Shippers start to take time off
Anthony Smith and Zach Strickland reveal how continued stress on supply chains could leave Christmas freight undelivered.
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Pete Buttigieg for the head of the Transportation Department, causing some to question the nominee’s qualifications for the role.
The Port of Los Angeles is still seeing backlogs of twenty-foot equivalent units as ships remain anchored, awaiting unloading.
As the Christmas holiday approaches, freight volumes are decreasing as shippers begin to take time off.
Strickland says that “short weeks are not a friend to productivity,” and to expect lots of people to take off the middle days between Christmas and New Year’s.
He says that this situation is different from the Thanksgiving holiday since it is an extended period of time.
Smith says that the huge number of goods waiting to be delivered has to do with people trying to get ahead of ordering earlier in the year, but the issues with the upstream supply chain have pushed back availability of goods.
The guys bring on Zac Rogers, assistant professor of management at Colorado State University, to discuss how the freight backlog is impacting the market.
He says upstream supply chain managers are having a hard time because the flow of freight has been centered on downstream movement right now.
Rogers says that there is “slack in the rail markets” currently, which will help people play catch-up with getting freight through ports and out for delivery.
He believes the new year will bring a massive wave of post-holiday consumer returns that will only add to the massive amount of freight that needs to be moved.
Rogers thinks limiting factors on freight movement will be capacity instead of cost, putting more strain on things as warehouse space and truck capacity continue to be incredibly tight.
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