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Supply Chain Disruption - The Real Problem


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In another forum someone noted the backlog of containers at the Savannah, GA port.  Where's Waldo.  Zoom in to find your back-ordered parts.

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Waldo is much easier to locate for you tire guys: 

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Brace yourselves, this isn't on a path to correction.  However, Savannah has a better chance of catching up than any of ports in California. Word is that the CA ports are going to start 24/7 operation, but this doesn't address the real problem: Truckers and Trucks. 
Here's a Savannah article on Trucker Shortage.  Also, who knows how many truckers will be displaced due to the vaccine mandates?  I'm sure that they would just switch to a new role somewhere else with such demand, if it's not a statewide mandate that prevents that.

It's even worse in CA. CA has banned any trucks older than 2011 from operating on their roads.   Wonder what the average age of the fleet is?    Further, CA's AB5 law bans Owner/Operators from operating in CA (but order stayed, in Supreme Court now). Lastly, even if they had truckers to haul containers at night, from the port, the distribution warehouses aren't running night shifts to accommodate. It is a supply chain with many links. Here's a good article that many factors causing the disruption . Sal Mercogliano has a surprisingly interesting YouTube series about container shipping.

And when there's a shortage of truckers, a hike in gas prices and other inflation (tires, etc), then there will be stranded containers because they are offering bargain rates for expensive hauls. Who's going to haul at a loss? There was a recent video that I saw detailing a stuck cargo container, for many months... that may still be there... in Galveston that the owners could not move to Pennsylvania because they didn't allocate/have enough funds to/for the transportation costs. I wonder if the ports hold Auction Wars?

All of these increased shipping costs will be hitting us soon.   Offshore manufacturing may get bested by shipping costs... bringing some manufacturing jobs back to the US.

Last point to ponder.... How many very necessary repair parts for these trucking rigs are stuck in these shipping containers?

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         5 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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