makes me a little nervous when my grocery store starts looking like a Third World country," Howse said.

Kucharski said there is simply not enough capacity right now throughout the freight system.

"We've got a historic driver shortage and historic labor shortage. These are only the ripple effects caused by the shutdown of the economy [due to Covid]," Kucharski said.

He said 20 to 25 percent of drivers have never returned to their jobs since the shutdown of 2020.

But it's not just drivers who are in short supply. Often when a truck pulls up to a loading dock behind a retail store, there is no one there to unload it.

"One of our biggest issues getting product to places is it takes us longer to unload because there's not enough labor, which equals lost time, which equals lost revenue, and that's causing a backup of trucks disrupting the supply chains to deliver food in a timely manner. And it affects the end user, the American people, in the pocket."

Whereas it took about two hours to unload a delivery before the pandemic, now it can take up to two days, depending on the store.

"So we don't go to those places. We can't afford to risk it. I need those drivers to unload, come back to load back up so we can start the cycle all over again, so we can get the supply chain back up and running," said Kucharski, whose company owns about 200 trucks.

All trucking companies are in a similar predicament.

"And these drivers are also a little bit impatient, sitting there for that long is ridiculous," he said. "Even if they're getting paid, drivers love what they do, and being held up at one shipper, it's just a no go. We want to do as much work as possible with limited resources and that's what we're doing."

Now, what about inflation? What is causing prices of food and other goods to skyrocket?

Fuel prices have spiked from a national average of just over $2 a gallon when President Trump left office to about $3.50 a gallon under Biden. And Kucharski said his company is having to pay drivers more to draw them back into the labor market and to retain those who already are working.

"All the companies are fighting for the same drivers, trying to get drivers to jump ship," he said. "That's across the board. I just lost two drivers to competitors and that's not good for anyone."

Compounding the problem with a lack of truckers is "over-regulation" on the West Coast, he said.

Many of the smaller trucking companies don't have the required equipment on their trucks, and can't afford to buy it, so they avoid California and its many ports.

"The State of California has more regulations than any other state. Many truckers are owner operators, and California is trying to delete that classification and make every driver an employee of a big company," Kucharski said.

So almost all the one-truck operators' drivers have abandoned California, because they feel like California abandoned them.

He said California requires a particular filter to be retrofitted on every truck.

"Some guys are just getting by week by week and can't afford these filters so they either sell their truck or they move on to another state that is not as heavily regulated," he said. "There are 49 other states that trucks go to."

But that's not the end of the problems for the trucking industry.

Not only are they facing a shortage of drivers and dock workers to unload their goods, but they are also faced with a shortage of trucks and truck parts.

"Right now, you cannot even buy a new truck because they are short of chips," he said, and that's because all the chips come from China or Taiwan, "and you can't get them.

"The parts crunch is going to get worse because we've already stopped production, and we're already waiting for parts to come in from Japan, like pumps and air filters, which we haven't seen since April, and so when all the stock in the U.S. is depleted, when those parts break or need to be replaced, we're going to stop running and that's going to create chaos."

He said 70 percent of all goods arrive at their destination by truck.

"It's very hard to be a business owner in America right now with all the regulations and all the new regulations coming in. If we don't make enough money, we're going to be gone overnight and that's not going to help anybody," Kucharski said.

"You can't see the future, you can't gauge it, because every week something else is happening. You're just in complete darkness. There's just a lot of stress ...so we can keep feeding America."

The majority of truck drivers, 57 percent, are over the age of 45 and 23 percent are over 50.

"So we have an older generation. So when these drivers retire, we don't have a new pool or fresh drivers coming in," he said.

Howse asked if driverless trucks are just over the horizon.

"Yes, it will come but not anytime soon," Kucharski said.

He said the cameras are not yet fully capable of seeing the lines of the road under certain conditions, such as ice or dust on the roads.

"That's their biggest issue."

He said a technology called "convoying" will likely arrive before driverless trucks.

This is where one truck is electronically linked behind a second lead truck, "so one driver can take two loads. That will happen before autonomous driving trucks happen."

Howse also asked about the threat of cyber attacks.

Kucharski recently attended a conference on the impact of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, including transportation companies.

"It’s a real thing, it's happening and they said pretty much everyone in this room will be cyber attacked in the next ten years."

With all of these challenges facing the industry that delivers 70 percent of America's goods to the stores that sell them to consumers, Americans should prepare for even great shortages of food, fuel and other basic necessities in the months ahead.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Losing 25%(that is 1 of 4 of every truck driver out there walked away) of the workforce and then having a rotating employee base of another 20%(2 drivers of a 10 truck fleet quit for example) say is what is causing most of the disruptions. For arguments sake that is effectively killing 50% of the work force from being truly productive. I just made up the last two number but giving nice round numbers illustrates the real scope of the headache we are facing.

What this is really pushing is the full on automation of industries. Ahead of schedule as well. The chip shortage is just stalling the push but once it gets get ready for a really wild ride.

Before covid automation was being piloted all over the west coast. the employee issues just pushed this further along ahead of prime time readiness.

Miso robotics is fixing to go mainstream with their robotic assembly line assistants. Tesla is working on automated trucks. Other companies are doing cross country distribution center runs with no drivers at the helm.

Broken business models will cause entire franchises to disappear.

 

[marsh]

Sounds like they need robotics at the loading dock - some sort of interface between truck and dock to get the load off more efficiently. I know they have developed robotics for moving stuff around within a warehouse, but I imagine that is too expensive for some

 

[psychgirl]

I saw a commercial the 60 Minutes is going to be out there tonight for their show.
However much that means, lol

 

[marsh]

Biden's Economy Getting Worse - Ships Waiting to Unload in California Ports Now Waiting Record Number of Days to Unload

www.thegatewaypundit.com

Biden’s Economy Getting Worse – Ships Waiting to Unload in California Ports Now Waiting Record Number of Days to Unload

By Joe Hoft
Published November 14, 2021 at 7:30am

Joe Biden said he would address the supply chain debacle but no one listened.

Biden claimed he set up products to be on shelves on Christmas and Thanksgiving.

In Oval Office Address, Biden Claims to Have Saved Christmas and Thanksgiving by Solving Supply Chain Crisis "Months Ago"(Video) | The Gateway Pundit | by Kristinn Taylor

The White House released a pre-recorded video Tuesday night of Joe Biden making an Oval Office address in which he claims to have saved Christmas and Thanksgiving this year by solving the supply chain crisis “several months ago.” Biden said he spoke with CEO’s of large retailers (and shipping...

www.thegatewaypundit.com

But when Biden said he was keeping to ports open, no one listened.

Biden Announced Ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach Would Remain Open 24/7 to Relieve Bottleneck of Container Ships Waiting to Unload - But No One Listened | The Gateway Pundit | by Joe Hoft

Joe Biden announced the ports in LA and Long Beach would start working 24/7 last week in order to relieve the bottleneck of container ships sitting offshore in the area. Unexpectedly, no one listened as the ports were ‘ghost towns’ over the weekend. Last Wednesday Joe Biden promised the ports in...

www.thegatewaypundit.com

Not only this but related to it, the US trade deficit is not at an all-time high.

Another Biden Record - US Trade Deficit in September Reaches an All-Time High of $80 Billion

www.thegatewaypundit.com

And now it’s being reported that the container ships off the California coast are waiting at record times with more than 80 ships sitting off the coast waiting to get unloaded.

The logjam at California‘s ports for ships to wait is now as long as 17 days – a new record amid the continuing supply chain crisis just weeks before Black Friday and the holidays usually turn spending into overdrive..

There were as many as 83 ships at anchor and in a holding pattern outside ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach as of Friday night, officials said.

The nearly 17-day wait is double the wait time from just two months ago.

Biden just keeps setting records. The wrong ones.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Clock Just Hours From Midnight For Overwhelmed California Ports

SUNDAY, NOV 14, 2021 - 05:00 PM
By Greg Miller of FreightWaves,

The flood of import containers into Southern California continues unabated — an all-time high 81 container ships were stuck offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday. Waiting time at anchorage for Los Angeles is surging and is now more than double wait times in early September.

The ports are scheduled to start charging a highly controversial excess dwell-time fee on Monday, a plan that some members of the National Shippers Advisory Council called “catastrophic,” “crazy” and “out of left field.”

With just hours left until the fee is set to begin, there are still over 51,000 containers on the terminals that are past the plan’s dwell-time limits.


If the fee plan is not delayed or modified, the aggregate cost to carriers — which would largely be passed on to importers — would start next Monday in the millions per day and escalate to tens of millions per day later in the week.

There is ongoing speculation that the ports will back off and announce a reprieve, given declines in the number of excess-dwell containers in recent weeks and the enormous costs that would be passed along to U.S. importers.

Asked about the level of fees that are set to start next week, a spokesperson for the Port of Los Angeles told American Shipper: “The Harbor Commission granted the executive director discretion regarding the program. More details and information will be coming on or before the 15th.”

New anchorage record … again

According to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, 111 container ships were in the port on Tuesday, a new high. Of those, 30 were at the Los Angeles/Long Beach berths, 32 at anchor and a record 49 “loitering” (in holding patterns).


Chart: American Shipper based on data from Marine Exchange of Southern California

The offshore tally of 81 does not include an additional six noncontainer ships in the queue carrying boxes. The total capacity of all 87 ships offshore carrying containers was 576,720 twenty-foot equivalent units. Assuming ships are at capacity and an average customs value of $43,899 per import TEU (the average recorded by the Port of Los Angeles in 2020), the value of cargo floating offshore is around $25 billion.

Meanwhile, the waiting time at anchorage continues to escalate. The Port of Los Angeles said that the average wait for anchorage to berth was an all-time-high 16.6 days as of Thursday. The wait time has trended sharply upward over the past week.


Chart by American Shipper based on data from Port of Los Angeles Signal

Deadline nears for controversial fee plan
On Oct. 25, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced a Biden administration-backed plan for emergency fees on containers dwelling too long at the terminals. Fees were initially set to start Nov. 1. That was delayed to Nov. 15. Fees were initially set to cover containers moving by truck that had dwelled for nine days or more and those moving by rail after three or more days. The ports then pushed the rail timeline back to six or more days.

Port officials have repeatedly stated that they do not want to charge the fees and would reconsider if sufficient progress were made before Nov. 15. The hope was that the threat alone of the fees would preclude the need to assess them.

There has indeed been considerable progress.

At the Port of Long Beach, local (trucking) containers dwelling nine days or more fell from 28,558 on Nov. 1 to 20,534 on Tuesday, a decline of 28%. Intermodal (rail) containers dwelling six days or more fell from 1,643 to 573, a decline of 65%.

The Port of Los Angeles told American Shipper that its intermodal dwell times were not available. For an estimate of local container dwell times, boxes in Los Angeles terminals for nine days or more fell from 42,277 on Nov. 1 to 30,210 on Nov. 10, a drop of 28%.



Chart: Port of Los Angeles

If it happens, what might it cost?
The fee would start at $100 per day and escalate $100 each day. So, for example, on the seventh day after the assessments began, if a container was still at the ports, the fee would be $2,800. Importantly, containers would not be charged for their excess dwell time accruing before Nov. 15. In other words, the charge for a local container that had been dwelling for 15 days as of Nov. 15 would be $100 (the same as one day past the eight-day limit), not $2,800 (seven days past the limit).

Assuming on a back-of-the-envelope basis that the daily rate of decline for excess dwell-time containers remains the same as the Nov. 1-10 trend, the number of “late” containers in Los Angeles and Long Beach combined would fall to around 42,000 on Monday (not including Los Angeles’ late intermodal rail containers, so the actual number would be higher). The aggregate charge to all carriers combined would be $4.2 million on Monday in this scenario, plus charges for Los Angeles’ late intermodal boxes.

After that, the fee scenario gets more speculative, because, for example, on day three of the program, there’s no way to predict how many late containers would be charged the one-day-late rate, the two-day-late rate or the three-day-late rate. For simplicity’s sake, assume they’re evenly spread (i.e., on day two, half are two days past deadline, half are one day past deadline).

In such a scenario, the daily aggregate fee charged to carriers would escalate to $40 million on day seven. The cumulative fees for all ocean carriers at the end of the first week alone would be $144 million. Carriers have explicitly stated they will pass these costs along to shippers to the extent possible, raising the question of how politically sustainable the Biden-backed port fee plan would be even after a matter of days.

Chart: American Shipper. Scenario assumes Nov. 1-10 rate of excess-dwell-container decline continues and average late container durations. Does not include Los Angeles intermodal late fees.

 

[marsh]

MSNBC Host Attacks 'Racist' Trucking Industry 'Populated by a Lot of White Men' Who Overwhelmingly Voted for Trump (VIDEO)

www.thegatewaypundit.com

MSNBC Host Attacks ‘Racist’ Trucking Industry ‘Populated by a Lot of White Men’ Who Overwhelmingly Voted for Trump (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published November 14, 2021 at 7:12pm

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross this weekend attacked white truckers as aggressive, dangerous drivers who overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

Cross said there’s a lot of racism in the trucking industry because it’s mainly white men over the age of 55.

“This is an industry populated by a lot of white men over the age of 55. This group of people overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Some people have talked about, you know, aggressive truck drivers cutting them off or not being helpful.”

Cross said there would be less racism and better drivers if more blacks worked in the trucking industry.

“So, obviously, the more populated it is with people of color, I think you’ll see less of that,” Cross said.

VIDEO:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1459855233157410817

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1459855233157410817
2:02 min

 

[marsh]

Despite supply-chain logjams, infrastructure bill allocates $250M to target truck emissions at ports

Critics have attributed bottlenecks to draconian California emissions standards excluding much of U.S. trucking fleet from transporting cargo to and from ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two largest.

justthenews.com

Despite supply-chain logjams, infrastructure bill allocates $250M to target truck emissions at ports

Critics have attributed bottlenecks to draconian California emissions standards excluding much of U.S. trucking fleet from transporting cargo to and from ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two largest.

Updated: November 14, 2021 - 10:21pm

This week's Golden Horseshoe is awarded to the Biden Administration and members of Congress who voted for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes $250 million for reducing truck emissions at port facilities, which have been crippled by record-breaking cargo backlogs for months.

Critics have attributed the bottlenecks to draconian California emissions standards that exclude up to half the nation's truckers from transporting shipping containers to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest, which together account for close to one third of total U.S. shipping cargo volume.

The 2,000-plus page Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Biden is scheduled to sign on Monday, includes $50 million in funding per year for the next five fiscal years aimed at reducing emissions at ports.

Section 11402 of the bill, "Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities," calls for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to "establish a program to reduce idling at port facilities."

The bill calls for the transportation secretary to study how "ports and intermodal port transfer facilities would benefit from increased opportunities to reduce emissions at ports, including through the electrification of port operations."

In particular, the secretary is to study emerging technologies and procedures that would help reduce emissions at ports from idling trucks.

The $250 million will fund ways to "test, evaluate, and deploy projects that reduce port-related emissions from idling trucks, including through the advancement of port electrification and improvements in efficiency, focusing on port operations, including heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and other related projects."

Port facilities may not only face new meddling from the Transportation Department, but the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department may also be consulted by Buttigieg as part of the reduced emissions program, according to the text of the bill.

