OT. Trucker's Opinion About Shipping Delays

[Dean Hoffman]

[Ed Pawlowski]

What??? I thought Biden fixed that last week.

It certainly seems more complex than making pronouncements on TV. This guy makes a lot of sense but it will take a long time to fix.

[rbowman]

Even when I was driving in the '90s going into a port was a royal pain in the ass. Same deal, wait to get in, wait for a chassis, wait for them to drop a container on the chassis. When you're paid by the mile catching up on your reading isn't something you want to do. Usually the local drivers that were hourly would go but every now and then they would snag a road driver.

[Clare Snyder]

Sounds about right. After decades of driving my kid brother finally saw the light and quit. He pretty much gave his truck away and walked

-taking advantage of his crane licence he got back when he was hauling and installing septic tanks. He's been part time on the crane in south central Saskatchewan for the last 5 years or so - the company he was working for got sold and is discontinuing the crane service and he's not quite old enough to retire. - and he's finally gotten smart enough to NOT get back into an OTH truck. He said right now anything with a pulse can get a job driving truck - and most don't last long.

Overall he'd have been farther ahead flipping burgers for the last 30 years. (and he wouldn't havr broken his neck barrel rolling his rig into a gully)

[micky]

So how did it get this bad, and how come we were able to buy what we wnated before the pandemic. They didn't fall so far behind in just 18 months.

Yes, I've heard that we're buying more than we used to, because we're not traveling or goign out to eat, but even if we don't start traveling and eating, won't we eventually buy everything we need?

[rbowman]

Legislation has a lot to do with it for the California ports. A truck domiciled in CA needs an engine manufactured in 2010 or later. That takes a lot of older trucks whose owners can't afford to repower them off the table.

Then there is the redefinition of contractors in AB5.

[Clare Snyder]

It got a lot worse when factories, warehouses, ports, etc. shut fown for days or weeks, or lost personell due to Covid - or when covid restrictions slowed or restricted access to certain facilities.

Add THAT to increased demand from consumers for product delivery andyou have the "perfect storm" There are shortages of EVERYTHING, one place or another. And it is going to get worse - particularly in the fracturing states of America. (United has been a joke since April 12

1861.)

[trader_4]

I haven't seen much in the way of problems here in NJ since a year and a half ago during the first months. Supermarkets are stocked, Walmart is about as well stocked as pre-Covid, which means they are out of a few things. Bigger problem there is shelves are all screwed up, not price marked and they took out the price check scanners. Online orders have not been a problem, except recently I was looking for a phone case and the China vendors are out of stock on some colors for certain ones.

[angelica...]

It's about like that here. My grocery store has been out of frozen cherries for a couple of weeks, but I can't tell if that's because they're unavailable or because I shop early in the morning and they haven't restocked the freezer yet. Another chain had plenty of frozen cherries.

Cindy Hamilton