Jan 12

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Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane, Don’t know when I’ll be back again…

5 minute read
Aerial View of Port of Philadelphia at Night

924 Words 5 minute read – let’s do this!

We are 12 days into the new year. It feels like so much has changed over the past few days, but also time is flying by. Yesterday was a crazy day with flights getting canceled – I have had my fair share of flight drama over the past couple post covid years so I truly feel for everyone that was affected this week. The delayed flights continue into today as the U.S. aviation network continues to recover from a halt to commercial air travel triggered by a systems glitch. As of this morning, FlightAware reported 466 delayed flights within, into or leaving U.S. skies as of around 4:30 a.m. ET. A total of 61 trips have so far been canceled. A total of 10,549 flights arriving in and departing from the U.S. ended up being delayed on Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration battled to bring back online its Notice to Air Mission messaging system, according to flight data specialist FlightAware. Approximately 1,353 trips were canceled that day. Total scheduled flights for Wednesday had been just over 21,400 flights. The pause on domestic departures led to a backlog of flights and congestion at airports across the country. Airlines including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines said they expected operations to normalize by today. Not so shameless plug: Our Carrier911 team – we have a team of professionals always on hand to handle any of your airline delayed freight 24/7/365. We have a full network of cargo vans, straight trucks, dry vans, and specialized equipment and drivers available and will also include tracking from our APP that can be shared within your network and always be available at your fingertips. Contact our Carrier 911 team today at info@carrier911.com and make the discovery call that will prepare you to outshine the competition using our solutions.

I have been reading so many articles about how the market is getting back to pre pandemic days with the decline in imports, but there really are still some things to look out for this year.  We have still closely followed the Longshoremen Unions and Rail Unions ongoing contract woes over the past few months. I believe that these 2 unions will be ones to watch through 2023, the uncertainty of the west coast International Longshoremen’s Association contract which expired in July 2022 is still to be determined and the uncertainties are keeping many on edge including shippers, port authorities and the unions. It still seems as if shippers are avoiding the West coast ports and the East coast and Gulf coast ports are still reaping the benefits, but even the volumes at these ports are much lower than they used to be. Many of the rail workers still seem dissatisfied with the contract not fulfilling the requested sick days in a time when sick days need to not be taken lightly. Experts also say there could be inventory shortages this year as the overflow of inventories in 2022 from supply planning starts easing up and let’s face it, we are in a recession.  

The holidays are definitely over and it shows this week! TEU volumes surged this week from last week up 48.64% WOW!  Fingers crossed that weather holds tight and no other congestion issues occur. Monday January 16th is the Martin Luther King holiday, and most ports and rails are closed for day shift. Some warehouses may be closed as well in observance of the holiday. 

What is going on at the ports this week? 

Oakland: Speaking of weatherRain storms have been hitting the Bay Area hard for the last three weeks and have caused drivers to move in and out of the ports slower than normal.  Also there has been a few storms in the mountain areas of Nevada and snow chain usage is in full effect with drivers running though those areas 

Philadelphia: Congestion inside and outside the port have improved slightly recently.  However, congestion at the port is still prevalent. Chassis shortage continues to rage on in Philly.  Drivers have been waiting over 3 ½  hours for METRO chassis and DCLI has been out of chassis since January 9th 

Norfolk: There are no issues in Norfolk, drivers and chassis flowing through well and capacity is abundant. There have been slight driver delays with empty returns depending on where drivers are directed to return empty containers

Baltimore: No chassis shortages and capacity is abundant. Driver wait times vary between 30 minutes up to 3 hours. Reminder we handle out of gauge cargo, flat racks, break bulk and ro-ro cargo into and out of Baltimore! 

Did you know? We have big plans for TPM 2023 and we hope to see you there! We have an outside booth this year full of information, demos and games and fun activities planned like helicopter rides to tour the port, a live Tea with Tessie at our booth, and a boat cruise party with a DJ, drinks and the Port X Logistics team. If you are interested in attending any of our events during the week of TPM please reach out to our marketing team (Marketing@portxlogistics.com) The Premier Conference for International Container Shipping TPM23 February 26 – March 1, 2023 | Long Beach Convention Center

For more info, contact the leadership team via letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com.

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