Biden, who visited the Port of Baltimore on Wednesday to tout the infrastructure bill, mentioned the supply chain crisis and the logjam at the ports, stating how "ships are lined up 70-some lined up out as far as you could see."

The president did not mention the emissions regulations and electrification of ports the infrastructure bill will fund, but said his administration will alleviate the current supply chain crisis and the bottlenecks at the ports.

"I'm not waiting to sign a bill to start improving the flow of goods from ships to shelves," Biden said. "Yesterday, I announced a port of — a port plan of action. It lays out concrete steps for my administration to take over the next three months to invest in our ports and to relieve bottlenecks."

The logjam at the ports has caused supply chain delays, and more than half of Americans reported being affected.

It's unclear how the emissions reduction program will alleviate port bottlenecks once implementation of the program begins.

[COMMENT: Democrat lawmakers never seem to grasp that their "Green" and environmental regulations have a corresponding negative impact on economic activity.]

 

[marsh]

Brandon Administration Broke The Supply Chain, Not American Shoppers | NoisyRoom.net

noisyroom.net

Brandon Administration Broke The Supply Chain, Not American Shoppers

Posted on November 14, 2021 by TMH
By: Daniel John Sobieski

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis got it right when he dubbed the incompetent, incoherent, and cognitively challenged Joe Biden and his team of loonies the “Brandon Administration.” And one of the things that have earned the righteous anger of the American people is the destruction of a supply chain that was the envy of the world.

Joe Biden thinks the supply chain is too hard for us deplorables to understand as evidenced by this fabricated and nonsensical story he told recently:

What — like, for example, if I had — if we were all going out and having lunch together and I said, “Let’s ask whoever the — whoever is at the next table, no matter how — what restaurant we’re in — have them explain the supply chain to us.” You think they’d understand what we’re talking about?

They would, Joe, even if you don’t quite grasp where your ice cream comes from. They would know that the food they eat was grown somewhere else and brought to the restaurant on a truck. And they would not say, like Time Magazine recently did in agreement with administration officials, that it was their pre-dinner shopping that caused the supply chain to collapse.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who thinks roads are racist and who treated the supply chain crisis so seriously he took two months off for maternity, uh, paternity, uh, whatever leave to bond with a baby he adopted with his husband, is these days blaming everything from the China Virus pandemic to climate change for our clogged ports and collapsing supply chain and seems just as clueless about what to do as he was when he couldn’t fill the local potholes when he was mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

He says the crisis will not end anytime soon, blames the American consumer for buying too much stuff, and suggests the problem might go away if only we spend ourselves further into oblivion:

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned that the devastating global supply chain troubles that continue to be a drag on the economy and threaten gift-giving during the holiday season could continue as long as the coronavirus pandemic….

He said Americans are buying more goods but the supply chain is not keeping up the pace and suggested that President Biden’s trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure plan and social spending package could help to beat back inflation and fix the supply chain woes.




Rubbish. This Mayor Pete is what happens when the policies that kept American businesses here to make and sell stuff here are ended and businesses and their supply chains are sent back overseas, back to the China Joe and Hunter Biden are beholden to. This is what happens when you put back the onerous regulations that restrict innovation and entrepreneurship. This is what happens when you end American energy independence, raising the cost of energy and transportation, imposing unnecessary lockdowns, and paying workers to stay home.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki, one of Biden’s puppet masters, made a joke about people hoping to get their treadmills before Christmas. Maybe if Biden and the health Nazis wouldn’t shut down all the gyms, maybe it wouldn’t be such an issue. People would have a Plan B.

If we made stuff here, we wouldn’t see it stuck in containers off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It’s where we make it, not where we buy it that is the problem. Critical components like microchips for cars are made, wait for it, in China. Even the heavily subsidized electric cars Biden wants to build are dependent on batteries that need imported materials like lithium and rare earth minerals largely controlled by, you guessed it, China.

Our equally clueless Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, can’t explain why an administration that claims it can fix the climate, can’t fix a supply chain crisis largely of its own making, blaming it all on a private sector that was humming on all combustion engine cylinders under President Trump. Her snarky response to a question on CBS’ “Face The Nation” is revealing of her and the Biden administration’s incompetence:

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the government might not have a quick solution to ongoing global supply chain issues….

“Fundamentally, supply chains and logistics are run by the private sector. People say to me, ‘Will Christmas gifts be delivered?’ To which I say, ‘call FedEx.'”…

Fundamentally, supply chains and logistics are run by the private sector. People say to me, will Christmas gifts be delivered? To which I say, call FedEx. That isn’t what the government does.

What we’re doing, and the president is committed to this, we’re using every tool in our toolbox to be supportive and help, to unstick the ports.



If supply chains are a private-sector responsibility and problem, why are you over-regulating it and overtaxing it, and raising the cost of conducting business? The Biden Administration has paid truckers and other key workers to stay home after pushing unnecessary lockdowns and pushing vaccination mandates that threaten to decimate transportation and many key industries. That includes dockworkers, truck drivers, and warehouse workers. As well as those who make and grow the stuff we ship are in short supply due to such short-sightedness.

The Biden administration has caused fuel costs to soar. Killing pipelines, restricting fracking and drilling have caused not only transportation costs to skyrocket but also the costs of making the stuff that is transported. Petroleum and natural gas are not only fuels but also ingredients in everything from fertilizer to plastics. Biden’s policies are putting everybody and everything in short supply.

Needless to say, Biden’s tax and economic policies are pushing manufacturing back to China.

Still, eliminating the political and union bottlenecks would help even that situation. We need an Operation Warp Speed to eliminate the policies and procedures imposed by the state of California and unions on these ports:

It is in part caused by a California Truck Ban which says all trucks must be 2011 or newer and a law called AB 5 which prohibits Owner Operators.

Traditionally the ports have been served by OWNER OPERATORS (non-union). California has now BANNED Owner Operators.

Long term, truckers in California are not investing in new trucks because California has a law that makes them illegal in 2035. The requirement is to purchase electric trucks which do not exist.



California’s run amok environmentalism has imposed bizarre restrictions on the trucking and transportation industry which have national implications:

Carriers domiciled in California with trucks older than the 2011 model or using engines manufactured before 2010, will need to meet the Board’s new Truck and Bus Regulation beginning in 2020 or their vehicles will be blocked from registration with the state’s DMV, the state has said.

The new “health-based requirements” will need to be met before a driver is allowed to register his or her truck through the Department of Motor Vehicles, CARB says. A new enforcement tool used by the DMV beginning in 2020 will automatically block 2010 and older trucks from registration.
For older vehicles, CARB says they must be either replaced with a 2011 or newer vehicle or repowered with a 2010 or newer engine.

Add to this the national prohibition on barring 18-year-olds from driving trucks across state lines. They have driven Humvees in places like Afghanistan and have gotten blown up at the Kabul airport but they can’t drive your treadmill across the country in time for Christmas.

Joe Biden, in obvious cognitive decline, once claimed to have been behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler. Not even if it had training wheels like his tricycle.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

JIT has other pressures that could be cured by government as well. Some states tax inventory. This was one of the things that lead to JIT in the first place and helps to keep it in place. It also put a bunch of Mom and Pop stores out of business. If they kept inventory on hand too long it became a liability. Shops with higher cost merchandise suffered to like independently owned optometrists and drug stores. Every wonder why almost all of those are all chain stores now?

Repealing inventory taxes would weaken the demand for JIT. I know that's not likely to happen. Just saying....

 

[greysage]

MSNBC Host Attacks 'Racist' Trucking Industry 'Populated by a Lot of White Men' Who Overwhelmingly Voted for Trump (VIDEO)

www.thegatewaypundit.com

MSNBC Host Attacks ‘Racist’ Trucking Industry ‘Populated by a Lot of White Men’ Who Overwhelmingly Voted for Trump (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published November 14, 2021 at 7:12pm

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross this weekend attacked white truckers as aggressive, dangerous drivers who overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

Cross said there’s a lot of racism in the trucking industry because it’s mainly white men over the age of 55.

“This is an industry populated by a lot of white men over the age of 55. This group of people overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Some people have talked about, you know, aggressive truck drivers cutting them off or not being helpful.”

Cross said there would be less racism and better drivers if more blacks worked in the trucking industry.

“So, obviously, the more populated it is with people of color, I think you’ll see less of that,” Cross said.

VIDEO:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1459855233157410817

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1459855233157410817
2:02 min

The Asian Mai trucker channel on Youtube did a short video on this subject today.

3:31 runtime

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gwaf0KfRuk

 

[Hi-D]

Shipping cargo is starting to turn.

Baltic Exchange Dry Index | 2021 Data | 2022 Forecast | 1985-2020 Historical | Price (tradingeconomics.com)

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

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Supply Chain Disruptions Will Continue

MONDAY, NOV 15, 2021 - 05:00 AM
Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

Forty percent of all the cargo into the United States comes through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Offshore, there are thousands of containers stacked up on vessels waiting to get in. How many containers can the ports unload on a normal day?

New containers are coming in. There are daily arrivals. When will that supply chain backlog clear?


The answer is never. If there are more coming in than you can unload and you have an existing backlog that’s getting worse, it will never clear.

But let’s just say that with no new shipments coming in, it would take 30 days just to unload what’s already waiting offshore. Thirty days, by the way, puts you into December and the Christmas rush.

And getting it offloaded in California is just the beginning of the supply chain. You’ve got to put it on a train or a truck and get it to a distribution center and put it on another truck and get it to a store.

But wait, there’s also a trucking shortage. That’s a big part of the supply chain problem. If you can unload the merchandise but can’t transport it due to a trucking shortage, what good is it?

So this is not getting better. That’s probably the understatement of the year.

You may have heard about a semiconductor shortage. But you don’t need a computer, so what’s the big deal? Well, no, there are semiconductors in everything. You have semiconductors in your refrigerator, dishwasher, home entertainment system, etc.

The point is we’re highly dependent on vulnerable supply chains that are currently breaking down. Something radical is going to have to happen. We’re just going to have to stop importing goods. And China may actually oblige us, though not for these reasons…

China now has what’s called a zero-COVID policy. That means they’re not going to tolerate any cases. If they see a case, they’re going to take extreme actions, and they are.

But this is a country of 1.4 billion people. It’s the second-largest economy in the world. You’re going to have zero COVID? Sorry, that’s not realistic. You can’t have zero COVID.

The policy is bound to fail. Ample evidence indicates lockdowns don’t work. Masks don’t work. The virus goes where it wants. It’s going to run its course and then fade, no matter what.

But if you’ve decided that your policy is zero COVID cases? You’re just going to shut down your economy, or parts of your economy, cities, hubs, transportation networks, factories, more or less randomly. That reduces economic output, obviously, but it also breaks up the supply chain.

What if the particular outbreak shuts down a factory? Sure, that’s bad for the factory. But what if that factory is a critical supplier of intermediate parts to another factory that’s not shut down?

Guess what? The other factory is going to be idle because they can’t get the parts.

The shutdown ripples, and that’s the key element. Global trade is a complex, dynamic system. It’s very efficient under normal circumstances. But what we know about complex, dynamic systems is that it takes very little to disturb them. A very small event somewhere in the system can cause the whole system to break down.

We have more than one event occurring, incidentally, and they’re not small. It’s therefore not surprising that the system is breaking down.

China has a severe energy shortage right now. Well over 50% of its total electricity generation comes from coal fire plants. It gets most of its coal from Australia. But China started a trade war with Australia because Australia was calling for an independent investigation of the source of the COVID virus, which China didn’t want. The result has been a shortage of coal in China.

So what did China do? It imposed price controls on coal. But we all know that price controls don’t work; it’s basic economics. When you cap the price of coal, you get less of it.

The coal shortages are not going away, and China is dealing with the shortages by diverting power to densely populated residential areas and housing. That’s understandable because the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t want people freezing in the dark. That’s a good recipe for social unrest.

But if there’s an energy shortage and you’re diverting it to people for political reasons, then who gets deprived? The answer is factories. And so you shut down steel mills, for example, which again causes another disruption in the supply chain. It has a ripple effect.

One of the big industries in China is lithium mining. Well, if you shut down the mining because you don’t have coal to run the electricity, where are you going to get the lithium to make the lithium-ion batteries to get a new Tesla?

The answer is you’re not. The waiting list for Teslas is about six months. I’m not going to get into a debate about Teslas, but if you want one, don’t think you’re getting one soon.

When you add it all up, we have a serious problem.
I recently spoke to the CEO of a major corporation. He said, “Jim, what you have to understand is that it took us 30 years to build these supply chains. We blew it up in three years, beginning in 2018, and you can’t put it back together. This is Humpty Dumpty. It will take at least 10 years to reconstruct the supply chains if we don’t want to do it with China and globalization.”

So don’t think that any of this is going away soon.
Germany’s another example. Due to pressure from environmentalist groups, Germany got rid of all its coal mines and nuclear plants. Guess what? The Germans are going to freeze in the dark this winter because they’re utterly dependent on natural gas, which is a fossil fuel, by the way.

They can’t rely on wind and solar because they’re intermittent and can’t meet demand.

Vladimir Putin controls the tap on the natural gas pipelines. He’s dialing it down. He’s saying, “You want natural gas? Be prepared to pay me a lot of money, or you’re just not getting it.”

That’s going to hurt German industrial production, which is already going down. Again, that results in more supply chain disruption.

Now let’s consider the role of vaccine mandates in supply chain disruptions…
The Biden administration is pushing mandates hard. There are also lots of state and city mandates, especially in blue states. The bluer the state, generally speaking, the stricter the mandates.

Now, these experimental mRNA vaccines don’t stop you from acquiring the virus or from spreading it to others, and their effectiveness fades with time, so mandates really have little scientific basis. But put all these considerations aside and focus on their practical effects.

Take a look at the aviation industry. There are thousands, perhaps millions, of components that go into the manufacturing of an aircraft. Those components are specialized and they’re made in different places. Then they’re shipped and assembled.

The avionics industry (aviation electronics) is very heavily concentrated in the vicinity of Wichita, Kansas, for historical and other reasons. It’s like the Silicon Valley of avionics.

But the industry has a very low participation rate in the vaccine mandates, meaning about 50%.

Nationally, about 80% have received at least one dose. But in this particular industry, maybe because it’s more male-oriented, maybe because it’s more conservative, the rate is much smaller. The reason doesn’t really matter.

But if they’re not vaccinated by now, they probably aren’t going to be. It’s not like they don’t know these things are available for free at the local CVS. Since they won’t obey the mandates, they’re going to quit, get fired, take early retirement, etc. That means a shortage in critical avionics.

What does it mean when the airlines cannot get their avionics updated? It means those planes go out of service, potentially, or they put them in for service and they don’t come out for a long time. We’re talking six months for some of the more sophisticated navigation and communication systems.

The backlogs are already building in that industry. How does it help the economy if planes are sitting idle because of components shortages?

And look at the impact of mandates on pilots. Many pilots are hesitant to take the vaccine because studies indicate pilots are more susceptible to developing blood clots than the general population.

Well, guess what’s a known side effect of the vaccine? You guessed it, blood clots.

Not only can blood clots kill them, they could also end their careers because pilots must undergo rigorous health tests regularly.

Southwest Airlines recently had to cancel thousands of flights. American later canceled thousands of flights. They like to claim it’s the weather. But how come the weather only affects one airline at a time?

