Why U.S. Ports Are Some Of The Least Efficient In The World

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The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in North America, saw record volume in 2021. Imports including furniture, car parts and apparel surged to a record 5.5 million TEU’s in 2021, a 13% increase from the previous high in 2018. A TEU or twenty-foot equivalent unit is the industry standard to measure cargo capacity for ships and terminals. One 20 ft container can hold about 400 flat-screen TVs. But along with that volume came an array of headwinds impacting everyone from retail stores and large manufacturers to portside communities.

As of February 4, 2022 there was a backlog of over 90 container ships drifting, slow steaming or waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles. At the same time there were almost 69,000 empty containers at the port’s terminals and off-dock depots.

Watch the video above to find out what’s behind the congestion at the U.S. ports.

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Why U.S. Ports Are Some Of The Least Efficient In The World

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38 COMMENTS

  1. US West Coast have 5: Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, Port of Oakland, Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma. Canada have 2: Port of Vancouver, Port of Prince Rupert.

  2. Paying truckers the low rates is just making it worse. And of course the existence of the DOT and their harassment has not only made many give up driving, but also makes people rethink getting into trucking. And of course the pathetic logs…..LMAO….

  3. Solving this is easy but expensive . , also the port of LA doesnt use stradler carriers . They invested heavy in automated cranes . Wich are alot slower . Imagine that . Also ports all over the world need more rail connections to deep inland locations 200-500 miles

  4. I pull containers into the port once a week. Its a nightmare sometimes, especially when the ships are waiting out in the ocean because they still haven't loaded the previous ships. It can turn your day into a 10 hour nightmare of sitting in your truck, staring out the window, looking at nothing. The reality is that the USA needs to ignore extreme environmental ideology. There is sensible environmental ideology, but there is also toxic environmental ideology. Today, we are trading 3-4 times as many products as we were when most of our harbors were built. We need to expand our current harbors, or build new ones.
    This effects the economy. To keep our goods going, trucking companies have to pay their drivers more so that they'l endure down at the harbors and not quit. This raises prices. So does products sitting at warehouses waiting to be loaded. So do ships who have to sit out in the ocean for an extra 3-4 days because the harbors are back logged. One day, it'll hit the consumers when they start to see that they're shelves are regularly empty. They are empty because its taking forever to get the products to those shelves.

  5. I can say this because I am an American. I believe that all this inefficiency is by design and has been orchestrated by the corrupt powers in this country. I believe that the rich and the greedy politicians have gotten in bed the rest of their kind in other countries to set the new world order in motion. They have managed to break the spirit and incentive of the decent hard-working US citizen with all their wretched laws and tax burdens. This is exactly what communist does to the morale of people.

  6. Public unions should be illegal. The government has no incentive to argue against public unions since 1) it's not their money and 2) the unions are their donors

  7. BREAKING NEWS!

    The PORT Of LOS ANGELES Are Trying To STEAL A Poor Black Lady's PACKAGE!! China Post Tracking # RG005485306CN The Tracking Hasn't Been UPDATED SiINCE AUG 27th,2022!

    HELP! Black Lives Matter!

  8. let me guess, not one word about longshoremans unions fighting modernization, and literal, actual sabotage? Or long beach not allowing containers to be stacked more than two high? Or California not allowing drivers who are independent contractors to work?

  9. Your first words Record Volume usually means record profits. Freight pilling up cause greed. It is also owed by LA city
    so we all no what happens when the gov tries to run a commercial enterprise just lock at communize

  10. Fuel oil on ships is burned to generate electricity. Diesel fuel and fuel oil is used to produce electricity. So if the generator is Edison generator and dynamos with inverters and transformers. Ships trains and trucks can operate without pollution or fuel cost. We are grossly misinformed about power generation and power use. This is delaying survival based effort like shading the oceans with fossil fuels.

  11. It is not a shortage of labor it is criminal wages the wages offered are not a living local commute. A homeless person can't work for less than 4 times the rent for one bedroom apartment local. Children can work for less than slave wages but homeless population across the country can't work for criminal wages.

  12. Farts!
    Lots of smelly wonderful farts!
    I’m gonna fart so much that my hometown becomes a ghost town.
    Then I’m gonna fart even more!
    I’m gonna down ten cans of beans and I’ll keep on farting because farts are farting awesome!

  13. Doesn't it seem insane that we have highway self-driving projects? When we should start with dockyard automation first? TuSimple is still decades away from being ready for production. 🤷‍♂️🤔

  14. Biden's base is heavily union so he would not likely suggest we fire 3/5 of the port workers and install robotic systems. This is the oldest and strongest union in the US. "On the Waterfront", Marlon Brando.

Comments are closed.