The COVID-19 pandemic has taught the logistics industry a great deal about resiliency. In particular, the challenges of the last year and a half have underscored a few key factors that drive the resiliency of the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest port.
The first is the ability of businesses in the port to handle the most diversified range of cargo in North America, as well as providing access to 170 countries around the world, keeping Canadians and Canadian businesses connected to essential goods and international markets.
The second is the dedication of the businesses, organizations, and people within the various supply chains and port community. Thanks to the hard work and determination of terminals, railways, truckers, pilots, marine services providers, longshore labor, and many others, the Port of Vancouver has remained open and trade has continued to grow, despite the global supply chain challenges we all witnessed.
The third factor that drives the port’s resiliency is the strong investment in trade-enabling infrastructure — critical to the efficiency of the supply chain — that we are leading, with partners, in order to create capacity and enhance the fluidity of goods movement throughout the region.
Because of these strengths, trade movement through the Port of Vancouver has remained remarkably fluid despite issues throughout the global supply chain. However, the industry needs to put in more work today to mitigate the supply chain issues and capacity crunches of tomorrow.
Given the current disruption, it’s critical to continue planning for long-term growth through infrastructure investments in Vancouver such as the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project and to protect the industrial land needed in the region to maintain a secure supply chain as trade through Canada continues to grow.