It wasn’t the weather, it was pilots (and air traffic controllers) conducting informal strikes because of the vaccine mandates.

Oh, and mandates extend to large air cargo carriers like FedEx and UPS that haul freight all around the world. More supply chain disruptions if these planes aren’t flying.

Supply chain disruptions are a very big deal. The problem is pervasive. It’s not going away anytime soon because it would require undoing decades of globalization.

You’re going to have to get used to it. When I say get used to it, I don’t mean tough luck. I just mean that this problem is going to continue.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

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Politics Or Progress? California Ports Defer Congestion Fee At The Last-Minute

TUESDAY, NOV 16, 2021 - 02:40 PM

Authored by Greg Miller via FreightWaves.com,

Did ports defer fee plan because of progress or political peril?



It came down to the wire, but the highly controversial Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion fee backed by the Biden administration is not happening — at least, not yet.

The ports were scheduled to begin charging ocean carriers $100 per import container starting Monday for boxes moving by truck that dwelled for nine or more days, and for boxes dwelling for six or more days that move by rail. The charge was scheduled to escalate by $100 a day until the container left the property.

The ports announced Monday that they will “delay consideration” of the fee until Nov. 22, citing a 26% reduction in long-dwelling containers since the plan was announced on Oct. 25.

“There’s been significant improvement in clearing import containers from our docks in recent weeks,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. According to Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero, “Clearly, everyone is working together to speed the movement of the cargo and reduce the backlog of ships off the coast as quickly as possible.”

Political risks of fee plan
Another reason the ports may not have pulled the trigger: the political peril of doing so.

Carriers explicitly stated that they would pass the cost along to importers. As of Monday, Long Beach had 19,656 containers on its terminals that would have been charged the late fee. There were at least 29,249 containers that would have incurred fees at the Port of Los Angeles (not including containers moving by rail that were between six and nine days late, which are not included in the data).

That means the aggregate fees to all carriers on Monday alone would have exceeded $4.8 million. And because the proposed fee would increase daily, the aggregate cost would have quickly risen into the tens of millions per day, and would have likely topped $100 million per day by the end of the first week.

During a conference call on Friday, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen warned, “If there’s cargo in those boxes that is not very valuable, you may end up with a lot of abandoned cargo that is going to stay at the terminal for much, much longer.”

Consultant Jon Monroe wrote in his weekly newsletter, “While I understand the intention, this is really a dumb idea for one good reason: The ports cannot measure the days that the container has been available to deliver.

“Under the current conditions, when a terminal discharges a container, it puts a percentage of the containers into closed lanes,” Monroe explained.

“Whenever a container is in a closed lane, it is unavailable for pickup by the trucker.

No appointment can be made. Depending upon the terminal, anywhere from 20% to 80% of the containers will be put into a closed lane for an amount of time that varies.

It is not unheard of for containers to sit in a closed lane for weeks. How will the ports account for containers that are in closed lanes?”

In a letter to the Federal Maritime Commission sent Monday, 85 business associations including the National Retail Federation wrote, “We are especially concerned about the announcements by the carriers that they intend to pass the charges through to the cargo owners.”

The groups warned that the new fee, if implemented, would “add substantial costs to the supply chain” due to “ongoing challenges that many cargo owners and drayage trucking companies are experiencing with the ability to retrieve cargo because of port congestion, restrictive empty return policies, and subsequent chassis shortages that result.”

During the inaugural meeting of the National Shippers Advisory Council on Oct. 27, various members called the Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion fee plan “catastrophic,” “crazy” and “out of left field.”

Long way to go
The two port bosses cited significant progress with clearing the terminals, yet the numbers show that most of the gains occurred in late October and early November. In recent days, the numbers have actually gotten worse.

In the port of Los Angeles, the number of containers dwelling nine day or more on Monday was up 18% from where it stood on Saturday and was the highest since last Wednesday. The total number of containers on the port — 76,613 — is higher than the number on Nov. 4.



Chart: American Shipper based on data from Port of Los Angeles. Note: Containers dwelling six or more days that move by rail would also incur a fee.

According to Los Angeles’ data platform with Port Optimizer, 45% of containers at the APM Terminals facility were still past deadline, dwelling for nine days or more, as of Monday. The share of “late” containers was 40% at Everport Terminal Services and 48% at West Basin Container Terminal.


Charts: Port of Long Angeles, Port Optimizer

In the port of Long Beach, the number of containers that were past the time limit on Monday was up 14% from Saturday. The number is now higher than where it stood back on Nov. 6.



Chart: American Shipper based on data from Port of Long Beach. Note: containers past deadline include boxes moving by both rail and truck.

Meanwhile, cargo continues to flood into the two ports from the trans-Pacific trade lane.



On Friday and Monday, yet another record was set for the number of container ships stuck at anchor or in holding patterns off the ports: 83. The average wait time at anchor for ships arriving in Los Angeles hit yet another fresh peak on Tuesday: 16.9 days.

 

[marsh]

CEO of American Trucking Association Reveals 37 Percent of Truckers Will Not Comply With Vaccine Mandate - The Consequences Would Collapse Supply Chains and Civic Society - The Last Refuge

A very interesting interview with Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association. During a House Transportation Committee hearing on supply chain issues, CEO Chris Spear shares an internal survey showing that 37% of truck drivers “not only said no, but said hell no” to the...

theconservativetreehouse.com

CEO of American Trucking Association Reveals 37 Percent of Truckers Will Not Comply With Vaccine Mandate – The Consequences Would Collapse Supply Chains and Civic Society
November 17, 2021 | Sundance | 347 Comments

A very interesting interview with Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association.

During a House Transportation Committee hearing on supply chain issues, CEO Chris Spear shares an internal survey showing that 37% of truck drivers “not only said no, but said hell no” to the Biden vaccine mandates.

To give some perspective of the downstream consequence, the ATA President noted that “if just 3.7 percent, not 37 percent, just 3.7 percent” of the drivers left the industry, there would be over a quarter million vacancies resulting in a “catastrophic” collapse of the U.S. supply chain. Mr. Spear also shared his opinion the OSHA rule is completely unworkable and unlawful.

The consequences are grave if just 3.7% did not work. However, if ten times that many, 37 percent of truck drivers, stopped hauling products because of the Biden vaccine requirement, American civic society would collapse within days as panicked citizens took to the streets.

Desperate Americans would be clamoring for scarce products, and the impact on society could not be measured. WATCH:

View: https://youtu.be/fhXt3n8B6No
1:19 min

As we have continued to point out, a federal vaccine mandate might sound like a good idea on a think tank, academic or white paper policy level of consideration; but on a practical level, wiping out a large percentage of your most productive workforce over a vaccine mandate is unworkable, and might even end the operation of the entire business.

It is important to note the recent NBC poll on this issue amid the outlook of the vaccine mandates. A majority of the country do not support the vaccine mandates, and worse still, the number of unvaccinated workers is essentially unwavering in the past six weeks {poll data}.

Remember, the number of Americans who willingly quit their jobs increased to 4.3 million in August {link}, and then increased again to 4.4 million in September {link}. People are not f**king around now.

{DATA LINK}

The number of cumulative hard “NO’s” has gone from 26 percent of the workforce in August, to 27 percent in October.

We are down to the hardened group, an educated and solid bunch of people who use common sense, and they are not going to take the forced vaccination. In quantifiable terms, the increased pressure to force the jab into the arms of the American workforce has now crossed into “the law of diminishing returns.” More government pressure ain’t going to yield the previous level of compliance. This threshold crossed is also quantifiable in the Americans who quit working: “A record-high 4.4 million people, or 3% of workers, quit their job in September according to the Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Friday.”

There are 205 million legally eligible U.S. workers, between 15 and 74-years-old (census figures), with a workforce participation rate of 61% (BLS figures) which would equal 125 million legally eligible workers. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number of working Americans at 161 million workers (BLS figures). The majority of the difference between the two figures are most likely illegal alien workers (yeah, lots of them).

Approximately 40 percent of the eligible population are not working. Some people are single family income (wives or husbands who don’t work), and some are just people who choose not to work, cannot work or have not yet started to work (college etc). With somewhere between 125 million and 161 million workers doing the jobs that keep the country functioning, there are also approximately 10 million unfilled job openings.

According to the most recent statement from Joe Biden on October 14th: “We’re down to 66 million — it’s still an unacceptably high number — of unvaccinated people from almost 100 million in July.” Approximately 60 million of those are within the current U.S. workforce.

If we split the difference (census -vs- BLS) and take the mid-point at 140 million workers, then 60 million workers refusing the vaccine mandate represents about 40 percent of the entire population of eligible workers. Put another way, in the best case scenario, if 60 million people quit working or were fired, the national unemployment rate would be at least 35% !

What we call the United States doesn’t function with 35% unemployment; systems of commerce start to collapse, then government, then civil society.

The U.S. economy is currently functioning with 5% unemployment and 10 million unfilled jobs.
Just imagine the economic impact of 35% unemployment and 70 million unfilled jobs.
Keep in mind, the vast majority of those 60 million jobs are the productive workforce that keep the entire machine of the U.S. functioning.

This is the workforce that keeps the goods moving, the lights on, garbage picked up, streets safe, shelves stocked, stuff fixed and facilitates everything that makes the entire system of society function.

It is the force of this crew or hard core, dirty fingernail, no-nonsense workers that is pushing those federal contractor companies to contact the administration and tell them this mandate is not going to work for them. If the companies have to choose between losing their ability to contract with the federal government, or losing the most critical part of their workforce, well, they ain’t going to stick with Biden’s mandate.

There ain’t no way in heck that government or private industry can function with tens of millions of Americans in the workforce getting forcibly removed for refusing the vaccine. I believe that is why you are now hearing from companies saying they will not fire the unvaccinated workers (ex Delta Airlines).

Pontificating leftists and academics, without a bit of sense for what actually happens in the Main Street economy, have no concept of what it looks like if ten million people quit or are fired from working next month…. let alone five times that many. Bottom line: THIS IS A NON-ENFORCEABLE MANDATE, even if they wanted to do it.

The power of the American workforce is in the scale of dependency each person brings to the system when they are united. It might seem like a few thousand here/there, because that’s the way the media are framing it. However, if you add up all those few thousands together, you end up with millions.

As we previously outlined, this is not about vaccines per se’, this is more about a slippery slope of having the government dictate how you can live your life and earn a living.

If they can force us to have a medical procedure, and then carry documentation of that procedure in order to work… why can’t they force us to get a small electronic implant of our identification, which would coincidentally include your medical authorizations for work?

It’s just a metal detector…. it’s just taking off your shoes… it’s just wearing a mask…. it’s just a vaccination….. it’s just a COVID passport… it’s always, “just”.

Factually, at the end of all this, I still do not believe a federal mandate for a vaccine is even possible or legal. It appears to me that all of Biden’s threats in this regard are simply that, threats.

The purpose of the threat is to push people to take the vaccine without actually attempting a legal federal mandate; and that approach so far has been successful. However, now they are going to encounter the more hard-core groups who will not concede liberty or freedom to a federal mandate.

It is obvious Anthony Fauci also knows a federal vaccine mandate on the private sector will lose in court when challenged. The fact that Fauci brings up state vaccination requirements for education as examples of historically forced vaccinations is both a strawman argument and structurally false. There has never been a FEDERAL mandate for any vaccination. All the vaccinations Fauci discusses (ex. his kids) were state mandates. Each state also has a different set of standards and laws for children and vaccines. There is nothing federal.

The federal government is attempting to set up a federal work authorization standard for private businesses. Non-compliance means you cannot work, or you lose your existing job if your employer goes along with the government demand. THAT alone should alarm everyone.

There is a particularly enraging irony in that Joe Biden’s federal DOJ and Dept of Labor do not enforce employment eligibility authorization for illegal aliens based on legal status, while at the same time the Biden Dept. of Labor is putting OSHA in charge of a federal policy that will enforce vaccination requirements. Go figure.

All of the federal exemptions essentially undermine the “national health emergency” argument, because if there really was such a public health emergency, there would be no exemptions at all. The application of the executive order undermines the actual cornerstone of the executive order itself. It cannot withstand scrutiny…. hence, Biden doesn’t actually put any rules or regulations into writing because that gives lawsuits something specific to file injunctions against.

In the interim, as the freedom coalition digs in to mount a patriotic challenge, the authoritarian attempt of the federal government, the rebellious alliance is hitting back in unique ways as noted by the Southwest Airline pilots and Air Traffic Controllers, both groups hold a significant military service record. As noted, recently American Airlines was forced to cancel 1,700 flights due to staffing issues:

NPR […] American Airlines cancelled more than 1,700 flights over Halloween weekend, including more than 800 on Sunday alone, due to weather and staff shortages, the company said. […] American Airlines says that 343 were cancelled on Friday, followed by another 548 cancellations on Saturday. Most of the cancelled flights were coming to and from the airline’s main hub in Dallas/Fort Worth, as well as in Charlotte, N.C.

[…] In a letter to staff sent out Saturday, the company’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said the company “proactively” cancelled flights on Sunday because of severe winds in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and a shortage of crews. (read more)

Another group who are pushing back against the federal effort are local law enforcement and firefighters. Again, another private sector group that has a heavy percentage of former military service members amid the ranks.

The blue-collar effort to bolster the resistance by these groups does not have to be too massive to have an impact. Remember, almost all of these leftists and elite minded communists who now operate as Democrats have no capacity for self-sufficiency. If the working class stops picking up their trash; stops mowing their lawns, shopping for them, doing their cleaning and essentially facilitating their lives, this entire group of scholastic-minded knuckleheads cannot function.

From a commonsense and logistical perspective, regardless of the federal outlook, there’s no way they can pull it off. We are the quiet, and according to those who look down their noses – the “invisible” unwashed masses. However, when it comes to keeping the gears turning, we are the majority.

WASHINGTON DC – Objections among certain vendors over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors are reaching an inflection point. As the deadline for workforce vaccination approaches, some trucking companies are mulling whether to end their work with the federal government altogether, according to two industry insiders.

In an interview, the American Trucking Associations’ executive vice president for advocacy Bill Sullivan told POLITICO that some companies may simply decide that the cost of the mandate is not worth the government’s checks. Sullivan said he has raised concerns to the White House, Office of Management and Budget and other executive branch officials. He noted that if companies drop their contracts, it may be harder to get certain foods to troops, transport fuel for military vehicles, or even deploy the National Guard.

[…] interviews with more than a dozen industry advocates across the aerospace, distribution, defense and trucking sectors — some of whom have also been in discussions with administration officials — reveal they either have little confidence they will be able to meet the Dec. 8 deadline for their workers to receive their first vaccine shot or expressed concerns about difficulties the mandate would pose on their labor force.

The White House has repeatedly insisted — both in private meetings and publicly — that the federal contractors can avoid potential service disruptions during the holiday season. (read more)
We keep their shit working and just want to be left alone. The system will not function if tens-of-millions of American workers stand united against the vaccine mandate. It really is that simple.

View: https://youtu.be/whvDmNkJhUk
.25 min

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

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Seniors To The Rescue? New Truckers Over-50 Could Solve Driver Shortage

FRIDAY, NOV 19, 2021 - 05:40 PM
By Noi Mahoney of FreightWaves,

Laura Reny has been an over-the-road truck driver since 2014. The Idaho resident got into the trucking industry full time to pay the bills after her husband passed away from a long illness. She was 63 when she first took the wheel with her CDL as a widow. She’s now 70 — and has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I enjoy truck driving, I tell a lot of people that it’s a good job for women and old people, and I’m both,” Reny said.



