The surge of US import traffic that has caused container ship delays at ports around the country and threatened empty store shelves at the holidays is frustrating every sector of the supply chain. These frustrations are compounded by skyrocketing ocean freight rates and increased costs in shoreside container operations and intermodal services. In addition, charges are being assessed by port authorities on importers and cargo owners.
The situation is a real-time example of the need for alternatives to the old way of doing things. The cascading impact of this pandemic-driven logistics nightmare is an illustration of why today’s shippers need to have a high degree of agility, creativity, and a willingness to develop non-traditional approaches.
This includes expanding networks to include new routes, new ports, new warehouses, and new vendors. Some problems cannot be immediately solved, such as finding an adequate number of truck drivers or chassis.
The combination of frustration with ocean shipping and an openness to innovative solutions has led to more companies chartering their own ships and looking at working with some new, smaller ocean carriers into niche ports at origin and destination. While these new, smaller carriers may not have the economies of scale of the major lines and their larger vessels, they have space and can often offload more easily at less-crowded berthing areas and ports that cannot handle the larger ships.
There are also small, hungry terminals across the world that have lost direct container calls due to the sheer size of modern goliaths and demand and stress that puts on shoreside operations. These terminals are now finding themselves as new frontline solution providers to add support to these niche carriers. As many of these niche carriers today have larger fleets of bulk vessels, they have existing infrastructure and people to add container services into their global networks.