We all realize that the typical American consumer gives little thought to how products move to the store shelves or online marketplace; how the items they seek are ready for purchase as desired with a simple swipe or click. Everyone has grown accustomed to so much variety — delivered daily courtesy of the nation’s seaports — that a single glitch in the transportation network or supply chain system can dominate headlines for weeks. (Tickle Me Elmo, anyone?)
Despite the stepchild status typically afforded seaports, strong communications at a variety of levels can lead to understanding, support, and advocacy for efforts to fund port growth projects and provide steady, well-paid employment for hundreds of thousands of individuals in our respective regions. It can be especially challenging to maintain business and political relationships during this time of rapid change in every sector, when alliances are regularly formed, unformed and then reformed, but it is imperative that we as maritime professionals continue to promote what we know to be true. That is, to realize the maximum, positive economic impact from global shifts in trade and the rise of the mega-shipping alliances, the United States must invest significantly in all of our gateway infrastructure and technology.
To seize the opportunities before us, we must also be prepared to further explore public-private partnerships to fund landside port improvements. Several methods have been successful, from pre-payments to a combination of concessions and annual payments, to increased use of municipal bonds on behalf of private equity.