Ed Falls, 57, retired from a 30-year career as a school band director before he became a truck driver full time about two years ago. Falls wanted a change from teaching and driving a truck seemed like something he could do for a living.

“It was just time for me to do something else and I always like driving,” Falls said. “I like over-the-road stuff. I like the freedom.”

While the U.S. trucking industry continues to face a shortage of qualified drivers, a sometimes overlooked aspect of the market could be recruiting older drivers. The median age of over-the-road drivers is 46 and the average age of a new truck driver being trained is 35, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations.

The ATA study estimates that the industry could be short by as many as 160,000 drivers by 2028. The trucking industry currently has about 2 million drivers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For some people, a truck driving career is all about timing. John Albert said becoming a truck driver was easier as an empty nester.

“If I was younger and I still had children at home, I would not do it,” said Albert, who is now 69 and started truck driving when he was 55.

Travis Bacon, manager of driver recruiting at Prime Inc., doesn’t usually see recruits in their 60s or 70s in the company’s CDL training program.

Prime is a Springfield, Missouri-based refrigerated, flatbed, tanker and logistics trucking company with more than 8,000 drivers. Like most carriers in the industry, Prime is always on the lookout for truck drivers. Each week, up to 120 new student drivers begin orientation at Prime aiming to get their Class A CDLs. Of those new students, usually a handful are 50 or older.

“I do see plenty of 50-year-olds starting. For the most part, it’s guys in their early 20s that are getting started, just what you would expect,” Bacon said. “We do occasionally see 50-year-olds, sometimes older, maybe a guy or two every week.”

Most applicants arriving at orientation already know some information about the trucking industry, Bacon said.

“We’re kind of painting the picture for them. You’re sleeping in the box in the truck. You’re showering at truck stops, you’re away from home for a few weeks at a time, you’re traveling all over the country and you’ve got to be ready for any type of weather,” Bacon said. “There’s also some perks to [truck driving]. There’s not a boss breathing down your neck 99% of the time, you’re kind of just cruising down the highway, listening to music or whatever you like, but driving takes a lot of focus.”

Reny has had two stints working as a truck driver over the last 30 years. The first was from 1988 to 1993, after she got out of the Air Force, and her second career as a driver began under sad circumstances.

“My husband had suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1996. For the next 18 years I took care of him. He went downhill in 2014,” Reny said. “I knew I wasn’t able to care for him any longer. I went ahead and put him in a nursing home. In the meantime, I had gotten my CDL because when I drove before I had a chauffeur’s license and wasn’t able to transfer it over to CDL.”

Reny works as a long-haul truck driver for GLS Carriers, driving as much as 13,500 miles a month. She has hauled loads through all lower 48 states and in every weather condition. Reny describes driving down on the road as a “busy” experience.

“My head is always on a swivel to watch traffic around me, because you have to watch all the other vehicles around you, most people drive very unconsciously,” Reny said.

One of the best parts about truck driving for Reny is the money.

“The money for sure,” said Reny, who makes roughly $75,000 a year. “Because I had no savings and Social Security is only like $1,500 a month, with my house payment and other stuff, that would be tough to live on.”

Albert also said the money has been good driving a truck. He’s made more money in the last 14 years as a trucker than he did the previous 30 years working in other industries.

“The very first year I started driving I made $55,000, and I’ve probably made a million dollars gross pay in 14 years driving a truck,” Albert said.

Albert started working as a truck driver after working in a ministry.

“The very hardest part for me, like most people, was backing,” Albert said. “It took about six months to a year, then all of a sudden the light bulb came on and it became a lot easier. I kept trying to turn the trailer into a spot, but you don’t actually turn it. You push it. When I cranked the wheels one way, it was going to push that trailer the other way. That became a little easier for me.”

Falls said he completed his CDL training at a local community college in Michigan but really learned how to drive a truck on the job.

“The CDL training was very good at preparing me for the test, getting my CDL,” Falls said. “As far as day-to-day driving on the road, bigger stuff, not too helpful there.”

Falls said the first time he was out on his own he was driving a truck on Interstate 80 through the Chicago area to Gary, Indiana.

“I was pretty confident behind the wheel, but I was also aware that I had a lot to learn so I tried to be very aware of what was going on around me. For example, when I was in areas where the traffic was heavier,” Falls said. “I would make sure that the radio was off so that I could really focus on what I was doing, no distractions.”

Falls currently works Monday through Friday and is home on weekends. He said managing time and concentrating on the road are his most important tips for drivers of any age.

“You need to be aware of the things that distract you personally, develop strategies to account for them,” Falls said.

Albert currently works as a driver for Nussbaum Transportation, for which he makes runs during the week, but like Falls is home mostly every weekend now.

“I used to do over-the-road trucking, be gone sometimes five weeks at a time, I can’t do that anymore,” Albert said.

About 18 months ago, Alberts contracted COVID-19, which kept him in a hospital for two weeks.

“I was like an inch away from having to go on a ventilator,” Albert said. “I feel privileged to still be doing what I’m doing.”

Albert said one of his favorite parts about the job is seeing the country and least favorite is delays.

“I’ve always enjoyed seeing the sights. I’ve seen deer, bears, elk and moose. I’ve even seen a wolf,” Albert said. “Unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of bad accidents too. The frustrating parts are accidents, construction, delays and stuff.

Albert said one of the biggest differences he sees between older drivers and younger ones are missed delivery appointments.

“One of the big things that helped me in trucking is that my biggest pet peeve in life is tardiness,” Albert said. “You have got to be on time when you’re driving a truck.”

Albert’s advice for anyone thinking of becoming a truck driver is to “count the costs.”

“That’s how much money you make versus the sacrifice you’re going to have to make, because they’re large,” Albert said. “I think too many people get into trucking and think it’s a glamorous thing, but it is anything but glamorous. So counting the costs I think is No. 1.”

Falls said anyone thinking of becoming a truck driver should be self motivated and open to learning new things.

“Talk to people and be open to suggestions,” Falls said.

Reny’s advice for new truck drivers is to learn how to save money.

“If you’re doing it because you need a certain level of money, you need to be prepared for that ahead of time, because it’s going to take an astute person to make more than $45,000 their first year,” Reny said.

Reny hopes to keep driving for another two years so she can pay off her house and buy a new pickup truck and camper to travel around the U.S.

“I’ll go visit friends and family and make a nuisance of myself. I want to really see the country,” Reny said.

 

[summerthyme]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Seniors To The Rescue? New Truckers Over-50 Could Solve Driver Shortage

FRIDAY, NOV 19, 2021 - 05:40 PM
By Noi Mahoney of FreightWaves,

Laura Reny has been an over-the-road truck driver since 2014. The Idaho resident got into the trucking industry full time to pay the bills after her husband passed away from a long illness. She was 63 when she first took the wheel with her CDL as a widow. She’s now 70 — and has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I enjoy truck driving, I tell a lot of people that it’s a good job for women and old people, and I’m both,” Reny said.



Ed Falls, 57, retired from a 30-year career as a school band director before he became a truck driver full time about two years ago. Falls wanted a change from teaching and driving a truck seemed like something he could do for a living.

“It was just time for me to do something else and I always like driving,” Falls said. “I like over-the-road stuff. I like the freedom.”

While the U.S. trucking industry continues to face a shortage of qualified drivers, a sometimes overlooked aspect of the market could be recruiting older drivers. The median age of over-the-road drivers is 46 and the average age of a new truck driver being trained is 35, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations.

The ATA study estimates that the industry could be short by as many as 160,000 drivers by 2028. The trucking industry currently has about 2 million drivers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For some people, a truck driving career is all about timing. John Albert said becoming a truck driver was easier as an empty nester.

“If I was younger and I still had children at home, I would not do it,” said Albert, who is now 69 and started truck driving when he was 55.

Travis Bacon, manager of driver recruiting at Prime Inc., doesn’t usually see recruits in their 60s or 70s in the company’s CDL training program.

Prime is a Springfield, Missouri-based refrigerated, flatbed, tanker and logistics trucking company with more than 8,000 drivers. Like most carriers in the industry, Prime is always on the lookout for truck drivers. Each week, up to 120 new student drivers begin orientation at Prime aiming to get their Class A CDLs. Of those new students, usually a handful are 50 or older.

“I do see plenty of 50-year-olds starting. For the most part, it’s guys in their early 20s that are getting started, just what you would expect,” Bacon said. “We do occasionally see 50-year-olds, sometimes older, maybe a guy or two every week.”

Most applicants arriving at orientation already know some information about the trucking industry, Bacon said.

“We’re kind of painting the picture for them. You’re sleeping in the box in the truck. You’re showering at truck stops, you’re away from home for a few weeks at a time, you’re traveling all over the country and you’ve got to be ready for any type of weather,” Bacon said. “There’s also some perks to [truck driving]. There’s not a boss breathing down your neck 99% of the time, you’re kind of just cruising down the highway, listening to music or whatever you like, but driving takes a lot of focus.”

Reny has had two stints working as a truck driver over the last 30 years. The first was from 1988 to 1993, after she got out of the Air Force, and her second career as a driver began under sad circumstances.

“My husband had suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1996. For the next 18 years I took care of him. He went downhill in 2014,” Reny said. “I knew I wasn’t able to care for him any longer. I went ahead and put him in a nursing home. In the meantime, I had gotten my CDL because when I drove before I had a chauffeur’s license and wasn’t able to transfer it over to CDL.”

Reny works as a long-haul truck driver for GLS Carriers, driving as much as 13,500 miles a month. She has hauled loads through all lower 48 states and in every weather condition. Reny describes driving down on the road as a “busy” experience.

“My head is always on a swivel to watch traffic around me, because you have to watch all the other vehicles around you, most people drive very unconsciously,” Reny said.

One of the best parts about truck driving for Reny is the money.

“The money for sure,” said Reny, who makes roughly $75,000 a year. “Because I had no savings and Social Security is only like $1,500 a month, with my house payment and other stuff, that would be tough to live on.”

Albert also said the money has been good driving a truck. He’s made more money in the last 14 years as a trucker than he did the previous 30 years working in other industries.

“The very first year I started driving I made $55,000, and I’ve probably made a million dollars gross pay in 14 years driving a truck,” Albert said.

Albert started working as a truck driver after working in a ministry.

“The very hardest part for me, like most people, was backing,” Albert said. “It took about six months to a year, then all of a sudden the light bulb came on and it became a lot easier. I kept trying to turn the trailer into a spot, but you don’t actually turn it. You push it. When I cranked the wheels one way, it was going to push that trailer the other way. That became a little easier for me.”

Falls said he completed his CDL training at a local community college in Michigan but really learned how to drive a truck on the job.

“The CDL training was very good at preparing me for the test, getting my CDL,” Falls said. “As far as day-to-day driving on the road, bigger stuff, not too helpful there.”

Falls said the first time he was out on his own he was driving a truck on Interstate 80 through the Chicago area to Gary, Indiana.

“I was pretty confident behind the wheel, but I was also aware that I had a lot to learn so I tried to be very aware of what was going on around me. For example, when I was in areas where the traffic was heavier,” Falls said. “I would make sure that the radio was off so that I could really focus on what I was doing, no distractions.”

Falls currently works Monday through Friday and is home on weekends. He said managing time and concentrating on the road are his most important tips for drivers of any age.

“You need to be aware of the things that distract you personally, develop strategies to account for them,” Falls said.

Albert currently works as a driver for Nussbaum Transportation, for which he makes runs during the week, but like Falls is home mostly every weekend now.

“I used to do over-the-road trucking, be gone sometimes five weeks at a time, I can’t do that anymore,” Albert said.

About 18 months ago, Alberts contracted COVID-19, which kept him in a hospital for two weeks.

“I was like an inch away from having to go on a ventilator,” Albert said. “I feel privileged to still be doing what I’m doing.”

Albert said one of his favorite parts about the job is seeing the country and least favorite is delays.

“I’ve always enjoyed seeing the sights. I’ve seen deer, bears, elk and moose. I’ve even seen a wolf,” Albert said. “Unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of bad accidents too. The frustrating parts are accidents, construction, delays and stuff.

Albert said one of the biggest differences he sees between older drivers and younger ones are missed delivery appointments.

“One of the big things that helped me in trucking is that my biggest pet peeve in life is tardiness,” Albert said. “You have got to be on time when you’re driving a truck.”

Albert’s advice for anyone thinking of becoming a truck driver is to “count the costs.”

“That’s how much money you make versus the sacrifice you’re going to have to make, because they’re large,” Albert said. “I think too many people get into trucking and think it’s a glamorous thing, but it is anything but glamorous. So counting the costs I think is No. 1.”

Falls said anyone thinking of becoming a truck driver should be self motivated and open to learning new things.

“Talk to people and be open to suggestions,” Falls said.

Reny’s advice for new truck drivers is to learn how to save money.

“If you’re doing it because you need a certain level of money, you need to be prepared for that ahead of time, because it’s going to take an astute person to make more than $45,000 their first year,” Reny said.

Reny hopes to keep driving for another two years so she can pay off her house and buy a new pickup truck and camper to travel around the U.S.

“I’ll go visit friends and family and make a nuisance of myself. I want to really see the country,” Reny said.

Sure... until they fail their physical. It doesn't take much...

Summerthyme

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Peak Season Over: Container-Ship Arrivals In Southern California Fall

SATURDAY, NOV 20, 2021 - 05:30 PM
By Greg Miller of Freightwaves

Amid all the headlines on consumer demand, imports to America’s primary container gateway — the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — have sunk back to pre-COVID levels, not only due to congestion stranding massive amounts of cargo offshore, but also due to a pullback in ship arrivals that’s being obscured by the congestion story.

LA-LB imports normalizing
The Port of Los Angeles held its monthly press briefing on Tuesday, featuring Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but the port didn’t have its monthly numbers ready at the time of the event.

Two days later, the country’s largest port belatedly reported that it imported 467,287 twenty-foot equivalent units of containerized cargo in October, down 8% from October 2020 and down 4% from October 2018, pre-COVID.

Looking at LA-LB volumes combined, October import volumes totaled 852,287 TEUs, down 6% from last October and flat with October 2018 levels. Monthly imports to LA-LB in October were down 13% from this year’s May peak of 980,450 TEUs.


LA-LB imports are still on track for a record year. Also, at the end of last month, statistics from the Marine Exchange of Southern California showed ships waiting offshore with a capacity of 637,326 TEUs. In other words, October would have been by far the best import month ever for Southern California, if only all that cargo could have made it ashore.

Ship arrivals are falling
The number of container ships arriving in LA-LB is actually falling as wait times from anchorage to berth are simultaneously surging.

The rising number of ships at anchor or loitering is creating the perception of a rising tide of U.S. imports, when in fact, higher wait times for ships are being caused by landside logistics issues and gridlock at the ports — not higher inbound container-ship arrivals.


Chart: American Shipper based on data from ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach

The Marine Exchange publishes a daily harbor traffic update showing the number of container ships scheduled to arrive the following day. American Shipper analyzed the daily Marine Exchange data on scheduled arrivals for the following day from Aug. 1 through Wednesday.

