Port congestion and performance issues will be front and center again in 2015. A significant change in 2015 will be in the breakdown of traditional barriers among industry stakeholders that will encourage the resolution of these issues on a systemwide basis.
Traditionally, in the intermodal-cargo-transportation configuration, if your constituent’s ox is not being gored, you could passively let events unfold. However, as the international supply chain is interdependent on the seamless functioning of its various links, even minor glitches can snowball into significant system challenges. Larger vessels, changing paradigms in chassis supply, implementation of new technology, labor shortages, limited-time windows for the receipt of cargo at distribution centers, and insufficient or aging port infrastructure are all stressors on the system. Throw in extreme weather conditions and you have a recipe for a perfect storm in our nation’s ports that the freight-handling industry must and can avoid.
Finger pointing has not been successful in gaining any particular constituent a tactical advantage in achieving solitary goals. For example, heated exchanges where port truckers simply demanded the measurement of queue times at terminal gates usually ended in stalemates that did not achieve the trucker’s desired goal of lessening turn times. What is different is that such dialogs are now being pursued under Benjamin Franklin’s philosophy of “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” as poor port performance tars us all. This posture is much more likely to yield long-term solutions because they are starting from a more nuanced discussion of the root causes of the systemwide port congestion problem.
Once solutions are identified, certain changes in business operations may be necessary. Marine terminal operators are in a unique position to discuss port performance issues and collectively implement operational changes through FMC-filed agreements. There are several of these groups throughout the nation consulting with broader port stakeholder groups to break through traditional barriers on many of these issues to effectuate solutions and enhance the performance of the system.
Carol Notias Lambos, Partner, The Lambos Firm