The transportation industry is vitally important to the global and American economy. The transportation services have been greatly affected by COVID 19. It does not matter if you are looking at Ocean Freight Services, Air freight, Inland transportation or Even Package delivery. Every part of the transportation sector has been affected.
Let us start by looking at Ocean Freight Services . At the time of writing this article, ocean freight rates from China to the East Coast ports in the USA are at an all time high of around $20,000 for a 40′ Container. You would be lucky to find space. Then comes the booking roll overs because the vessel was over booked, the congestion at the port, etc..
Then when the containers arrive at the port of destination, you are faced with port congestion, delays at availability of container and then off course the availability of truckers to handle the drayage to your warehouse. In Miami, in some cases, there is no availability for truckers for two weeks. A congestion fees is being charged by most truckers because the ports are requiring truckers to make appointments to pick up the containers.
Freight forwarders in general are struggling with the delays at the port, angry customers are rising drayage costs. Some truckers are charging $200 per hour for waiting time. The situation does not seem to be getting any better, on the contrary, it is getting worse.
Now let us talk about Inland Transportation Services . America’s trucking industry is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Nearly every good consumed in the U.S. is put on a truck at some point. As a result, the trucking industry hauled 72.5% of all freight transported in the United States.
Recently, we have been experiencing many issues pertaining to pick up and delivery of goods. As an example, common carriers miss the scheduled pick up appointments on regular basis due to lack of capacity. Here is a message from dispatch of one of the major carriers ” The carrier is currently handling a back log. They are working as fast as they can to get freight picked up ” .
And finally let us mention the chaos in the courier delivery companies. I will point out a few issues that we have been experiencing: Courier companies are losing packages. I was personally involved in 3 different occasion where i handed the packages to one of the major courier companies only to find out that the packages were lost. Let me also mention how the packages are not picked up on time not to mentions the excessive damages. As a 3PL Company, we are directly affected by all of the issues in the transportation industry. There are a lot of work stoppage to resolve issues or deal with angry customers. The end result is the rising cost of doing business.
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