In the second half of this year, container-ship daily arrivals in LA-LB peaked in September, at a monthly average of 6 per day, up from 5.2 in August. Average daily arrivals then fell to 5.6 per day in October and 5.4 in November to date.


Chart: American Shipper, calculated from American Shipper based on scheduled arrival data from Marine Exchange of Southern California as of the day prior to arrival.

Despite the pullback in arrivals, the average time it has taken for a container ship to get from waiting offshore (at anchorage or loitering) to a berth at the Port of Los Angeles has spiked 133% between Sept. 1 and Thursday, to 18.4 days.

An all-time high of 86 container ships were waiting offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday, according to the Marine Exchange. In November to date, an average of 78.7 containers ships per day have been stuck offshore, up 37% from the monthly average of 57.4 ships in September, despite a 10% decrease in the monthly average of arriving container ships in November to date versus September.


Chart: American Shipper based on data from Port of Los Angeles, Port Optimizer. Note: Daily average is 30-day moving average

Decrease in outbound empty containers
During a public hearing on Oct. 29, Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, argued that the biggest source of Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion is not import containers that dwell too long, but rather, empty outbound containers that dwell too long. “Empties are the issue here,” he said.


Chart: American Shipper based on data from Marine Exchange of Southern California

To reduce port gridlock, outbound empty volumes need to increase, but in Los Angeles, they are decreasing. On Thursday, the port reported that 337,106 TEUs of empties were exported last month, down from 358,581 TEUs in September and 364,212 TEUs in August.

The situation with empties piling up at the terminals has gotten even worse in November, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka confirmed on Tuesday’s call. “We’ve got about 65,000 empty container units sitting on the docks right now,” he said. “That’s up from 55,000 just a couple of Fridays ago.”

Seroka is encouraging liner companies to bring in “sweepers,” ships that are deployed to return empties. “We’ve seen six sweeper ships so far pick up a little more than 17,500 TEUs of empties and there are another two on their way that can probably pick up another 2,500 TEUs, but we’ve got to do a lot more than that.”

 

[summerthyme]

Ummm... didn't they just order all ships to wait 150 miles offshore?

Summerthyme

 

[marsh]

The Supply Chain and Border Security

There is another threat to the trucking industry, the supply chain and our national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers -- cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. -- include at

www.gatestoneinstitute.org

The Supply Chain and Border Security
by Chris Farrell
November 25, 2021 at 5:00 am

There is another threat to the trucking industry, the supply chain and our national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers -- cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. -- include at least half a dozen drivers who had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations. And those are just the ones we know about.

• The disturbing details are outlined in a 34-page report, issued by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General with redactions to protect information in the original "law enforcement sensitive" version.
• Even when the criminal history of a candidate is available from another U.S. federal law enforcement agency, CBP apparently cannot access it. Instead of rejecting the foreign driver in question out of an abundance of caution, the agency simply rubber-stamps the candidate without additional screening.

There is a threat to the U.S. trucking industry, supply chain and national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers -- cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. -- include at least half a dozen drivers who had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations. Pictured: Trucks line up before heading to the United States at the Otay commercial port of entry on the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, on March 20, 2020. (Photo by Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that national supply chain problems are caused by a lack of affordable childcare. While major U.S. ports such as Los Angeles and Baltimore have ships in the harbor waiting to offload cargo, a trucking shortage is delaying offloads and hauling. "Some of those issues," Buttigieg stated, "may have to do with the availability of truckers, a thousand miles inland. There are a lot of things contributing to this.

One of them is childcare, of course, which is why the president's Build Back Better vision is going to be good for the labor market."

Over at MSNBC, host Tiffany Cross offered a different analysis of the trucking/supply chain problem. "This is an industry populated by a lot of white men over the age of 55," she stated. "This group of people overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Some people have talked about aggressive truck drivers cutting them off or not being helpful."

The trucking shortages in the United States are real. Buttigieg and Cross are entitled to their opinions, of course, but their analyses seem off the mark. There is another threat to the trucking industry, the supply chain and our national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers -- cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. -- include at least half a dozen drivers who had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations.

The disturbing details are outlined in a 34-page report, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General with redactions to protect information in the original "law enforcement sensitive" version.

The "commercial clearance" program is known as Free and Secure Trade (FAST), and participants who meet certain eligibility criteria and are considered low risk after a thorough security check receive expedited border processing between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

Proper vetting is essential and must assure there is no risk in letting the individual with cargo travel freely in and out of the country. The goal is to ensure security and safety of inter-border commerce while enhancing the economic prosperity of each country. Ideally, this enables U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to focus its security efforts and inspections on commerce that is "high or unknown risk" while ensuring the flow of legitimate, "low-risk commerce." The reality is that CBP is failing miserably to screen drivers properly, federal auditors found, writing that "without an effective means to evaluate the program's impact on border security, CBP may be exposing its land ports of entry to heightened threats."

Due to the agency's "inadequate policies and procedures," the probe found, drivers who should not have qualified for FAST clearance were allowed to participate. Investigators examined 8,859 active drivers during fiscal year 2019 and determined that 1,084 were ineligible and therefore "increasing border security risk." Making matters worse, CBP approved 94% of foreign drivers with "potentially disqualifying records," the report says. In those cases, federal agents failed to conduct full background checks because the U.S. government evidently does not have access to the necessary foreign databases. The exact information is redacted but the report makes clear that the records required properly to vet foreign nationals -- specifically Mexican citizens -- is not available to CBP officers, and they "need access" to complete the appropriate security process to authenticate drivers as low risk.

The void identified in report by the inability of DHS to access and check reliable foreign databases for essential criminal and/or intelligence information goes to the much larger question of vetting immigrants. The subject is far beyond the scope of this article and deserves separate treatment, but make a mental note about the millions of persons entering the United States (legally and illegally) and the paucity of reliable information available to U.S. decision-makers.

Even when the criminal history of a candidate is available from another U.S. federal law enforcement agency, CBP apparently cannot access it. Instead of rejecting the foreign driver in question out of an abundance of caution, the agency simply rubber-stamps the candidate without additional screening. To illustrate this incredible, but very common, lack of cooperation within American law enforcement agencies, the Inspector General offers the case of two Mexican nationals determined to be "ineligible." Both were approved for FAST despite having extensive FBI files, in addition to what redacted portions seem to indicate are substantial criminal histories in Mexico. But evidently CBP and the FBI do not share information. "FBI records did not allow Enrollment Center officers to assess the drivers' risk prior to approving their participation in the program," the report states. So, what does the agency charged with safeguarding the nation's infamously porous borders to do? Wave the foreign drivers through as "low risk" without vetting them.

Was not that sort of breakdown in communication exactly what was supposed to have been a lesson learned and fixed in the aftermath of 9/11? Apparently not.

As unbelievable as this may sound, this sort of conduct has been going on for years. FAST has long been plagued by serious security lapses. In fact, already in May 2012 a DHS Inspector General investigation found that drivers with ties to terrorism and drug-smuggling were authorized by CBP for the program's expedited border crossing. More than 80,100 drivers examined by the IG participated in FAST -- 70,000 along the U.S.-Canada border and over 11,500 along the U.S.-Mexico border. Investigators found that at least half a dozen drivers cleared by CBP had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations. And those are just the ones we know about. It gets scarier; it took federal officials five years to realize it! At least two dozen others had criminal, immigration, or agricultural violations. In warning CBP about the dangers of its security lapses, the DHS Inspector General watchdog pointed out in that report that the benefits granted to FAST participants "make the program attractive to drug smugglers." That was back in 2012, and it seems like little has changed after nearly a decade.

President Biden has commented on the public's ability to comprehend national supply chain problems, stating: "You hear a lot about the supply chains in the news, but frankly, not a lot of people have a clear understanding, whether they have a Ph.D. or they didn't go to school, about how a supply chain works."

Biden, Buttigieg and Cross all have their opinions on the current supply chain and trucking problems America is facing. However, the long-term border security and trucking problem the nation faces is something documented by Homeland Security for the past ten years that little or nothing has been done to correct. Given the Biden administration's penchant for open borders, minimal law enforcement and lax security, it appears that nothing will be done to protect the American public -- short of a disaster or terror attack.

Chris Farrell is Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

California Port Truckers "Drowning" In Supply Chain Inefficiencies

FRIDAY, NOV 26, 2021 - 12:31 PM
By Clarissa Hawes of FreightWaves.com,

Despite recent reports that congestion issues are easing on the water at California’s major ports, drayage truckers claim this isn’t the case for them — as long wait times, a flawed appointment system and other efficiency issues continue to plague marine terminal operators in the state.

As Port of Oakland officials are urging ocean carriers to add direct services to their port to help relieve supply chain bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, truckers whose livelihoods depend on how many containers they can turn in a day are bracing for possible extra capacity if steamship lines skip Southern California and head to Oakland.

“All we hear in the news is the lack of congestion on the waterside and we can confirm that, but we are drowning on the landside by long lines and staffing issues at the terminals,” Bill Aboudi, president of AB Trucking, told FreightWaves this week.


Truckers continue to be plagued by inefficiency issues at California ports
An unreliable appointment system has drayage companies checking day and night to find open slots and vessel schedule changes — which Aboudi compared to playing musical chairs — have truckers concerned they won’t be able to handle a container volume increase if some of these issues aren’t addressed soon.

A group of trucking company owners, each with about 30 years of drayage experience under their belts, are working with port officials in Oakland to create a task force to air their grievances and open the lines of communications with marine terminal operators.

Robert Bernando, communications director at the Port of Oakland, confirmed in an email to FreightWaves that a series of three meetings is planned between port truckers and the terminals “to discuss communications and operational guidelines.”

He didn’t provide additional information about possible dates for the task force except to note that “these meetings are not related to the California congestion issue” because the “Port of Oakland is not experiencing any port congestion.”

“Our operations are normal and wait times are normal (no delays),” Bernando told FreightWaves.

Port truckers disagree.
Recently, some truckers were lined up for 10 hours to grab containers from one of the terminals that couldn’t handle the influx of trucks, even though the drivers had appointment times.

“I say the Port of Oakland is my port and I want more business coming here, but I’ve got to be able to handle it,” Aboudi said. “And right now, the terminal operators are holding all the cards and we’re not able to handle it, which makes us look inefficient.”

Recently, truckers were lined up for nearly two miles outside of the Port of Oakland. Image: Bill Aboudi/AB Trucking.

The port truckers also want to discuss terminal operators’ ticketing and banning of drivers for 30 days to upward of 180 days for returning a chassis to the wrong equipment provider, failing to understand a security guard’s instructions or other minor infractions, night gate issues and other fees.

During a five-day trip to the major ports in California in late October, FreightWaves interviewed multiple company executives who disputed the widely reported message that a driver shortage was largely to blame for the port congestion issues in California.

Instead, company officials said they were actually shedding drivers because of the lack of consistent work due to chokepoints, equipment and ongoing efficiency issues.


Maritime Import Shipments for the Port of Oakland for the past year. Chart: SONAR

Proposed supply chain solution misses the mark
Truckers claim proposed solutions by port officials and state and federal lawmakers to alleviate supply chain chokepoints in California largely miss the mark. One example is the recent announcement that the state plans to issue temporary permits to increase truck weight limits to 88,000 pounds — up from 80,000 pounds combined gross vehicle weight — on state highways to reduce container backlogs at the ports in California.

Since there’s no way to add cargo to shipping containers that were weighed and sealed overseas months ago to comply with U.S. highway weight limits, Aboudi and others question the effectiveness of the state’s attempt to reduce the immediate logjam at California’s ports.

“I just pulled a customer’s reefer container that’s been on the water for three months today so this 88,000-pound weight increase isn’t going to help them,” Aboudi told FreightWaves. “I know some customers are just receiving cargo they ordered from Asia back in June.”

Then there’s the issue of truckers getting permits from local jurisdictions to travel on certain roads and bridge weight restrictions throughout the state that could hinder efficiency efforts to haul heavier import loads from the ports.

“Do you think the government will move quickly to start issuing permits? I bet some don’t even know this executive order even exists,” Aboudi said.

The California Department of Transportation order would require truckers to ensure the gross weight of 88,000 pounds is distributed properly across the axles, which would mean adding additional axles to the truck and trailer in order to remain legal, Aboudi said.

“This would require specialty equipment — and adding an axle on 40-foot chassis that are already in high demand to handle these overweight containers would be a challenge,” he said.

“Chassis makers can’t build them fast enough and now you’re asking for specialty equipment.”

Once truckers leave the terminals with these oversize containers, they risk being stopped by law enforcement before they can find a nearby scale and weigh or a customer may underload the driver’s truck if unsure about the container’s exact weight.

“You face being overweight and having to keep going back and forth and having your truck unloaded and reloaded to be legal,” Aboudi said. “These are things that happen in trucking that you know just happens all with time and we deal with it. But it’s a pain.”

Lunar New Year a chance to recalibrate?
The president of a Southern California drayage company said the Lunar New Year, which starts Feb. 1, may be the recalibration the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach need to clear out the backlog as factories in China shut down for two weeks or more.

“The salvation I see is this is a time when we can hit the clock and we’ve got 30, 40, maybe 50 days to get the congestion out and reset the game board to zero,” the company executive, who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation by terminal operators, told FreightWaves.


Chart: SONAR
The executive ramped up operations to 18 drivers during the pandemic to handle the e-commerce boom as consumers’ spending habits changed from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores to online. He’s since had to shave a few owner-operators and a company driver from his payroll since mid-October in an effort to keep his business afloat.

While he and other drayage companies expanded operations to accommodate increased e-commerce, the ports and terminal operators in California did not develop a long-term infrastructure plan to handle the massive container volume surge.

“We can all see and feel that the supply chain is teetering on the edge. You can feel it because you’re paying more everywhere,” the drayage company executive said. “But in February, if we don’t clear out the congestion and we still have 80 vessels offshore and the next peak season merges with the current one, there’s no way out.”

 

[vector7]

From the office of Buttigieg…

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1464649514044719111

View: https://twitter.com/Ron4California/status/1464649514044719111?t=FI2ZdswSmoHJJTK3GGbxDg&s=19


“What are you thinking about?” “I’d like to come see you but gas is too expensive and the metro has been taken over by gangs.” “Oh well guess we’re sexting again. Can’t wait for Meta VR!”

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

FTC Demands Wal-Mart, Amazon & Others Participate In Supply-Chain Probe

MONDAY, NOV 29, 2021 - 06:00 PM

Shortly after President Biden sat down with top executives from Wal-Mart, a handful of regional grocers and others to hold a "round table" to discuss "supply chain" issues, the FTC announced Monday afternoon that it would launch an investigation into the factors contributing to these types of disruptions, which have been blamed for contributing to inflation by helping to drive up prices.

Just as reports claimed the supply chain crunch appears to finally be waning, President Biden sicced the FTC on the issue. Once again, it's bureaucracy to the rescue; and anybody who doesn't go along with the Biden Administration's preferred narrative (ie that this is part of a global phenomenon, and that the US isn't unique) better hope the administration doesn't accidentally make things worse.

At any rate, it's bureaucracy to the rescue.



And we don't say that because we think America's ports need assistance (they clearly do). The problem is that the supply chain crunch goes far beyond the ships and the ports and the truckers. It's what an economist might call a "complex"" issue.

