The historic spike in demand over the last two years has been a wake-up call for the need of consistent movement of freight on the global stage. The challenges presented by disruptions in the global supply chain have shined a spotlight on essential resilience and fluidity in the supply chain, and exposed deficiencies that we need to be better prepared for to deal with similar events in the future.
The overwhelming demand burdened an industry that was teetering on the ability to handle annual small, incremental growth. Our industry has agonized over limited assets, including terminal capacity, chassis availability, warehouse space, truck fleet, and labor that were suddenly needed to keep up with rapid increases of import volume never seen before. This, in turn, also has impacted export capabilities of products made in the US for foreign consumption.
Demand has increased the pressure on and expectations of shippers. This change in behavior is not irrevocable, but moving forward, embracing new opportunities for fluid movement is critical. As we anticipate whatever the so-called “new normal” looks like, investments in infrastructure, processes, and culture are essential. Ports and terminal operators face the challenges of major shifts in trade routes and the required investment in facilities to stay in front of the demand curve. Necessary changes in processes include making data more visible to capitalize on the tremendous amount of information it provides to better plan for the near and long term. Investments in terminal assets must be accelerated to provide capacity to handle spikes in volume. We need cultural shifts such as operating 24/7 in all segments of the supply chain, expanded use of multiple modes of transportation to and from ports, congestion relief through investing in inland depots, and increasing the throughput velocity of our nation’s ports by reducing cargo dwell.