Port of Los Angeles in the News
With the new mayor's Port policy uncertian and the Christmas shipping traffic jam about to begin I bet we will be seeing more stories about the future of our Port. I think at last count, at one point last year there were 97 ships idling to get into the harbor, chock full of Tickle-Me-Whatever-Is-Being-Marketed-To-Kids-This-Years.
Long Beach Press-Telegram story
LA Times story
Long Beach Press-Telegram story
LA Times story
3 Comments:
I'm gonna stick my neck out and go on the record as predicting no jam this year.
The shipping companies, the terminals, the PMA, and the ILWU were caught with their pants down last year. There was a severe manpower shortage last summer and into the fall, with jobs hanging at the hall daily and casuals working seven days a week. Also, with no night or hoot truck delivery to speak of, the terminals were physically maxed out. I remember mind-boggling scenes from that period where there would be literal gridlock in the decked rows--outside truckers lined up four abreast from one end of the terminal to another, and yard equipment (tophandlers and UTRs) brought to a standstill for sheer lack of anywhere to go.
Well, PMA and ILWU solved the manpower shortage so effectively that they ended up flooding the casual hall and the day and night ID boards. And the night truck delivery has eased the 10-pounds-of-shit-in-a-5-pound-bag aspect of intermodal transfer on the terminals somewhat. Also, the shipping companies seem to have improved their scheduling and are not trying to squeeze everything through LA/LB all at once.
I may end up eating my words, but I predict that you will not be seeing any cute photographs of surfers in Huntington Beach riding waves with anchored containerships in the background in the Daily Breeze this year.
I say less of a jam, but certainly not the disaster we saw last year. That was embarassing (to POLA, at least).
I despise POLA as much as the next guy, but I don't see how last year was their fault. They don't schedule the vessel calls, plan the yards, order the longshore and clerk labor, deal with the outside truckers, maintain the yard equipment, or control the registration lists. Had most or all of the above been done better by the entities in charge of doing them, last year's mess could have been avoided or at least mitigated.
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