While President Biden met with a senior Wal-Mart executive in person, and in front of the cameras, as part of Monday's "supply chain round table" at the White House, Bloomberg says it is ordering large retailers, wholesalers and consumer good suppliers including Amazon and Walmart to provide the White House with "detailed information" that might aid in a newly launched inquiry into the ongoing supply chain disruptions that are contributing to President Biden's inflation (or should we say, reflation?) fears.

In addition to Wal-Mart and Amazon, the investigation will target Kroger, Associated Wholesale Grocers, McLane, Procter & Gamble, Tyson Foods, Kraft Heinz and others who are expected to receive their orders from the FTC on Monday. Firms have 45 days to respond.

It's believed the administration intended this is a message to companies everywhere: don't raise your prices unless you absolutely need to, because the White House will be checking the receipts, waiting to bust anybody who can even be remotely construed engaging in price gouging.

According to BBG, information being sought by FTC includes primary factors disrupting their ability to obtain, transport and distribute products, impact of those disruptions on delayed or canceled orders, increased costs and prices, what firms are doing to curb disruptions.

The study will focus on determining whether supply chain problems have led to bottlenecks, anti-competitive practices or higher prices, the agency said in a statement.

FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement she was hopeful that the study would "shed light on market conditions and business practices that may have worsened these disruptions or led to asymmetric effects."

The FTC is also asking firms to return the information it's requesting as soon as possible. Firms will have 45 days from the date they receive the order to respond.

"Supply chain disruptions are upending the provision and delivery of a wide array of goods, ranging from computer chips and medicines to meat and lumber," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement announcing the investigation.

President Biden and his team clearly intended Monday's "round table" with "supply chain" executives like the leaders of Wal-Mart, Food Lion and others as a distraction. Readers can watch the "round table", held at the White House Monday afternoon, at their convenience.

View: https://youtu.be/EWL5Pf3-oTI
52:45 min

But allow us to save you some time, because, at the end of the day, Biden doesn't need their help.

But he may need them to pay higher taxes, on top of rising costs and expenses for their businesses, to help offset the costs of his social spending package which is expected to further stoke inflation.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

The DOT's Twitter Meme Doesn't Just Offend Comedy... It May Also Be Illegal

MONDAY, NOV 29, 2021 - 08:11 AM
Authored by Chris Queen via PJMedia.com,

It’s a well-known fact that liberalism and comedy aren’t a good mix. Witness Hannah Gadsby. Or most of Saturday Night Live‘s recent output. Or any of the current crop of late-night show hosts.



The same goes for the various departments of the Biden administration. Case in point: this doozy of a meme that the Department of Transportation recently tweeted.

In case they have the good sense to take it down, here it is:

Courtesy of Twitter/@USDOT

If you don’t get it, it’s okay. There’s nothing to get other than the leftist talking point.

I’m not sure what we’re supposed to call the diametric opposite of comedy gold, but this is it.

This meme is an affront to comedy. It’s neither cute nor funny, and it’s certainly not clever. There’s no original thought to it whatsoever, and the only thing revelatory about it is how slavishly devoted the left always is to The Narrative™.

In other words, this in no way resembles comedy.

Whoever developed this meme and posted it on the Department of Transportation’s Twitter account should have his or her password privileges revoked. I almost picture Pete Buttigieg himself sitting in front of his copy of Photoshop smiling smugly and saying to himself, “All my friends are gonna love this!”

As my PJ Media colleague Stacey Lennox so wisely put it, “The left can’t meme. We all know this.”

And don’t get me started on the ridiculous claim that the infrastructure bill and Build Back Better will combine like the Wonder Twins to “create millions of new jobs.” (Besides, one of the Wonder Twins always turned into a bucket of water, which definitely won’t help.)

No government program has lived up to that promise — other than maybe some New Deal stuff — so why would we expect these two legislative winners to do the same?

But it gets better. Or worse, if you’re part of the Biden administration’s DOT.

Some people are accusing the DOT of improperly lobbying with a lame Twitter post. The Twittersphere and others are concerned that the meme may violate the Hatch Act.



Fox News reports:

The meme was criticized by many online from those who didn’t find it funny as well as from those who suggested the department had improperly lobbied for specific legislation, in this case the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill being debated in Congress.

“This appears to be lobbying,” former California Assemblyman and Vice-President of the Texas Public Policy Foundation tweeted.

“I didn’t think federal agencies were allowed to be so blatant in promoting specific legislation. The Secretary of Transportation can, of course, but the DOT’s official website? Seems unusual.”

The Hatch Act specifically prohibits agencies and government employees from lobbying in favor of legislation that is before Congress or using their “official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” There haven’t been any formal complaints about the tweet as of this writing, but that doesn’t mean that someone won’t file one soon.

The Biden administration should be familiar with what constitutes a violation of the Hatch Act. Not too long ago, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was accused of a Hatch Act violation when she spoke in favor of Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial election. After the complaint was lobbied against her, she said she had “learned [her] lesson” and vowed to “choose [her] words more carefully.”

Here’s hoping that the Department of Transportation will choose its tweets more carefully, especially if the agency winds up in hot water over the poorly-chosen post.

Unfortunately, there’s no Hatch Act for violations against comedy. If there were, Pete Buttigieg and his Department of Transportation Twitter account would be in all sorts of trouble.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

How California "Solved" Its Record Ship Pileup: It Moved Them Out Of Sight, Over The Horizon

MONDAY, NOV 29, 2021 - 07:00 PM
By Greg Miller of FreightWaves,

By one measure, the number of container ships stuck waiting offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach has plummeted. The logjam hit a peak of 86 container ships offshore on Nov. 16, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. A week later, it was a mere 61, the lowest since early October.

Problem solved?

Far from it.

The waiting container ships are still out there — more of them than ever. It’s just that more are over the horizon, where you can’t see them, thanks to the successful implementation of a new queuing system that began last week.

“The overall flow of container ships and big-picture backup has not changed,” acknowledged Marine Exchange of Southern California Executive Director Kip Louttit.

If you include all of the container ships physically at anchor on Tuesday off LA/LB, plus the ships in holding patterns within 40 miles of the ports, which were counted in the previous queuing system, plus all the ships waiting further afield that are now technically in the queue under the new system, then 93 container vessels were waiting for berths at Los Angeles/Long Beach on Tuesday, a new all-time high.

Chart: American Shipper based on data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Counted under old system: ships reported by the Marine Exchange comprising number at anchor plus loitering within 40 miles. Counted under new system: ships with Calculated Time of Arrival prior to that day’s Master Queuing List time.

New queuing plan rapidly adopted
The new queuing system was designed to sharply reduce the number of container vessels waiting just offshore of Los Angeles/Long Beach, with the stated goal of cutting harmful emissions and enhancing safety during the winter months by spacing out the ships.

A more cynical view has emerged: that an unstated goal is to erase a politically nettlesome photo op — attention-grabbing imagery of idle container ships stretching off into the distance.

The new plan is entirely voluntary and encourages ships to operate outside of a Safety and Air Quality Area (SAQA) that extends 150 miles to the west of the ports and 50 miles to the north and south. Ships do not have to ask for permission to enter the SAQA and are encouraged to enter the SAQA if they need to refuel, have safety concerns or have a berth assignment within 72 hours. By year-end, the hope is to reduce the number of ships at the anchorages from a max of 55 down to 25-35 and to cut the number of ships loitering in the SAQA to near zero.

For the past 100 years, container ships have been placed in the LA/LB queue when they hit the 20-mile line from the ports. But given historic bottlenecks on land in 2021, this first-come, first-served protocol bunched up an unprecedented number of ships in a small area.

Under the new system, participating container ships are given a Calculated Time of Arrival (CTA) by the Pacific Maritime Monitoring System (PacMMS) after leaving their last port of call, whether it’s Shanghai or Oakland. They can then save on fuel by slow steaming toward LA/LB, knowing their spot in line is reserved based on their CTA, and wait outside the SAQA.

Ocean carriers have readily accepted the new protocol. There were already 109 container ships enrolled in the PacMMS as of Monday. With each passing day, more container ships arrive from Asia and putter around further away from LA/LB. There are now ships bound for LA/LB in holding patterns south of Ensenada, Mexico, north of San Francisco and over 400 miles out into the Pacific.


Ships enrolled in the PacMMS as of Monday and their locations. Map: Marine Exchange of Southern California

Landside problems keep offshore waits high
The new queuing protocol complicates historical comparisons on the scope of the Southern California container-ship traffic jam.

The best apples-to-apples approximation is to take the number of ships at anchor and loitering in legacy holding areas within 40 miles of the ports, as reported by the Marine Exchange, then add in the number of ships that have a CTA before the date and time that the Marine Exchange’s daily Master Queuing List was generated.

In other words, add back the ships that hypothetically would have been waiting just offshore of LA/LB, had they not intentionally slowed down or opted to wait elsewhere along the Pacific coastline.

On Tuesday, there were 36 container ships at anchor and 25 loitering within 40 miles (the loitering total is half what it was the week before). However, there were an additional 32 container ships with CTAs prior to the time of Tuesday’s Master Queueing List report, bringing the “virtual” total to a record 93.

The numbers confirm how rapidly the new queuing plan is being accepted and also underscore that the offshore traffic jam is still not improving.

Because of the logistics snarl on land — at the terminals, with the trucks, the rail and the warehouses — the wait time to get from anchorage to a berth in Los Angeles is still rising. As of Tuesday, wait time hit yet another all-time high: 18.6 days.

Chart: American Shipper based on data from the Port of Los Angeles, Port Optimizer: Note: Average is 30-day moving average

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Retailers Open Pop-Up Container Yards To Bypass Savannah Port Jams

TUESDAY, NOV 30, 2021 - 07:45 PM
By Eric Kulisch of American Shipper,

Overflow lots set up by large retailers this month as temporary staging areas for imported containers have helped bring down congestion levels at the Port of Savannah, and Georgia officials expect further efficiency gains with this week’s opening of two more port-sponsored pop-up sites.


The Georgia Ports Authority, in partnership with the Norfolk Southern, will start accepting loaded containers on Monday at the freight railroad’s nearby Dillon Yard and later this week will begin routing shipping units to a general aviation airport in Statesboro, located about 60 miles west of Savannah, Chief Operating Officer Ed McCarthy told FreightWaves.

Moving containers to off-port properties is part of the recently announced South Atlantic Supply Chain Relief Program designed to reclaim space at the Garden City Terminal, where container crowding is making it difficult for vessels to unload and for stacking equipment and trucks to maneuver. In October, Savannah handled an all-time record of 504,350 twenty-foot equivalent units for a single month, an increase of 8.7% over October 2020. The volume surpassed the GPA’s previous record of 498,000 TEUs set in March.

Port officials began testing the Dillon Yard and Statesboro locations last week after renting top loaders for stacking and truck transfers, installing computer lines in order to track containers entering the gate with radio frequency identification, and laying extra pavement at the rail facility, McCarthy said.

Four or five more pop-up container facilities are scheduled to open around Georgia by mid-December and the port authority is talking with freight railroad CSX about an auxiliary storage site in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the COO said in an interview.

The sites are mini-versions of inland ports where containers are brought to strategically located sites by intermodal rail, shortening the distance trucks have to travel to collect imports or drop off exports and reducing traffic in and around busy seaports. The concept essentially brings the seaport closer to manufacturing, agriculture and population centers.

The GPA currently operates a large inland intermodal rail terminal in Murray County, Georgia, as well as an inland dry bulk facility. Construction on a second inland rail link for containerized cargo in northeast Georgia is scheduled to begin in April and be completed by mid- to late 2024, spokesman Robert Morris said. South Carolina also operates two inland ports, Virginia has one in the northwestern part of the state and the Port of Long Beach in California recently launched an effort to quickly flow cargo to Utah for distribution by converting truck traffic to rail.

Several users of the Port of Savannah this month have opened pop-up yards of their own where they can directly flow import containers to avoid waiting for longshoremen to sort through shipping units for their cargo and then retrieve them when space opens at one of their distribution centers. Each of the private spillover yards can accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 containers.

“We’re starting to see some of our customer base do their own pop-ups. They’re contracting with some folks who have capabilities in the Savannah region and … taking their long-term destiny in their own hands,” McCarthy said in an interview.

The Rocky Mount intermodal facility being discussed with CSX will probably be used as an alternative storage location for empty containers. It could be running by early December, the COO said. Whether containers are diverted from other locations or whether empties are loaded up in Savannah and sent there remains to be determined.

The Biden administration, which is focused on alleviating a nationwide supply chain crisis that is creating product shortages and contributing to inflation, helped fund the GPA’s emergency storage yards by reallocating $8 million in federal funds. Additional flexibility recently granted by the Department of Transportation allows port authorities to redirect cost savings from previous projects funded by port infrastructure grants toward mitigating truck, rail and terminal delays that are preventing the swift evacuation of containers from ports.

White House port envoy John Porcari, the liaison between industry and the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, said the government is looking to create more inland ports.

“We’re encouraging other ports to do the same [thing as Savannah.] I think you’ll see a generation of projects in the short term around the country that will help maximize the existing on-dock capacity through interior pop-up sites,” Porcari said on Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast last week.

“The fundamental issue is that the docks themselves are such valuable pieces of real estate that you don’t want the containers dwelling there a second longer than you have to. You want to get them to the interior or back on ships to their target markets overseas,” he said.

Better Fluidity
Improvements in rail handling, a dip in import volumes in line with seasonal patterns and the customer pop-up yards have combined to improve cargo flow and reduce the number of ships waiting for a berth at the Port of Savannah, McCarthy said.



The port authority released an operations update last week showing the average dwell time for a container moving by rail after vessel unloading is two days, and that the average resting time within the terminal for import and export containers is about eight days, down from 11 and 10 days, respectively. The backlog of empty containers remains a problem, with boxes lingering an average of 17.8 days.

The improved performance is helping personnel work vessels faster and reduce Savannah’s cargo backlog. The number of ships at anchor in the Atlantic Ocean declined to 15 as of Monday morning from 22 two weeks ago, Morris said. There were 24 container vessels at anchor in mid-October. Total containers on the terminal also declined 13% and are down 16% from the peak of 85,000, according to the update.

McCarthy said there are about 225,000 TEUs currently on the water, a 10% to 12% reduction from early November that indicates “we are over the hump of the peak season.”

Last week, ocean carrier CMA CGM said its Liberty Bridge service from northern Europe to the U.S. East Coast would temporarily skip Savannah due to the congestion. According to the revised schedule, seven stops between late December and early February will be omitted.

Shippers can send Savannah cargo to the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, until then, it said.

The GPA also noted that providers have increased the supply of chassis, the wheeled frames on which containers rest when pulled by truck, and are increasingly able to repair more chassis to help meet demand for cargo deliveries.


Mason Rail Terminal expansion. (Source: Georgia Ports Authority)

The Port of Savannah increased its near-dock rail capacity by 30% with the commissioning two weeks ago of a second set of nine tracks at the Mason Mega Rail Terminal. The port moved 550,000 containers by rail last year and now has more than 2 million TEUs of capacity with an eye toward future growth. The ability to discharge cargo from a vessel and ship it out by train in less than two days is best in class for the U.S., McCarthy noted.

A huge new container yard will come online in phases starting in December and culminate with about 820,000 TEUs of additional capacity by March. The project includes rubber-tired gantry cranes for sorting, stacking and transferring containers.

