Software… There’s a company called Navis that specializes in container terminal software.
In a manually managed stack, we would have a longshoreman called a Checker enter the position of each container into the computer when it is placed in a stack. Then when a trucker wants that container, our software knows which sub-stack it’s in, let’s say it’s in D350, with a dozen other containers. The trucker drives to D run, stops at 350, then indicates to our operator what box he wants by using… hand signals. Then after he gets his box and leaves, we have other personnel and an OCR portal to ensure he has the box he was supposed to pick up.
We also have automated stacks, where a computer operated crane picks up the box from a transfer area, and places it in a huge stack, where that box is assigned a specific 3 dimensional location, which is re-assigned any time the box has to be moved to free up other boxes. When a trucker goes there, he is identified when he parks at the end of the stack, his box is identified, located and delivered. The only human intervention is in the last 3 feet to the truck, and to yell “GET ON THE MAT! GET! ON! THE! MAT!” to any truckers who fail to exit their vehicle and stand in the safety area when it’s their turn.
In the 60 Minutes segment, at around 9min 30 sec, the Chicago business owner said that the railroad lines are charging him for storage for the containers that have been sitting there, unable to be picked up - over $1 million in fees.
The anchorage time at the Port of Los Angeles keeps going up up up. On May 27, 2021, for example, there were 8 container vessels at anchor, with an avg anchor time of 4.6 days. Today’s report shows 36 vessels at anchor, with an avg anchor time of 18.4 days.signal-page-2021-11-18.pdf (240.0 KB) signal-page-2021-05-27.pdf (220.2 KB)
thanks for starting this thread. I’m deep in product development and China supply chain issues. That’s the just starting gate for reaching the West Coast. And yes, with Vancouver constipated by the flooding, things are even worse. What a cluster.
And people wonder why inflation is increasing? Not to mention demand has also increased with Amazon sucking away long haul truckers for last mile delivery.
For the recipient, it’s cheaper for it to sit on the ship than it is ashore where demurrage fees start to rack up. Of course, once it hits the beach, that vital product is that much closer to being delivered. Last time I paid demurrage it was $250 a day for a 20’ container.
Maybe not a very serious question, and not about the recent crunch, but a big plot point in Season Two of HBO’s The Wire involves longshoremen working with international smugglers to basically help smuggle things in on containers, they would facilitate this by making using the checkers (this is a job mentioned in the series) and some guys who work using the container management software to make containers “disappear” from the system, so that they would not be noticed by customs (I believe because they were avoiding customs inspections on these containers.) Then some of the smugglers muscle would quickly get to the dock and pick up their dirty container and drive out into the U.S. with the drugs / guns etc.
Is there any real smuggling that goes on via containers? Is this something that there is a lot of talk about or regulations to prevent, or is it not really on the radar of people working w/the containers?
How does customs work with these big container ships? Do customs inspectors look into every container to see how many boxes of shoes or laptops or whatever are in each one? Do they just do spot checks, and trust that the shippers are being mostly honest in their cargo manifests?
I would imagine a driver being told, “I’m sorry but the container on top is going to Chicago so Chicago is where you’re going,” instead of Newark like he was expecting, would be vexed.
Yes, definitely less expensive to sit on the ship, demurrage is only paid after it lands. In normal times, demurrage serves as an incentive to get your box rather than let it clog up the port. The fellow in the 60M piece suggested he was not allowed to pick up his box and was charged demurrage anyway. We don’t do that here, and I would expect our sales guys to get a big earful if a trucker was denied a box and then charged demurrage for another day. We have in the past told truckers “we’re closing now, get your box tomorrow” but that comes with a concession to the customer so they hate us a little less.
I’m in finance. I was originally hired to help them ‘monetize’ their operational improvements, so I got more time training with the ops guys than I might have otherwise.
I have seen this from the truckers POV. We would get paperwork (these days a code on a smartphone) and go to the terminal. It was the same for a port or an intermodal interchange (railhead).
I would be working for the company that wanted box 123xyz. At the gate, I get booked in, give them my phone number and queue up, and there I would wait - 2, 3, sometimes four hours, until I get a text sending me to a loading bay.
While waiting I would have opened the locks to accept a box and once parked I check them again (They get mad if they have to lift a box off because you forgot to open the lock). Then I go and stand in the yellow safety area while the box is loaded. I visually check that the number is 123xyz, lock the catches, check the seal on the doors and drive to the exit gate where it all gets checked again.
The big problem for me with a long delay is that I might run out of hours. Driving hours are strictly limited, but so are rest breaks, and I have to take at least 11 hours in 24 off (although it can be 9 hours on three days a week) so I may find myself on an unplanned night out and the customer’s box will be a full day later than he expected.
Some years back, pre-retirement, of course, I went on a work-related trip to a Norfolk, VA container terminal. We were given a presentation, then the curtains of the conference room were opened and we had a full view of the goings-on as containers were moved from ship to stacks and from stacks to trucks. It was amazingly choreographed and really impressive! Made me wonder what it was like in the olden days before computers.
Customs is definitely a spot check type of operation. We will do what are called “Pop and Tap” on containers selected by Customs, the containers are removed from the stack, put in a separate area of the yard, opened by customs, inspected, then resealed. There is also a separate type of operation, where containers are identified, driven to a special warehouse, fully unpacked, repacked, then sent on its way.
I can only imagine that smuggling is possible and does happen, because I know for a fact that we do not open any significant percentage of the containers we handle.
Whether or not someone in the company could make a container disappear… I could see that being pretty difficult, you would need multiple people to be on board. There’s no way you gate out during normal operations with a disappeared container, so it would have to be overnight when we have no operations running. Bribe a couple of guards, break security cameras, bring along someone who knows how to run a machine, maybe you can get in and out without being caught.
In the system, the benefit is that people believe what’s on the screen, if there’s no container #8675309 in the system, it doesn’t exist, and nobody is going to notice that very container buried at the bottom of an import stack. The risk is if other systems recorded that container, and someone starts digging into why two numbers that are supposed to match are off by 1.
Another question - what is the largest ship your port can handle? I believe some of the largest container ships can carry thousands of containers. How long does it take to unload? And, does the port unload all the containers, leaving the ship empty, or does it reload other cargo? How do empty containers get back to China or wherever origin they are being loaded?
Is that really true? It seems there would be massive expenses adding up every day a ship is waiting at anchor. There needs to be some number of crew to pay and support, and every day that ship isn’t transporting cargo represents huge lost opportunity costs.
The largest vessels we can currently handle are around 14,000 TEU, a TEU is a Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit, basically a container 20’ long. Marine containers also come 40’ and 45’, so it can hold 7,000 of the largest containers. We hope to expand in a way that would let us handle 18k+ TEU vessels. That means taller cranes that reach out further, and a berth that can handle the extra weight and forces.
We pretty much always unload a subset of the containers on the vessel, as it will call multiple ports along the coast, then reload those now empty spaces with exports or empty containers. Depending on the trade route, it can be up to 25% export cargo, or as low as 5%.
One day or a couple of days in port is typical, it depends on how many cranes we can put on and how many moves on and off are done. A very large call for us can be up to 6,000 moves, and at best we can put up 4 cranes at once. 1,500 moves for each crane, say 25 moves an hour, that’s 60 hours.
