Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) haven been taking a close look at supply chain digitization. Why? Myriad new demands have surfaced, including a massive uptick in consumer spending and online ordering.
These unending requests have exacerbated inefficiencies in domestic freight flows that have existed for decades. The result has been a nearly complete breakdown of the global supply chain. Forget striving for efficiency; now shippers just want to get the goods to their destination.
The supply chain has substantial, fundamental problems that won’t simply disappear once goods start flowing again. We cannot go back to the status quo in 2022 and hope that things will get better, especially when it comes to one major issue that impacts all other nodes of the supply chain: US port congestion.
Solving the current supply chain crisis and unprecedented port congestion requires a collective effort across all stakeholders. For example, small domestic truckers play a significant role in providing capacity and improving the flow of goods from the nation’s seaports and rail ramps.
But shippers can’t always find and connect with drayage carriers that have chassis. In the current environment, containers on chassis are dropped off at distribution centers (DCs) and can sit there for days because the DC is out of space, effectively taking those chassis out of circulation. For shippers, using supply chain technology to find drayage carriers with chassis is essential to continuing to move goods out of US West Coast seaports.
Focusing on a single stakeholder in the network will do little to ease congestion. But allowing all stakeholders to connect through innovative supply chain technology solutions and work together on a common digital platform will optimize and add fluidity to the entire network. We need to work together to improve the flow of freight around the world.