Construction of another berth is underway and scheduled to be complete in 2023.

Meanwhile, the federal dredging project to deepen the Savannah River to 47 feet (54 feet at high tide) is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. It has already allowed vessels with deeper drafts to enter the port, McCarthy said. The deepening translates to about 200 extra loaded containers per foot and a total of 1,000 per vessel when the project is finished.

 

[marsh]

Joe Biden on Supply Chains: 'Only Santa Claus' Can Promise Gifts on Time

President Joe Biden tried to distance himself from supply chain disruptions, telling Americans on Wednesday he was not responsible.

www.breitbart.com

Joe Biden on Supply Chains: ‘Only Santa Claus’ Can Promise Gifts on Time
1

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images, Tom Kelley/Getty Images, BBN Edit

CHARLIE SPIERING1 Dec 2021546

President Joe Biden tried to distance himself from supply chain disruptions this Christmas, telling Americans on Wednesday he was not responsible for any problems.

“I can’t promise that every person will get every gift they want on time,” Biden said. “Only Santa Claus can keep that promise.”

Biden argued that shortages for some goods around Christmas were normal, citing the Cabbage Patch Kids doll shortage in the 1980s and also the shortage of Beanie Babies in past years.

The president downplayed reports of reduced supplies of goods for Americans shopping for the holidays.

“Here’s the deal. For the vast majority of the country, that’s not happening,” Biden said.

He insisted that he and his administration “averted potential crisis” by fixing the supply chain problems before they had a substantial effect on Americans shopping for Christmas.

Biden called his efforts to solve clogged ports in South Beach and Los Angeles as an “incredible success story.”

Cargo ships filled with containers dock at the Port of Los Angeles on September 28, 2021, in Los Angeles, California. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

“We’re heading into the holiday season in very strong shape,” he said. “It’s not because of luck.”
Biden also spoke about inflation, noting that countries worldwide were suffering the higher cost of goods, not just the United States

“This is a worldwide challenge,” he said. “A natural byproduct of the world economy shut down by the pandemic as it comes back to life.”

The president said his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan would only help families further and urged Republicans to support his agenda.

“It’s always easier to complain about a problem than try to fix it,” he said.

 

[marsh]

Pass the Buck: Biden Calls for Investigation into Retailers on Supply Chains

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis.

www.breitbart.com

Pass the Buck: Biden Calls for Investigation into Retailers on Supply Chains

3

AP Photo/Susan Walsh
WENDELL HUSEBØ1 Dec 2021173

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis.

The probe is a repeated strategy from November when the administration opened a Department of Justice probe into oil companies for allegedly “gouging people.” The investigations into private companies is an Obama-era tactic deployed to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe into nine massive retailers demands “detailed information” to explain how supply chain disruptions “are causing serious and ongoing hardships for consumers and harming competition in the U.S. economy,” the agency announced Monday.

FTC Chair Lina Khan excused the private sector investigation by claiming the supply chain crisis must be studied to “deepen” the Biden-Harris administration’s “understanding” of “business conduct.”

“The FTC has a long history of pursuing market studies to deepen our understanding of economic conditions and business conduct, and we should continue to make nimble and timely use of these information-gathering tools and authorities,” Khan wrote.


FTC Commissioner nominee Lina M. Khan testifies during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee nomination hearing on April 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty Images)

The probe, consuming businesses’ time and money, will specifically consist of gathering operational data to expose the points of crisis in the supply chain, along with company practices that are said to increase Bidenflation. The companies must comply with the investigation within 45 days.

The companies under FTC scrutiny include Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Associated Wholesale Grocers, McLane, Procter & Gamble, Tyson Foods, and Kraft Heinz.

Supply chain-centric corporations are not the only ones placed under investigation during President Biden’s tenure. In November, Biden admitted he asked the Justice Department to investigate oil companies for price gouging.

“I have the attorney general taking a look at whether or not these gas companies are gouging people,” Biden said.


President Joe Biden (Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI)

Biden’s policies, however, are likely to blame for much of the supply chain crisis and soaring oil prices. Biden instituted coronavirus pandemic policies in the spring that paid individuals not to work and sent stimulus checks out even though the economy was well into a recovery. As a result, many laborers chose to take a larger government check instead of participating in the economy, causing a nationwide labor shortage, and demand for goods soared due to the additional income.

The labor shortage has impacted the supply chain. For instance, trucking companies are short about 80,000 drivers. The labor shortages have rippled through the economy, slowing down the transport of goods while increasing inflation to a thirty-year high.

The lack of truck drivers has left hundreds of cargo ships waiting to unload containers onto the docks. The port backlog has caused shipping prices from Asia to the United States to increase from around $5,000 per container to nearly $20,000.

Oil and gas prices have also increased due to Biden’s war on energy. The tactics include issuing a report Friday to increase the price of oil leasing fees on federal lands in the United States by 50 percent, along with canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline in January. Biden is also weighing whether to terminate the Michigan Line 5 pipeline. Biden has also rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and is directing an environmental regulatory review of repairs performed by the Trump administration that protected American energy independence.

Last week, Biden began raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce gas prices, despite Vice President Harris slamming Trump in 2020 for refilling them. The impact of draining the reserve was an oil price increase. Because of the constraints on pipeline capacity, the United States’ output from the reserve is 4.5 million barrels per day.

 

[marsh]

CITIZEN FREE PRESS

The Greatest News Site On The Internet. Home of CFP Nation.

citizenfreepress.com

Stay classy, Los Angeles…
Posted by Kane on December 1, 2021 2:52 pm

View: https://youtu.be/zN0CXUEMwjg
2:43 min
Packages Stolen by LA Container Thieves

NBCLA finds citizens whose packages were looted on a cargo train in East Los Angeles. When we informed the Los Angeles County Sheriff, he said: “Holy moly.”

 

[pauldingbabe]

Many dollar generals in my area have a lot of bare shelves.

Yesterday local Walmart and a chevron station no gas.

 

[marsh]

Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Will Cause Massive Trucker Shortage, 2.5 Million to Quit

The Obama-Biden-Harris administration is still moving forward with trying to mandate a failing vaccine on businesses all over the country with 100

www.redvoicemedia.com

Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Will Cause Massive Trucker Shortage, 2.5 Million to Quit

The Obama-Biden-Harris administration is still moving forward with trying to mandate a failing vaccine on businesses all over the country with 100 employees and more.

BY STEVE GRUBER
DECEMBER 1, 2021

The Obama-Biden-Harris administration is still moving forward with trying to mandate a failing vaccine on businesses all over the country with 100 employees and more.

If they get their way and the mandate goes into effect on January 22nd, the economy will be destroyed. And that’s not hyperbole.

Sure, the democrats will probably suffer massive losses in the November 2022 elections (if they aren’t allowed to cheat again), but we have to survive until that time.

One example of the economic destruction the mandate will bring is in the trucking industry.

CEO and American Trucking Association President, Chris Spear, appeared at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing last Wednesday and warned them that more than 2.5 million truckers would quit if the vaccine mandate goes ahead.

In a country already having supply chain issues and a shortage of truck drivers, the coming mandate is going to cause havoc on our country.

 

[marsh]

California 88K lb. load limit dubbed 'lipstick on a pig'

Increasing the truck's max weight by 4 tons unlikely to clear out massive stacks of shipping containers. Read on for details.

www.ccjdigital.com

California 88K lb. load limit targeting port congestion dubbed 'lipstick on a pig'


Tom Quimby, CCJ senior editor
Nov 30, 2021

Port of Long Beach

Temporarily raising the 80,000 lb. truck weight limit in California to 88,000 lbs. largely misses the mark when it comes to relieving historic congestion at the state’s ports, according to trucking experts.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced that the state will begin issuing temporary permits to allow trucks to gross upwards of 88,000 pounds on state and intrastate routes between statewide ports and distribution centers.

Newsom and others believe that increasing the truck's max weight by 4 tons will help clear out massive stacks of shipping containers at the ports and get freighters anchored offshore to the docks faster for unloading.

Trucking experts, however, advise that the 8,000-lb. allotment will invite more equipment challenges and end up doing little to alleviate port congestion.

“Nobody, and I mean nobody thinks this was anything more than putting lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig,” said Joe Rajkovacz, director of governmental affairs and communications at the Western States Trucking Association (WSTA).

“You’ll note in the order allowing 88,000 lb. stipulated axle weight limits were not being changed which in practical terms means you must have three axle trailers/split axle trailers (that’ll only get you to a gross of 86,000),” Rajkovacz continued. “That kind of equipment is rare in the intermodal market here in California.”

Small fleet owner and WSTA member Bill Aboudi of Oakland Port Services agreed.

“If you need to have the correct axles, that means you have to use special equipment,” said Aboudi. “They don't even have regular equipment, let alone special equipment made with extra axles. Where are you going to get them from? How is this going to help?”

Overweight containers that could benefit from the temporary weight hike are scarce, Aboudi said.

“The containers that are overweight are a fraction,” Aboudi continued. “I haul containers that are 2,000 pounds in cargo weight. How is that going to help to expedite this stuff? It's a very small fraction. It's the ag stuff and it actually affects exports out of Northern California more than imports in Southern California.”

The California Trucking Association (Caltrux) also pointed out cargo concerns with the new measure.

“We appreciate the administration’s continuing efforts to address port congestion, however, it’s unknown what impact the 88k lb. temporary permit will have at this time as lots of import cargo runs out of space before running out of weight,” said Chris Shimoda, Caltrux’ senior vice president of government affairs. “Truckers, cargo owners and the steamship lines will need to coordinate to obtain the permits where it makes sense and those containers won’t be arriving in the immediate future.”

Tackling bigger problems
As empty containers pile up at the ports, so do plenty of problems according to Caltrux, WSTA and leading 3PL provider NFI Industries. All three parties would like to see greater emphasis placed on reducing vast numbers of empties which, in addition to hampering port efficiency, have sparked public relations battles after being stacked in neighborhoods close to the ports.

"The buildup of empty containers off terminal is really the underlying reason for the congestion," Aaron Brown, senior vice president of the California Cartage Company at NFI Industries, said during NFI's recent 2022 Supply Chain Outlook Webinar.

"They're taking up precious space or taking up precious chassis supply. We need to get the empty containers flushed out in the very short term to start getting some of the new cargo flowing into the import supply chain," Brown continued.

Shimoda agreed. “The greatest operational issue facing port trucking at the moment are empty containers occupying chassis and congesting terminals,” he said. “That continues to be our primary focus.”

Success however hinges on more than just shipping out empty containers.

“Clearing the empties would obviously be a big help since you have to drop an empty to get a load out,” Rajkovacz said. “However, the ports here have atrocious turn times in the best of times and even if the empties were cleared, there is no guarantee of getting an appointment in a timely manner where the motor carrier wouldn’t be forced into a demurrage situation through no fault of their own.”

The unprecedented freight surge at U.S. ports often leaves truckers waiting in long lines for hours, unable to make appointment times to pick up containers. Shipping lines can then hit truckers with demurrage, a fee that penalizes them for not showing up on time to get containers.

In response, WSTA recently asked Newsom to enforce Senate Bill 45, a state law which prevents demurrage under certain circumstances such as port congestion.

“The governor could do better by directing his AG office to enforce SB 45 especially in light of all the articles showing the steamship lines are profiting immensely off their own imposed dysfunction,” Rajkovacz said.

Aboudi said demurrage policies have long favored shipping lines who he said are not only benefitting from the current freight surge but also from demurrage.

“There's millions and millions of dollars that's going to these penalties that shouldn't be charged,” he said. “If California was to do their job by enforcing SB 45, we would eliminate all this—everything. There's no incentive for them not to pick up the empties. We should be able to charge them for storing their empties. Then you'll see how quickly they'll get those sweeper ships in to sweep [empty containers] out.”

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Omicron Could Cause Supply Chain Crunch And Inflation To Worsen, OECD Warns

THURSDAY, DEC 02, 2021 - 05:45 AM
Before the US follows Europe by ordering more lockdowns as a preventative measure to stop the omicron variant from taking hold (although as many have pointed out, that horse appears to have already left the barn), the president's economic advisers should consider this latest warning from - who else? - the OECD.

The NGO currently responsible for sheparding the most significant change in global corporate tax policy in a century is now warning that omicron could cause inflationary pressures - already at their highest level in 30 years - and the supply chain crunch that is helping to drive them higher, to intensify.


OECD's Laurence Boone

As some two dozen countries tighten border restrictions and impose new lockdowns, the OECD fears the new variant could delay the world's return to "normality", and warned that monetary policy-makers must be "cautious". The organization's chief economist added that central banks should try and focus their policy on providing the most vaccines to the most people, something the central bank is constitutionally ill-equipped to do. Maybe they should ask Bill Gates.

The warning was issued alongside the OECD's routine release of projections for member states' economies, the organization believes inflationary pressures are expected to peak next year, not this year.


Source: FT

The OECD left its growth forecasts unchanged from three months ago, but it hiked its inflation projections for the G-20 substantially. Inflation forecasts for 2022 were raised from 3.9% in its September predictions to 4.4% now. The largest per-country increases were in the US and UK, where inflation forecasts for next year rose in both countries from 3.1% to 4.4%.

For better or worse, the OECD believes price pressures will be short-lived: it expects inflation in the G-20 to ease back to 3.8% in 2023. But that presumes that major central banks like the Fed will act to keep a lid on price pressures by raising interest rates more quickly than expected, if necessary.

Per the FT, OECD chief economist Laurence Boone fears omicron could add to "the already high level of uncertainty and that could be a threat to the recovery, delaying a return to normality or something even worse." She added, for emphasis, that higher prices warranted higher interest rates and a slightly tighter monetary policy. Moreover, she added that there's no "one-size-fits-all" monetary policy, and that emerging market and developed nations might need to go about managing their recoveries in different ways.

Finally, she stressed the need for policymakers to clearly communicate their reasons for hiking rates: They must make sure markets and their participants understand that the Fed isn't hiking rates because of supply shortages, but in an effort to push back against broadening price pressures before they become self-reinforcing.

The takeaway: the OECD believes that the initial recovery from the pandemic had been faster than expected. But the massive injections of rescue capital by the US and other developed economies (and plenty of developing economies as well), along with the US's refusal to share its vaccine recipes with the developing world, have created "imbalances" throughout the global economy.

So, expect the next few years to be even rockier than the last as the US and its European allies are poised to tumble into a deep recession - unless Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Biden succeed in selling omicron (or "omNicron") to the American people as a boogeyman worthy of more lockdowns (and thus more stimulus).

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

While Short-Term Rates Flatline, Long-Term Ocean Freight Rates Are Soaring

THURSDAY, DEC 02, 2021 - 09:00 PM

Shippers looking to lock-in long term contracts for ocean freight are in for some serious sticker shock this month, according to shipping data consultancy Xeneta.

While some adherents to the now discredited "transitory" inflation camp point to the recent flatlining in short-term containership rates - or even decline in the case of core transpacific trades...



... long-term contract rates are still going up. According to Xeneta's statistics compiled by the Maritime Executive website, global average long-term contracted ocean freight rates went up by 16% in November alone, for a cumulative rise of 121% year-on-year. This follows after a record-setting increase of 28% in July, when all of the major shipping corridors saw significant long-term rate hikes.

"The continued perfect storm of high demand, maxed-out capacity, port congestion, changing consumer habits, and general supply chain disruption is fueling a rates explosion that, quite frankly, we’ve never seen the like of," said Patrik Berglund, the CEO of Xeneta. "What’s more, it’s difficult to see a change of course ahead, with the fundamentals stacked very much in favor of the carrier community. In short, they’ve never had it so good, while many shippers, unfortunately, are well and truly on the ropes."

The long-term rate hikes are most pronounced for routes to and from the United States. Xeneta calculated the increase for long-term import rates for the U.S. market at 39% for November, up 122 percent year-on-year. U.S. export rates also rose 9% for the month.

The soaring rates are driving tremendous profitability at the top container lines, many of which have doubled (or even tripled) their revenue year-on-year. Analysts with Blue Alpha Capital estimate that container lines took in a cumulative $48 billion in profit in the third quarter alone, and more than $100 billion over the first nine months of the year. This is more than the combined earnings of the last five years for the entire industry. According to third-ranked carrier CMA CGM, the fourth quarter may be even more profitable, and the first half of 2022 is looking strong as well.

"2021 will be a year to remember for carriers and one to forget, if that’s possible, for the shipper community," said Berglund. "What lies ahead is unclear, but we can see there’s action planned to try and ease congestion at major US ports . . . while newbuilds, potential new players and the growing trend of shippers chartering their own vessels might [have an effect]."

 

[marsh]

Biden tries to define away ongoing supply chain crisis, declare victory

New queuing system has alleviated port congestion without addressing distribution bottlenecks causing shortages; reduced number of vessels anchored offshore reflect dispersal of ships, not unloading.

justthenews.com

Biden tries to define away ongoing supply chain crisis, declare victory
New queuing system has alleviated port congestion without addressing distribution bottlenecks causing shortages; reduced number of vessels anchored offshore reflect dispersal of ships, not unloading.

Updated: December 3, 2021 - 11:00am

President Biden is touting his administration's handling of the supply chain crisis, claiming the situation is all but resolved. However, the bottleneck that helped bring the supply chain to a virtual standstill remains in place.

On Wednesday, Biden said the supply chain is in "very strong shape" ahead of the holiday season.

"It's not because of luck," Biden said. "We averted potential crisis by figuring out what needed to get fixed, and then we brought the people together to do the hard work of fixing it."

Biden dismissed reports of empty store shelves nationwide, saying, "For the vast majority of the country that's not what's happening."

The president then credited his team with what he described as significant progress in restoring the flow of the supply chain.

"Because of the actions the administration has taken in partnership with business and labor, retailers and grocery stores, freight movers and railroads, those shelves are going to be stocked," he said.

The country has faced supply shortages across virtually all industries this year as global economies recover from COVID-19 and struggle to meet increased consumer demand. For months, cargo ships coming into the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle some 40% of the country's containerized imports, have been forced to loiter off the coast of California, unable to unload the products on board, creating a logjam. Less supply has helped drive up prices.

Biden said Wednesday that, thanks to his administration's efforts to keep the ports open 24/7, the number of container ships waiting to unload has decreased by 40%.

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, used that same figure on Tuesday.
"The number of ships at anchor has decreased by more than 40% over a four-week period," Seroka said during a press conference.

Biden and Seroka are correct that the number of ships at anchor or loitering has decreased — but only for those vessels within 40 miles of the ports.

Overall, the logjam of cargo ships remains as severe as ever. The reason why is simple: Since last month, a new queuing system has encouraged and led many ships to move outside of the ports' 40-mile zone to a Safety and Air Quality Area (SAQA) that extends 150 miles to the west of the ports and 50 miles to the north and south.

As a result, some observers have argued the supply chain crisis is easing, backing Biden's version of events.

"In mid-November, 86 container ships were floating around San Pedro Bay waiting for a berth," explained Steve Rattner, who served as auto-industry czar in the Obama administration. "Today, just two weeks later, that figure is down to 44."

The sharply reduced count of 44 ships anchored offshore includes only those ships waiting within the 40-mile zone as of midday Tuesday, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. American Shipper estimated that there were another 50 container ships waiting outside the SAQA, making for a total of 94 ships.

"Problem solved?" wrote FreightWaves' Greg Miller just before Thanksgiving. "Far from it. The waiting container ships are still out there — more of them than ever. It's just that more are over the horizon, where you can't see them, thanks to the successful implementation of a new queuing system that began last week."

The all-time high number of ships waiting for berths at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is 96, which occurred on Monday.

Outside of the SAQA, there are dozens of additional ships with calculated times of arrival to enter the ports, according to MarineTraffic, which provides real-time information on the movements of ships.

FreightWaves, which provides news and data to the global freight industry, tracked some of these ships and found at least 11 are waiting off places as distant as Mexico, Japan, and Taiwan.

They don't count as vessels waiting to enter the two California ports because they're not in the 40-mile zone.

One ship flagged by FreightWaves left Yantian, China, for Long Beach on Nov. 7. It was assigned a time of arrival of Nov. 25 and is now loitering offshore of Hokkaido, Japan, long after it was supposed to unload supplies in the U.S.

The new queuing system was ostensibly devised to lower harmful emissions and improve safety by dispersing ships more widely. It has alleviated congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as intended, but this achievement has no bearing on the supply chain crisis — except insofar as it removes from view the most striking and accessible material evidence of the distribution bottleneck.

"A more cynical view has emerged," wrote Miller, namely "that an unstated goal is to erase a politically nettlesome photo op — attention-grabbing imagery of idle container ships stretching off into the distance."

Of course, the health of the supply chain isn't completely determined by the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. Indeed, retail inventories in stores are up, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during a White House meeting this week that throughput has increased with the help of the federal government.

But there's no clear indication that the California logjam will ease anytime soon, and reports indicate families are feeling the effects of disruptions to the supply chain — even when it comes to chicken tenders.

"The shelves have been empty recently, restaurants have been out of chicken tenders, and that makes it very difficult when you have kids that have limited options," one Arizona mom told NBC.

During his speech, Biden pointed to a survey by Etsy, an e-commerce company, showing many of its dealers are less concerned about the supply chain than they were last year. However, many Etsy sellers are reportedly struggling to find an array of supplies that they need.

Supply chain experts warn we could see significant shortages well into next year, which doesn't bode well for the economy more broadly. A new report from the Federal Reserve notes that supply chain disruptions constrain economic growth.

However, Biden didn't indicate concern on Wednesday."By working with business and labor, my administration's been able to handle the huge surge in goods moving through some of our biggest ports," he said. "And that's translated into shelves across our country being well stocked."

 

[marsh]

Local truck school expects new regulations to continue worker shortage

REDDING, Calif. - New regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will change how truck drivers will be trained and could continue the current nationwide shortage of drivers.

www.actionnewsnow.com

LOCAL TRUCK SCHOOL EXPECTS NEW REGULATIONS TO CONTINUE WORKER SHORTAGE

Video on website 2:23 min

New regulations that take effect in February will require anyone looking to enter truck driving to complete their training at a registered truck driving school.
Posted: Dec 2, 2021 10:32 PM
Updated: Dec 2, 2021 10:33 PM
Posted By: Ryan Kanne

REDDING, Calif. - New regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will change how truck drivers will be trained and could continue the current nationwide shortage of drivers.

These regulations will take effect on February 7.

They will require anyone starting their entry-level driving training for a commercial driver’s license after that date to complete their training at a registered truck driving school.

Eligible schools will have to be a part of the Training Provider Registry which will be available on February 7.

These regulations will apply to anyone from the list below:

• Anyone seeking a Class A or Class B commercial driver's license for the first time.
• Anyone upgrading an existing Class B commercial drivers license to a Class A commercial drivers license
• Anyone obtaining a first-time school bus, passenger, or hazardous materials endorsement

Roger Smith owns American Career Training, a truck driving school in Redding.

He says these regulations will help put better-trained drivers on the road, and hopefully limit collisions.

“What they’re tired of is they’re tired of people renting a truck and then going out and getting in a wreck, killing people,” Smith said. “Something needed to be done so this is their first step.”

Before these regulations, truck drivers were able to rent trucks and get their class a commercial driving license within one day.

Now will have to take 4-week courses.

American Career Training told Action News Now this could lead to fewer people applying for their truck licenses because of longer training periods and truck schools likely raising prices with cheap competition eliminated.

This will help trucking schools like American Career Training bounce back after seeing low enrollment a few months ago.

While the trucking school could see a boost to their business, Smith said he’s already lost a small fortune because of the school and will continue running at a reduced size.

“It would be busier if I was to stick with that. I’d have to buy more trucks and hire more instructors, but because I’m changing what I’m doing I’m going to keep the truck school about the same size,” Smith said.

Smith told me while this regulation is a step in the right direction, it’s too little right now.

“It’s more or less the baby phase is what I would call it, a learning phase,” Smith said. “The state of California has put a minimum of 15 hours [of training], 10 of which have to be on a public road. The federal government has not set hours on it, so they’re doing driver proficiency.”

Smith said this means that drivers will be able to get their license after a school deems someone is “proficient” enough to pass, leaving a lot of responsibility up to the trucking schools and their instructors.

Throughout the years, Smith said he’s dealt with inconsistencies from instructors, with some having very high passing rates and others having few people pass.

Smith said this could pose a problem when the regulations take effect.

“After they collected enough data, they’re going to come up with a percentage, and the school must maintain that percentage pass rate or they’ll be put on probation and later asked to close,” Smith said. “So, they’re definitely going to put the schools on the hot seat.”

According to the FMCSA’s website, these regulations will help support their goal of ensuring that only qualified drivers are behind the wheel of commercial vehicles.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

U.S. Ship Logjam Worsens As Biden's Attempt To Save Christmas Fails

SATURDAY, DEC 04, 2021 - 04:00 PM

President Biden told Americans that the supply chain is in "very strong shape" ahead of Christmas. Speaking from the White House Wednesday, Biden said his administration has partnered with the private sector to "ensure the store shelves are stocked." But new shipping data shows snarled supply chains are worsening, and it could take months to untangle them.

New shipping data from the busiest U.S. port complex, Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, shows 96 container ships idled offshore, waiting to unload cargo.

FreightWaves' Greg Miller described a new queuing system for vessels as pure optics, which reduces the number of ships offshore of Los Angeles/Long Beach. He said ships are being placed in holding patterns further out into the ocean where they're out of sight and out of mind -- to prevent attention-grabbing aerial imagery of container ship logjams.

The new queuing system has divided vessels into a couple of categories: 40 ships anchored within 40 miles of the ports and 56 outside that perimeter. With the line continuing to get longer at the U.S.' largest containerized ports, the Biden miracle to save Christmas appears to be failing.

What's also worsening are wait times. It now takes 21 days, or three weeks, for a vessel to enter the twin ports, that's up from seven in August.



Biden's effort to reduce dwell times is not working, even after he announced a new directive for the twin ports in mid-October to operate on a 24/7 basis. We noted at the time, in a piece titled "Here's The Truth Behind Biden's 24/7 Port Operations Pledge," that the move would not save Christmas.

There's even more confirmation that disputes the president's claim supply chains are easing.

FreightWaves' Clarissa Hawes said, "we are drowning on the landside by long lines and staffing issues at the terminals." She said a flawed appointment system and other efficiency issues for drayage truckers continue to plague the twin ports.

Biden's attempt to save Christmas appears to be failing. There's still time to call in the National Guard. At least now the administration can blame the new Omicron COVID-19 variant on why some store shelves are still bare.

 

[marsh]

Supply Chain Issues Now Causing Shortages of Heart Medications, Antibiotics, Cancer Drugs

www.thegatewaypundit.com

Supply Chain Issues Now Causing Shortages of Heart Medications, Antibiotics, Cancer Drugs

By Cassandra Fairbanks
Published December 5, 2021 at 7:00am

The growing supply chain issues are now causing shortages of important medications at pharmacies across the nation.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) there are currently 111 medications on back order, including heart medications, antibiotics and cancer drugs.

“Drug Shortages can occur for many reasons, including manufacturing and quality problems, delays, and discontinuations. Manufacturers provide FDA most drug shortage information, and the agency works closely with them to prevent or reduce the impact of shortages,” the FDA website states.

Fox News reports that “a November survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) found that the majority of independent pharmacy owners and managers are struggling to fill staff positions and deal with supply chain disruptions, in addition to market pressures.”

“Sixty percent of respondents said they are dealing with supply chain disruptions and nearly 70% reported struggling to fill staff positions,” the report continued. “According to the group, 76% reported being concerned about possible tax increases on small businesses and 64% were also worried about inflation.”

Only 31 percent of the respondents said that their business is in “very” or “somewhat” good financial shape.

When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the supply chain crisis in October, she joked about Americans being greedy.

“The tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed,” Psaki sighed.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

So Much For Fixing Supply Chains: A Record 96 Containerships Are Waiting To Dock At SoCal Ports

MONDAY, DEC 06, 2021 - 03:45 PM
By Greg Miller of FreightWaves

There were 40 container ships waiting for berths within 40 miles of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday. But there were also 56 container ships waiting farther out to sea, putting the actual tally at an all-time-high of 96, according to new data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

The Marine Exchange has just unveiled its new methodology for counting container ships waiting outside the 40-mile “in port” zone. A new queuing system has been in place since mid-November that encourages container ships to wait outside of a specially designated Safety and Air Quality Area (SAQA) that extends 150 miles to the west of the ports and 50 miles to the north and south.

This has sharply reduced the number of ships closer to shore, leading to suggestions that efforts to tackle port congestion are cutting into the offshore queue — a misconception that should be dispelled by the Marine Exchange’s new counting method.

In addition to the 96 ships waiting offshore on Friday, there were 31 container ships at terminal berths, bringing the grand total to 127, at or near an all-time high. The total number of container ships either at berths or waiting offshore continues to rise: It is up 25% from the beginning of November, 41% from the beginning of October and 79% from the beginning of September.


Chart: American Shipper based on data from Marine Exchange of Southern California

New methodology approved
The new queuing system reserves a ship’s spot in line based on its calculated time of arrival (CTA), as opposed to the previous first-come, first-served system that entered a ship in the queueing list when it came within 20 miles of the ports.

The CTA is derived from when a ship would have hypothetically arrived from its last port of call, as calculated by the Pacific Maritime Monitoring System. The ship can then wait anywhere it wants outside the SAQA — even on the other side of the Pacific — knowing it has a spot saved in line based on its CTA.

Capt. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, said in his daily report on Friday, “The new methodology for determining the container-ship backlog for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was approved by the working group this morning.”

The methodology, he explained, is to “take the traditional count of container ships anchored or loitering inside 40 miles of the ports” and then “add container ships loitering and slow-speed steaming across the Pacific outside the SAQA whose CTA is before the time of the report.” (Prior to Friday, American Shipper used the same methodology to estimate the total queue.)


Chart: American Shipper based on data from Marine Exchange of Southern California
The new queuing system was designed to improve safety and air quality, not reduce the number of ships in the queue. It doesn’t seem to have increased the backlog, either. The recent rise in the overall number of ships waiting at sea is in line with the historical pattern.

“Sanity check: The container-ship backlog was 86 on Nov. 16 when this new queuing system started and 10 more today is reasonable,” said Louttit.